Creative Student's App Benefits MUST

When Kyle Beard began working on his senior project, the Woodstock High School student decided to do something that combined creativity with technical expertise. He wanted to develop something just right for his generation and donate some of the proceeds.

He put 300 hours into his project and the result is an entertaining app called “Sand Sketch”. According to Beard, you can write a message in the sand on your phone or iPad and then shake it like an Etch-A-Sketch to make a wave roll up and wipe away your message. You can send your message to someone too, a quick way to say “Happy Birthday” or “I love you.” He tested his app on people from age 3 to 83 and everyone loved playing with it, so he thought he had a winning idea.

"I've worked extremely hard to develop my app, Sand Sketch, and I'm very appreciative of the opportunities given to me,” Beard said. “I want to extend the blessings to others in need."

The 4.0 student lives near the Cherokee-Cobb county line and wanted to help people in both areas with the proceeds from the project. He was familiar with the Summer Lunch Program at MUST Ministries and has a heart for feeding hungry children, so he chose to tithe his earnings to MUST.

The MUST program, now in its seventeenth summer, provided 141, 893 sack lunches last year in six counties.

Kyle will be attending Clemson in the fall, majoring in mechanical engineering and computer science, but he’s already engineered something fun that will benefit his neighbors in need.

“We’re thrilled that Kyle chose us,” said MUST President Ike Reighard. “He is obviously a talented, bright student, but he’s more than that. He’s socially sensitive to others and that’s an important accomplishment.”