What Kids Can Do
Welcome back!
I often talk about the way we underestimate our kids.
Stuck in the ghettos we call “educational institutions” until they are deemed “adult”, and therefore able to contribute, most kids dutifully go about their homework, their piano lessons, their church activities, shopping and socialising. They believe the message that “real life” begins some time later.
But some kids are different. Apart from the few prodigies, who can take on the adults at music, sports, or intellectual pursuits, there are thousands of kids taking on adult responsibilities in business and community activities.
I have profiled quite a few young entrepreneneurs recently, so here is a list of some young achievers whose community activities have won them national awards in the US.
Evan Alicuben, 17, of Hilo, Hawaii, who spearheaded a project that placed “personal emergency dialers” in the homes of nearly 50 senior citizens in his community, to enable them to call for help quickly and easily in case of emergency.
Ellie Ambrose, 12, of Nashville, Tenn., who organized an annual carnival and a five-kilometer running race called “Ellie’s Run for Africa,” which together have raised more than $40,000 over the past two years for sick and disadvantaged children in Africa.
Hillary Hughes, 11, of Bedford, N.H., who started a nonprofit foundation that has collected more than $11,000 worth of personal-care products and other items to distribute to needy kids in her community, poor families in Chile, tsunami victims in Asia, and hurricane victims on the U.S. Gulf Coast.
Geneva Johnson, 17, of the Bronx, N.Y., the founder and executive director of a successful youth-run organization that seeks to build pride and self-esteem among young people in the inner-city through a wide variety of service projects.
Alexander Lin, 12, of Westerly, R.I., who led a student community service group in a multifaceted project to reduce the adverse environmental impact of discarded consumer electronics – or “e-waste” – through recycling, public education and legislation.
Ajay Mangal, 18, of Pascagoula, Miss., who lost nearly all of his possessions when Hurricane Katrina flooded his coastal city, yet devoted himself to distributing emergency supplies to other victims immediately after the storm, and helped many families clean out their homes in the following weeks and months.
Kevin Peyton, 18, of Sac City, Iowa, who rallied residents throughout his rural county to help him make colorful wooden “barn quilts” and mount them on historic barns and other buildings, in an effort to boost the local economy by attracting more tourists.
Nicholas Schwaderer, 17, of Superior, Mont., who built and now operates a low-power FM radio station at his school that has become an important source of news and entertainment for a small, mountainous community in western Montana.
Savannah Walters, 13, of Odessa, Fla., who is waging an extensive, multi-state campaign called “Pump ‘em Up” to conserve energy resources and reduce pollution by urging drivers to keep their tires property inflated and thereby burn less gasoline.
They don’t get the press that the juvenile delinquents and under-age drunken party-goers might get, but it is young people like this who will carry the responsibility of leadership with grace and determination in years to come.
