Lily the Bernese Mountain dog is very proud of all of her heroes. These kids
are really something - they are very active in their community and have
learned the importance of giving. You can be one of Lily's Heroes
too! Want to learn more or need some ideas? Click on "Become a Hero". Is
one of your pals doing something really cool that helps people?
Check out "Nominate a Kid".
Lily hopes
that kids (and parents) will be inspired by these stories. Many of
these ideas can be copied and carried out right in your own neighborhood.
If you appear on our website in this section, you will be entitled to a free certificate.
Teja Grewal had always been a very empathetic boy and also very giving. He was in the local newspaper for giving his own savings to another boy who needed it more than him. This boy had his bike stolen on Christmas eve, home was robbed and flooded on purpose by the thieves. Teja was very affected by this story and decided to give up his savings to buy this boy a bike.
Teja has currently collected 100 pairs of socks for our Province's homeless. He plans on handing them out to the downtown East side shelters this month.
Rachel started "Let's Help Kids" when she was 6. She wanted to give toys and happiness to kids whose parents could not afford to.
Her organization provides birthday presents to kids in the shelter, bicycles to kids in transitional housing, summer camp scholarships, halloween costumes, etc. LHK's efforts are currently focused in Northern VA but will expand as supporting members are found.
Calista developed and teaches a program to inspire learners' interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) through origami.
Officially founded in 2009, it is called Origami Salami (because it rhymes, you can fold circles too, and STEM is a tasty mix of fabulous disciplines) and models the science of folding---for example, proteins, DNA, leaves, brains, curiosity, solar sails, the JWST. Calista has spun off a community service component called, "Folding for Good" through which she volunteers to teach the fun of STEM through origami to groups. Calista has conducted over 14 community programs from folding for seniors, to church groups, summer camps for elementary and middle school students, and programs at Carnegie Mellon University.
She engineered a folding science program for her cyber charter school through which the entire student body was challenged to fold a 10 step penguin to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the school, which also coincided with enrollment of the 10,000th student.
Hannah and Alex have co-founded a charity called Adopt A Book that provides new and gently used books to children. They have already donated to several organizations and schools with over 1000 books since December 2011!
Matthew McNeill is a volunteer for the Delaware-based literacy organization Success Won’t Wait and has been working hard to improve literacy in our state for almost 10 years.
Now 15, Matt wasn’t yet in the 1st grade when he began volunteering! As a youngster, he helped with tasks such as cleaning books, repairing torn pages, and blacking out names. Over the years this added up to literally thousands of books he processed for schools, libraries, and more.
As he grew older, Matt began to do more – a lot more. In fact, his efforts have been instrumental in the success of a dozen local book drives, resulting in the collection of 300,000+ books which are redistributed in a variety of programs. And, over the years Matt has also worked on many special events and individual projects. In the last 24 months, Matt has also taken on leadership roles in several projects including a 2,500 book donation to the Delaware Division of Libraries for the 2010 Summer Reading Program. The Summer Reading Program is an eagerly anticipated summer activity for kids in Delaware. Children sign up at their local library, read a certain number of hours, and earn a free book.
Matt personally participated in this program for years. It was always fun for Matt and his sisters to keep a log of reading hours – sometimes even a little competitive! Maniac Magee and Shiloh are some of the treasured books he earned by participating. So, giving other kids the same opportunity was important.
RayLee Peterson is in 9th grade and home schooled in Frederick, MD. She loves animals and is pictured with her pug, Eleanor. She also has a black and white panda hamster named Oreo that she adopted from Small Angels Rescue.
RayLee loves to do ballet and play piano & flute. As a community service project learned about from Ethan Cruikshank on Kids Are Heroes Day in 2011, RayLee and her sister Anna (also a hero on this site) are offering piano lessons to elementary aged beginner students starting January 2012. RayLee has posted fliers to promote Music To My Ears Frederick, MD.
In September 2011 RayLee volunteered to be the Constitution Week Committee photographer for Frederick DAR. Her photos were published in local papers and displayed on media sites like Facebook to promote education about the Constitution and commemoration of the September 17th anniversary of its signing.
Random Acts of Good Deeds is an NGO based in Trinidad whose members are children who are assisted by big brother/sister volunteers who act as mentors .The organization started out about 3 years ago with Ricky and his sister, Rishana 7 years who were inspired after reading about Greg Mortenson who builds schools for children in Pakistan and Afganistan.
In 2010 they asked their friends to help sell cupcakes to raise money to buy school supplies and school bags to give to kids who had been affected by flooding. Since then they have been asking their friends to volunteer for all their other projects.
The group is the spokespersons for an awareness campaign on child sexual abuse which is an initiative of our University and UNICEF. They visit shelters for abused and abandoned children taking treats and messages of hope. They also share a motivational message based on 7 mindsets which they learnt at The Ultimate Life Summit which is a leadership camp they attended. Each child is given a journal when they visit and they are encouraged to to use the positive messages to live their ultimate life.
They also took the Break The Silence: end child sexual abuse campaign to Hillview College where Ricky is a student in observance of the UN Day of Prayer and Action. The group volunteers their time to assist other organizations in their projects. This group recognizes that all their projects have been successful because of the collaborative efforts of all their members.
Euan is making awareness bracelets for the Scottish Charity "The Davie Cooper Centre" which is for special needs kids with all sorts of physical,emotional,behavioural and mental disabilities. The Centre will offer respite for families,sensory rooms and fun and play for these kids to realise their potential in life.
