It all started with a lesson in economics — specifically the economic stimulus package. </p><p>When 11-year-old Greenwood resident Jackie Megee heard her mom and dad talking about President Barack Obama’s stimulus package, Jackie was curious.</p><p>“What does that mean?” she asked her dad, Marvin Megee.</p><p>Megee, unsure how to explain the complexities of the issue to his daughter, gave her an example she could relate to. </p><p>He told her that if a million kids were to each mail Jackie one aluminum can, the post office would make money from the sale of stamps. And this, he explained, would help the people who work there keep their jobs. He also told her the environment would be cleaner and people who owned recycling businesses would make more money. The money she would make from recycling the cans would be spent, thus helping out other businesses, too. </p><p>And while Jackie may not have completely grasped the idea of Obama’s economic stimulus package, she liked her father’s analogy. </p><p>“Can I do that?” Jackie asked him.</p><p>Shortly afterward, Jackie marched up to Greenwood City Hall and got her business license and Jackie’s Cans was born. She then went over to the Greenwood Post Office, the same post office she had been frequenting for years to buy stamps, and got her own post office box. </p><p>“When she came in to rent a post office box with such a unique name, I didn’t know what to think,” said Same Teghtmeyer, the postmaster at the Greenwood Post Office. “And then all these envelopes with a single crushed aluminum can started coming in.”</p><p>And Teghtmeyer soon learned what all those cans were for. </p><p>“That’s a neat young lady wanting to do something herself to help others,” he said. “She really took on the concept of helping the community and stimulating the economy. To be that young and that concerned about things is pretty dynamic.” </p><p>Jackie’s goal is to get one million cans in a year. That money, she said, will partly help fund her college education and partly go toward area charities. </p><p>“She’s talked about giving money to St. Jude’s and Children’s Mercy,” her father said. </p><p>Additionally, Jackie decided to give part of that money back to the city of Greenwood. </p><p>“The (city’s) flagpole is short — like really short,” Jackie said. “And every time the wind blows from the north, the flag lays on the roof and that is very, very disrespectful.”</p><p>So Jackie and her father got busy. He started looking on the popular Web site, Craigslist, for a flagpole for sale. And sure enough, a man across the state line had a 30-foot pole for sale. </p><p>So Jackie decided to put some of the money she had raised from the cans toward the purchase of the pole. “I asked Jackie one night while she was watching TV, why she decided to do this,” Megee said. “Her response ­– ‘Because it needed to be done.’”</p><p>“It just makes you proud,” said Mike Vierow, Commander of VFW Post 5789 of Lee’s Summit. “Most kids her age are interested in video games and television. Something like this just shows that the patriotic spirit is alive and well.”</p><p>When Vierow and Post 5789 heard about Jackie’s donation to the city of Greenwood — she marched in unannounced to invite them to the flag raising ceremony — the post decided to donate something, too. </p><p>They donated the flag that Jackie raised above city hall on Thursday morning. </p><p>“I kind of teared up (when she came in),” said Fred Fidler, senior vice commander of the VFW post. “The fact that she took that to be so important to spend her time and money doing this, I just don’t have the words to explain it. It’s unbelievable.”</p><p>So far, Jackie has received more than 13,081 cans from several different states. And part of that is because of some college students at Wake Forest University and the Arizona State.</p><p>“I have a friend who teaches a marketing class at Wake Forest,” Megee said. “She decided to use Jackie’s business to teach word-of-mouth marketing.” </p><p>That teacher, then told a colleague at Arizona State, and sure enough, Jackie began getting cans by the box-full.</p><p>“She said to anticipate a lot more coming,” Teghtmeyer said. </p><p>For more information about Jackie’s Cans, go to www.jackiescans.com. To send cans, mail them to P.O. Box 312, Greenwood, MO, 64034. </p><p><i>To reach Journal reporter Miranda Wycoff, call 816-282-7017 or e-mail mwycoff@lsjournal.com</i>