I hear stories all the time about the powerful Philanthropists making a difference in the world. People like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates and Oprah donating their time, money and resources to make a difference. But when you hear stories about children who dedicate their lives to do amazing things and make a difference in the world…that is something I find inspiring, magical and life changing. Below are four “Philanthropists” that stole my heart and respect.
Alexandra Scott - Alex’s Lemonade Stand
Alexandra “Alex” Scott (1996-2004) is the inspiration behind Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation. Alex was diagnosed with Neuroblastoma, a rare form of childhood cancer, before her first birthday. In 2000 four-year-old Alex Scott held her first lemonade stand to raise money to find a cure for kids with cancer--while bravely battling her own. Alex raised an astonishing $2,000 at her first stand. In August of 2004, Alex passed away at the age of 8, knowing that, with the help of others, she had raised over $1 million to help find a cure for the disease that took her life. Her family continued her legacy and to date, Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation has raised more than $35 million toward fulfilling Alex’s dream of finding a cure, with more than $12 million of those dollars coming from lemonade stands.
Phoebe Russel - Phoebes Foodbank
Phoebe’s teacher preschool always asks each student to perform a public service project before graduation. Past graduates operated lemonade stands and donated their proceeds to the food bank, but Phoebe was the first to come up with the idea of recycling cans for her project. So she started collecting empty cans and other donations to support the San Francisco Food Bank, her goal was to raise $1,000. Word spread about Phoebe’s efforts and caring people dropped off bags of cans on the school’s steps and left envelopes of cash in the school’s mailbox. In just a few weeks, Phoebe collected 4,497 cans and raised a total of $3,736.30 (about 17,971 meals)! When Tyson Foods heard about what Phoebe was doing and the company donated more than 30,000 pounds of chicken to the San Francisco Food Bank. It works out to almost 120,000 donated meals for the hungry in San Francisco.
Zachary Bonner - Little Red Wagon Foundation
Zachary "Zach" Bonner, at just seven years old, founded Little Red Wagon Foundation to aid the 1.3 million homeless
children in the United States. In 2004, when Hurricane Charley hit neighborhoods, he collected 27 pickup trucks of water in his little red wagon. Bonner teamed up with the Standup for Kids and collected 400 backpacks of supplies, nicknamed "Zachpacks", for homeless children, filled with donated snacks, toys and toiletries. His "My House to the White House" project took place in three stages covering 1,225 miles to raise awareness and funds for homeless children. Then in 2010, he walked from Tampa to Los Angeles, calling the trip "March Across America". He began the 2,478-mile walk on March 23, 2010. Bonner walked an average of 17–22 miles every day. During his walk, he gave gift cards to people in need. On September 14, 2010, Bonner completed the nearly 2,500-mile-walk to Los Angeles.
Talia Leman’s - Randomkid.org
Talia Leman’s mission is simple: To help kids help others. It began in 2005 at age 10, she saw the story of the victims of Hurricane Katrina and wanted to help. She rallied 4,000 school districts to do fundraisers, raising more than $10 million. She then founded RandomKid.org, with the tag line, “The Power of ANYone,”. It’s a nonprofit to educate, unify and empower young people of all backgrounds and abilities to make a measurable difference in their efforts to help solve real world problems. At age 11 she set up a mini-United Nations to work with 70 delegates who raised $26,000 to build a school in rural Cambodia for 300 children. Today, RandomKid works to provide crutches and artificial limbs to victims of the Haiti earthquake; planting vegetables at local homeless shelters; and unifying schools to sell their own labeled water to raise funds for water pumps in Africa.
