This past week we have been on vacation in the Outer Banks, NC. We have enjoyed spotty weather but enough sun to take in tennis, the pool, jet skiing, the beach and much more. Of all these adventures to choose from I am sure you are wondering why the subject of this post is a belly flop. That reason will appear self-evident shortly I hope.
My darling daughter MaryMargaret, who is now 10, is with us of course. She absolutely loves the pool. We had to get a rental home that was equipped with one and would also tolerate our two Bernese Moutain dogs. If she had her way we would be in the pool the whole time. The other day she was challenging me to give her new ways of jumping in the pool. After exhausting the usual selections, I suggested a belly flop. She reluctantly agreed but was very hesitant. She tried it several times but at the last moment would pull her arms in and protect herself. “No problem”, we said, “you don’t have to do it.”
The weather yesterday was glorious – we packed so much activity into one day. In the heat of the afternoon we all got in the pool. Someone suggested I do a belly flop. I said, “No way!” But then I thought to myself – if I can ask my daughter to do it then I should be willing to do it myself. Nonetheless if I’m going to do this I need to at least put a T-shirt on. I stood before the water and pondered what I got myself into. After all, it had been at least 40 years since I performed this silly feat. But, there was no turning back now so off I went. OUCH!! I have a much bigger frame than I did when I was young which didn’t help matters any. MaryMargaret had many questions for me: “How bad did it hurt?” “How long did the hurt last?” She then said, “Ok I’m going to do one now.” We told her she didn’t have to, but her response was “I want to prove to my daddy that I can do it!” Off she went and did a perfect belly flop.
It may seem silly but I was so proud of her. She faced her fear through sheer determination and got through it. Challenging yourself to face fears and carry out tasks that you never thought you were capable of is how human greatness is achieved. Now does she deserve some sort of award for performing a belly flop? Of course not but I hope and trust that she learned an important lesson from this.
Nicholas Giordano (13), from New Jersey, USA has been helping others since a very young age. Collecting money, coats and food for the poor or sick was something he was always involved with. He began studying classical guitar at the age of 7 and it wasn’t long before he became known as a classical guitar prodigy. He wanted to use his talent to help other children. By the time Nicholas was 10 he created an organization called “Strings from the Heart” and performed his first solo charity concert which raised $6,000 for children with cancer and serious blood disorders. With this money he purchased all new music equipment for the Music Therapy Clinic that works with the children to manage their pain through music. It was a thrill for him to personally pick out the new guitars, drums, amplifiers, karaoke machines and such that he would later deliver to the hospital with his family. Nicholas describes this day as “the greatest day of my life”. Soon he was planning his next benefit concert, which was a huge success, raising a whopping $12,000! All the money was donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of NJ and Nicholas was able to adopt the wishes of two children from New Jersey by sending a young boy on a Disney Dream Vacation with his family and providing a teenager with a special studio laptop, software and recording equipment. “It’s very satisfying for me to raise this money and if I can help make someone’s day a little brighter after all they have had to endure with their illness, then I know that I’m making a difference in someone’s life”.
Nicholas has also performed for other charities such as Habitat for Humanity; OASIS; Gilda’s Club, PAWS and Eva’s Village.
Academics play a very important role in Nicholas’s life and he continues to be a top student in all subjects. Nicholas is ranked in the top 2% in the Nation for Mathematics and Science and was accepted into International Mensa this past year.
Nicholas starts high school this fall and plans on continuing the “Strings from the Heart” concert series. Stay tuned for his new project that will put used music equipment into the hands of underprivileged children. If you would like to help Nicholas on his path of philanthropy, email Guitarbenefit@aol.com.
Check out his radio interview and segment on Teen Kids News:
Kids Are Heroes has been receiving a lot of very positive publicity lately and much is happening. I am so excited in anticipation to see what is just around the corner. Although all this is great news, a note I received yesterday from a parent touched me much more deeply because it demonstrated exactly what the Kids Are Heroes web site is designed to do.
Keep in mind the child this woman is speaking of is only five years old.
“HeyGabe, I came across your wonderful website and story a few weeks ago from a link sent to me on Facebook. My daughter overheard the news cast that was playing and she had a lot of questions. I explained to her what the website was, and what a good deed meant. On her own she thought of helping a man on our street who had a brain bleed and has been left paralyzed. She said ‘Mamma, we could help Mr. Doug!’ We thought together we could plant flowers for him, so we did. Since that day she thinks of something every week that we could do to help him. This week it’s washing his windows. So I just wanted to say thank you for this great thing you’ve passed on to her. It has been a great opportunity to teach her compassion and doing untoothers.”
I asked her to follow through and nominate her child for the web site. I sure hope to be posting her story soon.
Update 6/6/09: This little hero’s mom did nominate her on our site, and she is now a featured hero. She is only 5 and her name is Mia.
