- Adele T. 17, Williamstown, NJ
Adele started Adele's Literacy Library (ALL), which promotes a love for reading and journey towards literacy proficiency. Adele's Literacy Library donates new books and bookmarks to schools, daycares and hospitals. Through the organization, Adele launched the Read All You Can program, which has been implemented in every elementary school in her community. With help from partner organizations, Adele's Literacy Library built a solar powered learning center in Kenya equipped with 4,000 books and 20 computers.
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- Alanna W. 12, Dayton, OH
Alanna founded Polished Girlz, a nonprofit organization that serves hospitalized and special needs kids. Alanna and her teams of volunteers gave kids Mini Mani's in the latest nail art trends, while spreading the message that clean hands prevent the spread of germs and can save lives. Since founding Polished Girlz, Alanna has inspired others to join her cause by recruiting 150 volunteers across several states. The Polished Girlz teams have painted the nails of more than 1,000 girls and are on track to serve 1,000 additional clients in 2013.
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- Anna R. 9 Stoneham, MA
Anna wrote and published a book about her local zoo and its animals after learning the zoo was being forced to close due to budget cuts. Anna sold her book door-to-door, donated the book to libraries and schools, and read at author events. For her birthday, Anna asked people to purchase items for the zoo instead of presents. Anna has sold more than 750 books and raised $3,000 for the zoo.
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- Benjamin C. 18, Brandon, FL
Benjamin created Ben's Mends, repairing used books and donating them to various nonprofit organizations. He is confined to a wheel chair due to spinal muscular atrophy and was inspired to start Ben's Mends as a result of the compassion he received from others throughout his life. Benjamin believes that escaping into a good book can help people cope with any issues they face and he wanted to give others the opportunity to lose themselves in a good book. Ben's Mends has repaired and donated more than 8,000 books.
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- Brooke Y. 9, St. Louis, MO
Brooke started Team Brooke Go Fight Cure, which raises awareness and funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Inspired by her own experience with Type 1 diabetes, Brooke has made personal calls to all her donors, visited local companies to share her story, enlisted corporate teams and hosted fundraising days at local retailers to help with her cause. Team Brooke Go Fight Cure has raised more than $50,000 and has been honored as the top fundraising team in St. Louis.
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- Charlsie D. 12, Dallas, TX
As a youth ambassador for the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, Charlsie wrote donation letters, made presentations and played her violin at corporations to ask for sponsorships raising more than $260,000 to support their efforts. Charlsie was recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. She was chosen as a delegate for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) Children's Congress and has been invited to testify about Type 1 diabetes and promote government funding for research for the cure.
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- Christopher Y. 16, Jericho, NY
Christopher started Kids Change the World, an international nonprofit organization that provides children with grassroots resources and grants to help them start their own charitable programs. Through his service work, Christopher helped establish the Daos Children's Centre in Mombasa to provide food and shelter for local orphans. In effort to give all children the opportunity for education, he created the Education Preparation website that provides free educational materials to students. Kids Change the World has recruited more than 19,000 volunteers in 34 countries, funded 60 cleft palate surgeries and raised $25,000.
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- Cody J. 10, Alpharetta, GA
Cody, nicknamed the One Boy USO, has made it his mission to support active duty and veterans across the nation, as well as to help children learn about patriotism. He has visited the airport to greet troops, sent more than 2,000 pounds of care packages to deployed troops and has personally shaken hands with 14,000 military members. Cody has written two books to teach kids about patriotism and uses the proceeds to purchase supplies for care packages.
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- Eleanor Ann S. 9, El Paso, TX
Eleanor founded Pennies FUR Pets to help the Animal Rescue League of El Paso. Eleanor has inspired others to help support her cause, such as friends, students from a local middle school and University of Texas students. On her birthday, Eleanor asked friends to donate pet supplies instead of presents. Pennies FUR Pets has raised more than $16,000 to date.
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- Emily B. 12, Oswego, NY
Emily is an advocate for the homeless in her community, having collected personal care items and clothing to donate. She has spoken at Common Council meetings and to the Oswego County Legislature to raise awareness of homelessness. Emily sponsored a dance and personal care items drive at her school, and requested items to be donated to her project instead of giving her Christmas gifts. Emily has collected more than 8,000 personal care items, 150 hats and gloves, and 450 stocking stuffers/Christmas gift items.