The aim is to raise as much awareness and money as possible for the charity who have been so kind to us as a family in times of trouble and Euan knows all about children who have special needs and need more in life.
Davie Cooper was a famous Scottish Footballer who died aged 39 in 1995 and this charity is a fitting legacy to the man.
Robbie is a 9 year old boy living with severe Crohn's disease. Crohn's is a painful and debilitating disease that causes bleeding, ulcers, abscesses, fatigue, malnutrition and multiple trips to the washroom. The disease affects any area of the digestive tract, from the "gums" to the "bum".
For Robbie, the disease is quite severe. He has tried multiple drug treatments with little success and has now moved on to a specialized drug therapy called Biologics.
Biologics are an expensive but effective treatment. I think it is important to note that this drug is not covered by national insurance or by many private insurance companies. To receive this treatment, Robbie has to go into the hospital every 4 weeks to receive this drug via infusion which is a 4 hour process.
During one of his treatments, we witnessed a child denied this drug because the family could not pay the $5,000 it would cost to treat him. The family did not have private health coverage, they did not have the means to pay for this expensive treatment for their child. We could hear the mother crying and asking "why, I do not understand? He is so sick!" That child left the hospital that day as sick as he arrived, he did not receive this life changing drug treatment.
Mallory started Project Yesu from a Christmas wish this year to help Africa. She contacted agencies to find out how she could help and what their needs were. She decided to raise money to sponsor children in Uganda and provide food, medical care and education. She also wanted to send Christmas cards to all the children in the sponsorship programs so they would feel special at Christmas. She designed two different cards and contacted a local printing company who donated the printing of over 650 cards which she mailed off to Uganda.
6 weeks after starting Project Yesu, Mallory has raised $2,300 and is able to sponsor 7 children, and like she says, she's not done yet!
Dakota and his best friend, Jaevin, are the founders of Wonderful Wishes. Wonderful Wishes helps make sure children wake up feeling special and loved on their birthdays. They help provide families with gifts, decorations, cakes, party supplies and anything at all to make sure a child truly has a Happy Birthday. They also don't want children to feel excluded from friends' parties if their parents can not afford a gift so Wonderful Wishes can help with that as well!
The Wonderful Wishes team were top 12 finalists for the 2011 Canada's Next Top Young Philanthropist. Wonderful Wishes hopes to grant birthday wishes across the country & want other kids to know they can make a difference too!
Cade turned nine this year. On his birthday, he wanted no presents from his friends, asking them to donate $ or food for homeless pets. He donated the $35 he got to the PetsMart Charity walk and the 100 lbs of food to our local animal shelter.
Dancing since she was 6, Isha Jog has always felt that through dance she is able to express her feelings, promote and learn more about her culture, and experience a healthy lifestyle. That's why she is dedicated to performing throughout her community, dancing at fundraisers, charity events, and galas.
Isha has performed and presented speeches at over 150 events in the Chicagoland area. She teaches dance to young children and adults alike, everything from Bollywood, Kathak, to hip-hop.
As a busy high school student, Isha created and organized Halloween Against Hunger canned foods drive in her community and school in 2011. More than 100 lbs of food and 300 items were collected and donated to the local food pantry.
She recently won the title of Miss American Elegance National Teen 2012, and she uses her title as a microphone to continue volunteering at food banks and race fundraisers for Special Olympics.
As the new D.A.R.E. America Youth Advisory Board Illinois representative Isha has spoken to hundreds of kids at D.A.R.E. graduations across the state, working with them to ensure they pledge to live a alcohol free, substance free, and non-violent lifestyle.
Isha is a multi-talented young lady who's proficient onstage with a microphone and on the runway as a model. She supports the Purple Heart Service Foundation, which collects clothing donations, and has personally collected and given over 200 items. She recently walked in the Live Out Loud Charity fashion show, which was a fundraiser for suicide prevention and awareness.
She is passionate about her work against hunger and her fundraising projects through dance.
Lucy Sebesho is an amazing multi-talented little girl who participates in modeling and pageants. She recently held a coin collection to purchase blankets and tin food for the under-privileged.
Lucy annually sorts her and her baby sisters clothes and toys and hand them to the less fortunate people living in shacks. She has a heart of gold. She is currently busy organising a fashion show in which all proceeds will be given to charity.
Last spring, after learning that nearly a billion people don't have access to clean water and that many kids can't go to school because they have to walk miles to get drinking water that’s not even clean, Ella Salerno gave up her 8th birthday for charity: water.
She asked friends and family to donate $8 to her birthday campaign instead of giving her gifts. She had a bake sale, convinced a local toy store to donate 10% of sales every Sunday in March to her cause, and even got Groupon to advertise her campaign in Austin for three days during World Water Week. With the amazing support of our community, Ella passed her $5000 goal and fully funded a well for 250.
She felt fantastic when the campaign ended but she didn't feel "done". So she's at it again. This time she’s created a group campaign for kids called 100 for Water. The goal is to get 100 kids to raise $100 for charity: water. Here's the pitch in her own words: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE0bBbmiuRY. The idea isn't so much to solicit donations as it is to get kids out there talking about the cause and raising the money themselves using whatever creative method they choose. So far we’ve got kids swimming for donations, hosting garage sales, craft fairs, bake sales and setting up hot chocolate stands. Kids can work in teams and there's no obligation for kids to hit the $100 mark.
The hope, though, is that the goal is manageable enough for kids to be able to achieve it and be encouraged by their ability to make a difference.
