Posted by Gabe on March 29, 2010 under Kids are Heroes | 
You may recall we hosted a Give a Day, Get a Day event recently at Boyd’s Bear Country in Gettysburg, PA. This was so successful we are doing it again on Saturday, April 10, 2010. But hold on, Disney has already reached their quota of 1 million free vouchers for their theme parks due to the success of this program. What that means is that if you had signed up prior to the time they reached the 1 million volunteers, you are safe and can still participate. But no more new people can sign up.
The generous folks at Boyd’s Bear Country wanted to do a bit more so they came up with the “Give a Bear, Get a Bear” program that will coincide on the same day. Purchase two bears, with clothing, at a discounted rate of $25.00 each, and one is yours to keep! The other one will be donated to one of four recipients (your choice). Kids at: Children’s Medical Center in Washington DC., John’s Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore MD, The Nyaka School for Orphans in Uganda or Bears On Patrol. Your child will stuff and dress the donated bear and then move over to the craft room where he/she can then write a personal note and draw pictures for the child who will benefit from it. The folks at Boyd’s Bears will even ship it for you to its final destination at no extra cost! This is such a heartwarming event you will not want to miss it! And you will be teaching your kids about giving at the same time!!
We recommend your child having a “bear drive” to pay for the donated bear(s). This really helps to instill meaning to the donation. If your child raises enough funds to buy four or more bears to be donated, then we will gladly feature him or her on the Kids Are Heroes web site!
After that day that we hosted the last event, I remember going home filled with so much positive energy. I got it all from the kids. They paid so much close attention to the details of how they made the bears and they wrote such heartfelt messages to the kids who would receive them that it was truly inspiring.
So if you would like to join us, please use the sign-up sheet to reserve a spot! Hope to see you then!
Posted by Gabe on March 21, 2010 under Kids are Heroes |
Since we don’t have a newsletter (yet) I have used this blog as a platform to deliver it. Well these seems to be so much going on right now that I thought I would devote a post to talk about all the recent events and connections that have affected us.
Let’s start with the BIG news. Just this past week, after two years and 115 heroes, we have recognized our first hero from overseas. Little 6-year-old Jackson, who comes from London, England, raised 1200 Euros for Haiti by organizing a bike ride. Why this is SO significant is because it realizes our goal of becoming an international organization — a goal we laid out some two years ago. (We even have the video to prove it. At the end the news anchor talks about it.) Once we get the proper funds we will need to translate our site into as many foreign languages as we can. And what better of an ambassador could we ask for than Jackson – such an endearing boy!
Oh and then there’s the BIG news. Just this past Friday we reached an agreement with our SECOND ex-NFL star, Ray McElroy, who is now a professional speaker and Chaplain for the Chicago Bears. He will be joining Levar Fisher, who played for the Arizona Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints, as they both tour the country speaking about Kids Are Heroes. I look for great things to come from both those partnerships.
I am also proud to announce our partnership with Charity Choice, a company that provides charity gift cards. This concept is new (at least to me) where instead of giving gift cards to be redeemed for material goods, the receiver can select which charities the monies are to benefit. Kids Are Heroes has its own category where the person who receives the card can distribute the funds from the gift among charities supported by our heroes as well as ourselves. We are very excited to be a part of this, especially since the gift card company is owned by a non-profit called “Special Kids Fund”. This just means that all the funds go to a good place.
Our new Kids Are Heroes Ambassadors Program is up and running and starting off very successfully I might add. We came up with a way to help us grow by involving our biggest fans from social media. We provide a community devoted to spread the word about what these kids are doing, and by joining that community people are part of something big and wonderful. They also have the ability of networking within that community so it is a win-win situation all around.
April 10th marks our second “Give a Day, Get a Disney Day” where we host an event at Boyd’s Bear Country in Gettysburg, PA. We have 89 people registered who will come and stuff bears, write letters and draw pictures for the kids who will end up receiving them. All bears will be donated to the Children’s Hospital in Washington DC or John’s Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. The Disney program has ended as it was so successful, but we are in discussions with the folks at Boyd’s Bears to see if there is a way we can keep this activity going somehow. I really look forward to seeing how that plays out.
