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Generosity in the wake of Sandy
Unless you’ve been living on another planet for the last fortnight you’ll be only too well aware of the devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy. You may also have seen the countless warnings about bogus charities that have sprung up in the wake of the disaster, claiming to be in aid of storm victims. But many genuine non-profits have also been set up over the last week or so, and one that caught my eye today was the brainwave of an 11-year-old girl, in New Jersey.
Photo credit: Jon Bradley, Philly Post
Lucy Walkowiak, who – according to her father – already does a lot of community service through her school, has opened a temporary Internet café outside her home (in one of the few areas still with power), to allow people to keep up-to-date on the news and contact friends and families, as well as charging their phones and other devices. In return, she asks for a small donation towards the relief work that the Red Cross is carrying out in affected parts of the USA.
Photo credit: Jon Bradley, Philly Post
Opening from 7.30am to 10pm the café has apparently attracted a lot of grateful users, and has already raised over $100, thanks to Lucy’s and others’ generosity. What an enterprising young lady she is… yet another young philanthropist to add to our rapidly growing list!
For more on this story, see the following video:
Make A Difference Day
Today is Make A Difference Day in several parts of the world, including here in the UK. This is the UK’s biggest day of volunteering, and provides opportunities for thousands of people around the country. The special theme this year is using our skills, and whether these involve computing, gardening, photography, accountancy or other professional activities, we are being encouraged to put them to good use helping others. On last year’s UK Make A Difference Day there were over 2,400 events, and 70,000 people participated: the organisers hope to beat that, this year.
I don’t know about you… but I will certainly be doing my bit to Make A Difference to kids lives, today. It’s that time again, when we – the Trustees of the Chreda Foundation – meet to plan how to “Inspire the Next Generation” to good works. This will be a particularly important meeting, as we are now starting to seriously plan the award scheme that we have been hinting at, for quite a while. So today’s blog is necessarily very short. But I couldn’t let the occasion pass without a brief mention.
Why not check out the official event website now – http://www.csv.org.uk/campaigns/csv-make-difference-day – and see what you can do to be a part of this great celebration of volunteering!
Live Like Adam
A teen who collapsed unexpectedly while exercising at his high school, and died last weekend, has inspired his peers to start living better lives. A Twitter hashtag, #LiveLikeAdam, has been created to express how they intend to follow his example.
Adam Blake Smith, who was just 16 years old, was said to be a “gracious”, sociable, spiritual individual, whose presence filled others’ lives with joy and fun. He was a keen sportsman and athlete, with a promising future. But above all, he was considered to be a true “servant” of others. Numerous people have paid tribute to how it was his deep Christian faith that motivated his selfless life, and this was evidenced by his Twitter profile, which quoted Deuteronomy 31:6 – “Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you.” (ESV) But his pastor, Matt Stacy, says that Adam didn’t merely quote Scripture: he really “tried to live by it”.
Now, students from Adam’s school – Buford High – are using the new hashtag to pledge what they will do to “live like Adam”. Not grand gestures, necessarily, but simple things like being helpful and compassionate. It’s rather appropriate that they have chosen this modern channel to pay tribute to him, because he was known to be a great tweeter who always had just the right words to say.
When I heard about this I immediately thought once again of Rachel Joy Scott and her ‘chains of kindness’: the circumstances of their passing were very different, but it seems that both have left similar legacies – an overwhelming desire and inspiration to do good and help others. This is very much a recurring theme, here at Generosity News, and Adam’s story is a timely reminder to us all that generosity of spirit can have a more far-reaching effect than we realise.
No doubt this theme will be developed further at Adam’s funeral, which takes place at 4pm tomorrow, at the family church – First Baptist Church, Buford, Georgia, USA.
Cardboard Challenge
Photo credit: Facebook.com/cainesarcade
Talk about the “one that got away”! A few months ago I watched the following video about Caine’s Arcade… the tale of a 9-year-old, Caine Monroy, who used his imagination to create an amusement arcade out of cardboard boxes.
It was entertaining – even touching – but unable to see any direct relevance to this website I moved on, without posting any reference to it here, and promptly forgot about it.
Fast forward to yesterday. The Daily Mail published a fascinating article about a ground-breaking invention from Israel – a “recycle bicycle” made from cardboard and costing only around £10 for the full-size adult version (£5 for the child’s equivalent).
Photo credit: Ferrari Press Agency
Folded card, strengthened and waterproofed with a resin coating, forms almost the entire structure of the bike – only the brakes and chain are made of other materials. The inventor Izhar Gafni, who hopes that it will transform the lives of poor kids in developing nations (many of whom have to walk miles to school every day), says he got the idea from hearing about someone building a cardboard canoe.
Photo credit: Ferrari Press Agency
The bicycle weighs only 9 Kg, yet can carry a 220 Kg rider, and it is constructed entirely of recycled materials. It even comes with the option of an electric motor. With its resin coating the main construction material is said to be stronger than carbon fibre, and it is completely resistant to water.
Photo credit: Ferrari Press Agency
So how does this link to the story of Caine’s Arcade? Well, aside from the fact that both Caine and Izhar have put cardboard to novel uses, the key thing here is imagination. Izhar was inspired by hearing of another invention and then applying his engineer’s experience to adapting it, while Caine was inspired by his child’s imagination and enthusiasm to improvise with whatever materials he had to hand.
And now there is a heart-warming sequel to Caine’s story. I read just today that Nirvan Mullick, the film-maker who was responsible for Caine’s story going viral, started a fund at around the same time – the Imagination Foundation – “to find, foster, and fund creativity and entrepreneurship” in kids like Caine, and to provide him with a scholarship. This fund apparently took off like wildfire, raising huge amounts of money almost overnight. As a result, the Foundation has now set the 6th of October this year as Global Cardboard Challenge day, when around the world people will be challenged to build “awesome” things out of cardboard, using their imagination… just as Izhar has done! Here’s a follow-up video about these recent developments.
At the Chreda Foundation we believe that Children Are Our Future, and we are planning an award scheme for the end of next year, which we hope will inspire the next generation to get involved in their communities. But encouraging creativity and imagination is also a crucial part of ensuring that young people reach their full potential, and the Imagination Foundation will now be high on our list of “ones to watch”!
Standing up to bullies
We have already touched upon the topic of bullying, here at Generosity News. We also recently highlighted a teen who was taking a positive approach to the medical condition of Alopecia universalis. So it’s fitting to consider today a brave young lady whose story brings these two topics together, telling the world that it’s OK to be different.
Fifteen-year-old Payton Justice, who has suffered from the condition for most of her life, and whose hair all fell out after a shower, when she was in first grade, has disguised her baldness with wigs and hats, in the past. She has tried to be positive about the situation, but this hasn’t prevented people from being cruel, insulting and bullying her – especially at high school (she attends Ryan High School, in Denton, Texas), where life can be tough for kids anyway, even without such a handicap.
However, last month she decided to take a public stand against the bullies: she posted pictures online, together with the following message:
“So yeah… All the rumors are true. I don’t have hair because I’m not perfect. But who are you to judge? You’re not either. I’m finally coming out with this after having alopecia for about 10 years. I’m still the same person, only without hair. All you haters, go ahead and hate. Go ahead and talk all the crap you want about how I’m “ugly” without hair. If you talk, I don’t care. I don’t need you in my life at all. But I bet if you were me, you wouldn’t be coming out with it at all.”
Payton’s brave post attracted massive support, with many people saying what a great role model she was. And now she has even opened a Community Page about the condition, on Facebook. But although she is happy that her secret is out, the young lady apparently still plans to wear her Locks of Love wig… and very pretty it looks, too!