We are very excited that some local teachers have nominated their schools to be on the Kids Are Heroes web site. This is a trend that we feel is just a natural progression for us. We hope this inspires some friendly competitions among local schools and others all over the country to create projects that teach both the benefits of giving while at the same time help out a lot of people. A few weeks ago MaryMargaret and I had the pleasure of speaking to the entire student body of a local elementary school. We spoke about the Kids Are Heroes web site, and MaryMargaret talked about her Music for Life program. The idea was to spark as many young minds as we could so that they would dream up new ways of helping their community. If the after press was any indication, I think we did just that. This presentation was exactly what we have been trying to do for a long time. We hope to be invited to many more of these in the future. As our organization grows we hope to produce videos and other materials that can be distributed to schools where we cannot make personal appearances. We have found that many kids are willing to jump in to this sort of activity when they find out how easily they can help other people. This type of energy feeds on itself.
So how does a school get recognized?
Anyone can nominate a school directly right here. All we really need is a consent form signed by the principal of the school, and if a picture is submitted that the subject(s) have a signed photo release on file. We look for groups of students that have collected funds for the needy, volunteered at a soup kitchen or some such similar endeavor. If you are local to Frederick and would like us to come out to your school, please contact us directly here.
We are starting a new series of posts that we hope to update weekly at best, bimonthly at worst. Here we will feature one of our heroes from the Kids Are Heroes web site and talk in depth about what that hero has done and what his or her future plans are. There is no shortage of kids to feature, so we are very much looking forward this project.
At risk of appearing self-serving I think it appropriate that we feature MaryMargaret (my daughter) as our first hero. After all, she is the cofounder of the organization and Kids Are Heroes would not exist if it were not for her.
MaryMargaret has always been an advocate for animals. I guess that can be attributed to the fact that she has grown up with pets in the family. At the age of nine years old she had a birthday party. Instead of gifts she asked that people send donations to the Defenders of Wildlife. She truly wants to prevent certain animals from becoming extinct, especially the orangutan. In the spring of 2006 her two-year-old Bernese Mountain Dog named Charlie founded Wags for Hope which is a local pet therapy organization. Often times she would accompany Charlie and her dad on visits to the nursing home. The residents would be thrilled with her cartwheels and other antics. I remember one night whan a lady came out of her room as she prepared for bed. She wanted to pet Charlie. MaryMargaret said to her, “I like your pajamas!” The lady replied, “You do? Would you like to see my other ones?” And before you knew it MaryMargaret was in the room rummaging through drawers to the woman’s delight.
In March of 2008 she came to her dad and asked him to build her a web site. “I want to help animals” she said. Her dad suggested they help people and the environment as well. On that day Kids Are Heroes was born. This is a web site that promotes and inspires kids to become involved in their communities. She works with her dad to find heroes for the site and to promote it. She is frequently asked to give presentations about it to which she gladly consents. In June of 2008 she and her two friends held a lemonade stand in downtown Frederick. With the proceeds that totalled $600.00, she bought Webkinz which she distributed to the kids at a local cancer camp one month later. In November of 2008 she again gave up her birthday presents. This time the party was a sleepover so she had kids bring new bathrobes, pajamas and slippers to be donated to the Frederick County Community Action Agency. At about the same time she came up with her latest project which she dubbed Music for Life. She aspires to buy 150 MP3 players and distribute them to kids at the Children’s Hospital in Washington DC. When she was just six years old, she had a very scary stay there as we were told she could have leukemia. She was poked, prodded and tested for five days. She is okay now but she really wants to give the gift of music to those kids so they can listen to their favorite songs before and during certain procedures so they might be less afraid. She has held several fund raisers, “twitterthons”, spoken at several venues and has many more similar activities planned throughout the summer. She has collected over $1600.00 so far. (If you would like to donate, please click here.) She has been awarded an opportunity to attend the Junior National Young Leaders Conference sponsored by the Congressional Youth Leadership Council. In April 2008 her web site was “pitched” to Sir Richard Branson as part of his new Pitch TV concept. Five winning pitches would be included as part of the inflight entertainment on all Virgin Atlantic planes for one month. Her web site was indeed chosen as one of the five winners. We can only dream of the opportunities this will bring.
MaryMargaret is ten years old and just getting started. She is very excited, humbled and proud to be included with all the other wonderful kids on the Kids Are Heroes web site.
Well not right away, but we are going on vacation at the end of the month. WOO HOO! Haven’t been to the Outer Banks in quite a while, so we are all very much looking forward to it. The picture of my wife and daughter seen here was taken 10 years ago when MaryMargaret got to see the beach for the first time. I happened to come across it yesterday and thought I’d share it. Fun times!!
So, isn’t it time to start thinking about summer vacations?? Where are you planning to go?