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- Emily M. 17, Moscow, PA
Emily created How to Eat a Book, a project to teach children how to "devour” or appreciate a good book. She worked to promote literacy by creating seven fully-equipped literacy centers stocked with nearly 2,000 new books and developing four reading camps in the summer. Emily increases awareness of her program through the free quarterly magazine she creates and distributes to classrooms, libraries and local businesses. Emily has collected $24,000 in donations and continues to spread the importance of literacy through her various projects.
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- Francine P. 11, Bettendorf, IA
Francine created Beyond Expectations, a project that gives children with disabilities an opportunity to show the world their art and raise awareness of their abilities. Francine, an artist herself who has autism, convinced art and children's museums to assist her with the project by hosting galas to display the children's artwork. To date, there have been five gala events to showcase the artwork and she has helped raise more than $10,000 for her cause.
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- Gabby L. 12, Hixson, TN
Gabby was inspired by a local Girl Scout who lost her life in a boating accident to create Quilts for a Cause. She made quilts for people with a terminal illness, disability, and for the family of a fallen Girl Scout sister. She collected quilt squares from her Facebook friends, assembled the quilts and shipped them to the chosen cause for that project. Gabby has inspired girls all over the world to help her and has received support and packages from more than 18 states and three countries. Gabby has personally sewed and assembled 30 quilts for her cause.
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- Garland J. 16, Marietta, GA
Garland founded Bountiful Bags in effort to help alleviate childhood hunger by providing backpacks filled with food to refugee children and families on a weekly basis. The project has served more than 2,000 refugee children in Pre-K through fifth grade and their families. These families represent more than 60 different countries and speak more than 52 languages. Garland has raised $4,500 and provided 15,000 pounds of food to help feed these families.
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- Isabella T. 17, Chesterland, OH
Isabella co-founded The Wetlands Education Team (WET) to educate people, especially kids, about the importance of the environment. As part of her efforts, Isabella has assisted in the removal of osprey from the endangered species list, worked with a team to equip school buses with diesel particulate filters and helped pass an Ohio Senate Bill to make the spotted salamander the state amphibian. WET's work has spanned internationally to projects in Afghanistan, Ecuador and Guatemala.
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- Jasmine B. 17, Rock Island, IL
Jasmine founded Love, GIRLS Magazine (Love stands for Lead, Overcome, Value and Empowerment), a nonprofit organization that serves as an outlet for teens to write editorials about self-esteem related topics and social issues in effort to combat bullying. The magazine is published four times a year and produced by a team of writers and photographers ages 13 -19. Love, GIRLS Magazine is free to the community and is distributed in libraries and high schools. Jasmine has raised more than $20,000 and recruited more than 60 volunteers in Illinois, Iowa and Tennessee to be part of the Love GIRLS Team.
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- Jen R. 18, Park Ridge, IL
Jen started Cards for Hospitalized Kids to provide hope and joy to kids in hospitals nationwide. She has made 24,000 handmade cards and has inspired approximately 1,000 card-making volunteers to join her cause. Jen's website provides instructions and suggestions for how to make handmade cards with encouraging messages for kids suffering from chronic illness.
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- Jonas C. 9, Long Beach, CA
Jonas founded Love in the Mirror, which has helped homeless people in the local community by providing food, clothing and shelter. The organization has enlisted more than 300 people to help, fed 6,000 people and collected more than 8,000 pairs of socks and 600 toys.
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- Jonny C. 17, Highland Park, IL
Jonny started the GreenShields Project which designs aerodynamic add-ons for school buses in effort to increase gas mileage and save money for schools. He partnered with Northwestern University's Ford School of Engineering to test and design the GreenShield. Jonny and his team have perfected a product that will help schools save money and have raised $38,000 for their cause.
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- Kalya, T. 17, Newhall, CA
Kayla founded The Shoe Crew, an organization that provides new athletic shoes for kids in need. Striving for a goal of providing new shoes for every child at an underprivileged center in Los Angeles, Kayla recruited 25 friends and began hosting community events. Through these events and many sponsors, The Shoe Crew has collected 2,400 pairs of shoes and enlisted 30 volunteers to help the cause.