We have forged a relationship with Dreams for Kids, a large non-profit that focuses on special needs and at-risk kids by empowering them to be active in their community. We are lucky enough to have been selected to be part of their “10 Campaign” coming up in October which will allow people to send a text message that will trigger a $10. donation to Kids Are Heroes. We hope this turns out to be a huge windfall for us so we can get serious about taking our organization to the next level. You will be hearing much more about this campaign as it develops.
We just broke the 20,000 follower barrier on Twitter. I rarely if ever talk about our numbers because in many ways numbers on Twitter can be of little significance. But we never have nor never will pay for followers nor do we sign up for those free “Get More Followers” programs that are out there. Breaking this barrier is a symbol to me of how hard we have worked in social media during the 15 months we have been active in it. Without social media, none of the above paragraphs could have been written.
We just launched our new sponsorship program. After all, we have a lot of work in our vision to carry out. Like anything else, it doesn’t get done for free. We are proud and excited to announce that the Ruby Books and the Photo Book Department of Jostens were the first two to award us with a Bronze sponsorship. We really appreciate their generosity.
…And that was just last week. Can’t wait to see what happens next.
UPDATE: 03/25/10 Well some really cool things just happened so I figured I would add them to the list:
Yesterday we got a letter from the IRS. Normally I wouldn’t be happy about that, but yesterday was an exception as the letter was to tell us our 501(c)(3) application to become a tax-exempt organization had been processed and accepted. So now we are an official charity. That’s a big milestone for us.
And speaking of milestones, two years ago we set out to become an international organization. That officially happened when we featured the aforementioned Jackson. Now on Jackson’s heels we have two international ambassadors who will be helping to lift our visibility in England and Ireland. Things just keep getting better.
Posted by Gabe on March 16, 2010 under Kids are Heroes |
I received this email this afternoon from one of our heroes, Dylan Mahalingam. Here is his profile on our web site. If you read it, and I really hope you do, you will discover more evidence of how Dylan, at just 14 years old, is changing the world. I know he has the resoources to do what he suggests, he just needs funding. And all he is asking for is your vote, not for any amount of money from you. If this touches you as it did me, please send the link on to your friends and family. Thank you!
Dear Mr. O’Neill,
Good evening. Best Buy has provided our organization, Lil’ MDGs (www.lilmdgs.org), the opportunity to win a $5,000.00 grant to fund a new project. The catch is that we have to earn that grant by getting people to vote for our project on-line. The odds are good, since we are a finalist in this program.
Here is our project proposal in a nutshell, so you will understand the value of it. Before I describe it, though, I want you to know that we are not asking you to vote for us as a friend or family member, because we don’t feel that one person deserves this over any another. We are only asking you to vote for our project if you feel that it is deserving of this grant.
I know this e-mail is long, but I am requesting that you please take the time to read this in full. Thanks. :)
Purpose of the Listen Up! Project
Children by nature are empathetic and they want to help, but most of them do not have access to age acceptable or appropriate medium for learning about the issues. Awareness materials do exist on this topic, but they portray children as victims – disturbing pictures of children in skin and bones, flies in their eyes, forlorn eyes – rather than as individuals with their own right. These materials do not invoke outrage or empower the children; rather, they evoke pity and generate money from adults. Our goal with Listen Up! is to develop age-appropriate materials to inspire younger children to work together towards meeting the MDGs.
How?
We will develop movies, animations, songs, and games for each of the Millennium Development Goals to captivate young children. We will make these materials available through schools, send them out to libraries on CDs, and post them on YouTube and on our websites to enable easy viewing in classrooms and homes. We have already teamed up with graphic designers, game developers, and animation experts to bring our project to reality upon receiving initial funding.
Why?
It is easy for people, in general, to understand and act upon something if it is given in a form that is naturally appealing to them. Children are attracted to animations, music, and games. We believe that this will be a great avenue for us to educate, engage, inspire, and empower more youth to get involved in meeting the UN MDGs.
Best Buy Grant Goal
The voting period is from March 15th to April 2nd. We are trying to figure out the best way to run our campaign for votes, and this is what we think would work best:
- We are looking for friends and family who are willing to vote for us once per day.
- We want to know if you are able or willing to do this, and if you are, please email us back with a YES.