I just became an official 12for12K Blogger. If you don’t know what 12for12K is, it is a grass roots movement started by Danny Brown and a few others that is positively affecting the planet through the use of social media. The concept is that each month for a year the movement sponsors a different charity, with the target donations being $12,000.00 – hence the name 12for12K. You may notice the avatars of certain people being branded with the 12for12k logo. This simply means that they are 12for12K supporters. I have been following many of these folks for a while now on Twitter – folks such as @JohnHaydon, @DannyBrown, @MickeyGomez and @SocialPMChick just to name a few. Every one I have met I have connected with in one way or another. These are genuine folks using social media to help a lot of people. There are many so wonderful charities on Twitter and I must be careful not to spread myself too thin. I must also guard against diluting my own message which is of course Kids Are Heroes. I am also actively promoting MaryMargaret’s (my 10-yr-old daughter’s) campaign to give the gift of music to hospitalized kids through her Music for Life program. Having said that I still want to acknowledge what this band of renegades are doing; thus the reason for me doing this.
So what does it mean to be a 12for12K blogger? I will write posts about the supported charities that are dear to me and hopefully bring more awareness to this movement. Although my focus will be Twitter based, please know that they also have a presence on Facebook, YouTube and Twibes.
Lately I have noticed a somewhat disturbing trend on Twitter, and that is the proliferation of people who are telling me about a great way to increase my followers in a short period of time. They are referring to a system that you pay for that becomes a short cut for increased followers. I will not comment on the value (or lack thereof) of said system since I did not purchase it (nor do I plan to). I am seeing these tweets in auto direct messages as I follow people (which immediately triggers an unfollow from me). I am also seeing them as tweets – also causing an immediate unfollow.
Now I am not against people having lots of followers on Twitter - I have made it clear that my goal at this time is to get as many followers as I can to spread the word about Kids Are Heroes. To get these followers I really have to work at it each day. So why should I “waste” my time working at getting followers when they can be purchased through one of many schemes going around these days? The answer is one simple reason – I want to control who I follow and who potentially follows me back. I look specifically for parents, philanthropists, educators and people that “get” social media and I also check out who my friends follow and their followers. I want to help make sure that my audience will be listening to me. I have said many times that followers mean nothing without connections. Twitter is what it is because of the people that built it – those who are interested primarily in social networking and not making money from being here. If it becomes all about making money then what do we have? Millions of spammers all spamming each other. Read more of this article »
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This past week we have been on vacation in the Outer Banks, NC. We have enjoyed spotty weather but enough sun to take in tennis, the pool, jet skiing, the beach and much more. Of all these adventures to choose from I am sure you are wondering why the subject of this post is a belly flop. That reason will appear self-evident shortly I hope.
Nicholas Giordano (13), from New Jersey, USA has been helping others since a very young age. Collecting money, coats and food for the poor or sick was something he was always involved with. He began studying classical guitar at the age of 7 and it wasn’t long before he became known as a classical guitar prodigy. He wanted to use his talent to help other children. By the time Nicholas was 10 he created an organization called “Strings from the Heart” and performed his first solo charity concert which raised $6,000 for children with cancer and serious blood disorders. With this money he purchased all new music equipment for the Music Therapy Clinic that works with the children to manage their pain through music. It was a thrill for him to personally pick out the new guitars, drums, amplifiers, karaoke machines and such that he would later deliver to the hospital with his family. Nicholas describes this day as “the greatest day of my life”. Soon he was planning his next benefit concert, which was a huge success, raising a whopping $12,000! All the money was donated to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of NJ and Nicholas was able to adopt the wishes of two children from New Jersey by sending a young boy on a Disney Dream Vacation with his family and providing a teenager with a special studio laptop, software and recording equipment. “It’s very satisfying for me to raise this money and if I can help make someone’s day a little brighter after all they have had to endure with their illness, then I know that I’m making a difference in someone’s life”.
We are starting a new series of posts that we hope to update weekly at best, bimonthly at worst. Here we will feature one of our heroes from the 
Well not right away, but we are going on vacation at the end of the month. WOO HOO! Haven’t been to the Outer Banks in quite a while, so we are all very much looking forward to it. The picture of my wife and daughter seen here was taken 10 years ago when MaryMargaret got to see the beach for the first time. I happened to come across it yesterday and thought I’d share it. Fun times!!
Lately I have noticed a somewhat disturbing trend on Twitter, and that is the proliferation of people who are telling me about a great way to increase my followers in a short period of time. They are referring to a system that you pay for that becomes a short cut for increased followers. I will not comment on the value (or lack thereof) of said system since I did not purchase it (nor do I plan to). I am seeing these tweets in auto direct messages as I follow people (which immediately triggers an unfollow from me). I am also seeing them as tweets – also causing an immediate unfollow.