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- Katariena L. 12, Arlington Heights, IL
Katariena planned and hosted several fundraisers in support of the American Diabetes Association (ADA) and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). Among her many activities, she has gone door-to-door asking for donations, sold coupons in stores, hosted a community garage sale, organized letter writing campaigns, made and sold crafts, and set up lemonade stands. Katariena inspired many of her friends, neighbors, schoolmates and community members to help her cause. Their efforts have raised $50,000 for diabetes research.
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- Katy D. 16, Liberty Lake, WA
Katy founded a nonprofit organization called Life Enhancement Through Education in Music (LETEM). Katy collects used musical instruments from the public and repairs them for free through a unique partnership with a local music store. The instruments are then distributed to low-income children and low-income school music programs. LETEM also provides clinics about instrument instruction and holds instrument drives at various community events to promote the cause.
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- Madeline C. 12, Oswego, IL
Madeline started Smart2BFit, a service program that teaches youth to eat healthier and move more, while engaging them in service through community gardening to feed the hungry. She has created two gardens in Indiana and one in Illinois. On Earth Day 2012, Madeline engaged 140 local youth to plant seeds for a garden that grew more than 1,000 pounds of organic produce for a local food pantry. She has raised $4,000 to pay for her supplies. Madeline is planning to continue her work by expanding her S.M.A.R.T. (Service, Multi-Purpose, Activity, Really Cool, Teaching) Garden program and is currently working on developing a website in hopes of helping other youth replicate her project.
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- Mariah Faith R. 14, Cincinnati, OH
Mariah created two philanthropic organizations, Just One Heart that honors the military and Glove One Another to clothe the homeless and help prepare disadvantaged students for school. Just One Heart sends Valentine's Day cards to the U.S. armed forces and veterans. Through Glove One Another, Maria collects coats, socks, gloves, hats, books and school supplies. Mariah has raised $121,000 and collected 41,000 items for her causes.
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- Olivia B. 13, Islip, NY
Olivia created Olivia's Birds: Saving the Gulf in response to the 2010 Gulf Coast oil spill. She painted and sold bird paintings to benefit the National Audubon Society, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Olivia has sold more than 500 of her paintings and raised more than $200,000 for the oil spill recovery.
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- Peyton M. 14, Weston, WI
Peyton created Peyton's Promise in effort to prevent children in her community from going to bed hungry. Peyton's Promise strives to "Make the World a Better Place, One Can at a Time" by keeping the local food pantries stocked. Peyton worked with area schools, churches and business to collect more than 90 tons of food and raised more than $25,000 for her cause.
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- Raegan J. 8 Keystone, IA
Raegan helped disaster victims across the United States, as well as local homeless veterans through The Veterans Outreach Center. She sold beaded bracelets, lip balm and hosted garage sales to help those in need. With the help of her local 4-H friends and a group of kindergartners, Raegan has raised more than $1,600 for an elderly couple affected by the Joplin tornado and provided aid to Oklahoma wildfire and Hurricane Sandy victims.
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- Riley G. 12, Sherman Oaks, CA
Riley started Rainbow Pack, an organization dedicated to providing elementary school students with the supplies they need to be successful learners regardless of economic circumstance. Riley was inspired by a visit to a local elementary school where she noticed some of the kids did not have basic school supplies and students often do not do their homework because they lack the necessary tools. The Rainbow Pack has collected more than $14,000 in donations and has supplied more than 1,300 backpacks full of supplies to students at a local elementary school.
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- Wyatt W. 10 Glendale, CA
Wyatt used his artistic talents by selling sculptures, drawings and cards to raise funds to support Oceana, an ocean advocacy group. Wyatt also produced a six minute Claymation movie and published a book about a Trash Monster who tries to take over the ocean and the sea creatures that fight to defend it. Wyatt has raised more than $6,000 and encouraged 600 people to sign his website pledge.
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- Zachary C. 16, Morristown, NJ
Zachary founded Special Needs Athletic Programs (SNAP, Inc.), a nonprofit organization designed to inspire youth to work together through athletics, peer mentoring and educational programs. SNAP's goal is to raise awareness about the impact students can have on the lives of children with autism and other disabilities. Zach has raised more than $80,000 and has created after school programs for special needs children and student mentors across New Jersey.
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