January Superintendent’s Superstar shines

Kaitlin Riffel is independently home-schooled and enrolled in classes at Clovis Community College as a junior in high school. She also takes science classes each year with a homeschool co-op.

When Kaitlin was 8 years old she discovered a passion for caring about and helping those less fortunate. Her dad worked at the Fresno Rescue Mission and through him she knew she wanted to start helping others by raising money. After two years, she only saved $365, which inspired her to work even harder. She invited her friends to help and as a result, they provided the Fresno Rescue Mission with a $75,000 playground for their new facility, Rescue the Children.

She continued to lead multiple projects in the community. Kaitlin felt God was calling her to go international, so she took a small team to El Salvador in 2013 to build two homes, distribute water filters and provide hundreds of meals to the less fortunate. She returned to El Salvador in 2014 with her team and provided 23 homes with new roofs and served meals.

Kaitlin knew she wanted this ministry to last and established a non-profit organization, Kids on a Mission, to encourage other children to serve their community and start their own teams to bless kids around the world. She joined a mission trip to Kenya, Africa in 2016 and just returned from leading another mission trip of 21 people to Costa Rica, which she plans to do annually. Her website is: kidsonamission.com.