- We will send you an email reminder every day.
- Voting will take place on https://www.at15.com/contests_scholarships/community_impact. Vote for Listen Up!
- Voters must register as members of at15.com and therefore, must be over the age of 13. You go to the link above to register. Registration is simple.
Please remember to leave the box for “I would like to receive e-mail updates” unchecked if you don’t want to receive any e-mails from them.
Your password will be e-mailed to you.
You can click on the link in the e-mail and reset your password.
You only need to register once; after this, you can simply go to:
https://www.at15.com/contests_scholarships/community_impact to cast your vote. You can vote once per day and voting started on March 15th.
- You can vote once per e-mail address, every day.
- If you have a Twitter account, please tweet about this daily.
- The voting and tweeting will take less than 1 min each day.
- The contest allows you to vote for 2 different projects each day to encourage people to vote for people they don’t know, based solely on their projects (a good twist!)
- I truly believe that the project we are putting out there will create something phenomenal to engage children worldwide, and that is why we are comfortable asking you to do this.
Once you log in you get two votes. Please vote for the Climate Action Club as your second vote as effort was created by another KAH hero, Chloe Maxmin.
Posted by Gabe on March 12, 2010 under Facebook, Kids are Heroes, Social Media, Twitter |
I always get a kick out of remembering when my first day on Twitter was. If I forget I can go to the site that tells me when I did. For me it happened to be Christmas Eve, 2008. I almost feel guilty for being on the computer that day and cannot recollect my motivation, but at least I didn’t tweet too much on the day I should have been spending with my family. It wasn’t long until I was addicted to the concept of getting to know people through this platform. As I progressed I learned a lot which I have tried to share in this blog. Sometime mid-2009 I created a Facebook fan page for Kids Are Heroes and now I had two platforms to manage. So what is the point of all this social networking, anyway? Is it just to pass the time and comment on what we all had for breakfast? Absolutely not. It’s about connecting with people. Period. Funny thing is that I thought I was connecting with people all along. I would converse with them, ask about what they do, give them #followfriday mentions, help them in any way I could, the whole nine yards. But it wasn’t until fairly recently when I took these connections to the next level.
You may know that recently we have partnered with Levar Fisher, an ex-NFL star who travels around the country motivating youth and speaking about Kids Are Heroes. I was introduced to Levar by Mary Kurek, who works in Levar’s behalf by helping him to connect with people like me. I watched how she works and that is how I learned to really connect with people. Connecting means more to me now than just #followfriday mentions on Twitter. Thanks to Mary I learned that it’s about taking action. It’s about seeking out people who might complement you and you them. It’s about picking up the phone and really connecting. From those conversations both parties can then take action and actually do something to further each other’s causes. I have been on the phone for the first time with people I met on Twitter more times in the last three weeks than I have in the year I have been involved in social media. I believe that this works just as well with businesses as it does non-profits. I had a long phone conversation with Tom Tuohy of Dreams for Kids yesterday and the word that came up often was ‘collaboration’. I am so looking forward to seeing what unravels from that connection. This week I also connected with Blake Raab of Bears on Patrol. One would think that non-profits would keep their cards close to the vest and not share anything, because we are all competing for donations that are out there. That’s the old way of thinking. It just so happens that I love Blake’s mission and I really want him to be successful. That is why I am trying to come up with ways that our kids can support what he does. I have learned that a great leader is one who makes people who work with him (or her) successful. This is what I aspire to be and hopefully something that I am working toward every day.
So take action and leave a comment. I might just arrange a phone call. :)
Posted by Gabe on March 6, 2010 under Kids are Heroes |
We completed our first Disney event today. To catch those of you up who have not been following, we hosted a “Give a Day Get a Disney Day” event at Boyd’s Bear Country in Gettysburg where people stuffed bears for donations to sick children in exchange for Disneypark tickets.
When I went into this day I thought it would be a lot of fun. I knew the kids would think hard and be real careful when they picked out their bears. I must admit I underestimated the parents though, in a big way. I figured all of them were in it just for the Disney tickets and therefore would pay for their quota of bears and be done with it. Boy was I wrong. These folks did hold fund raisers at school, pleaded with their families and neighbors and sought out funding wherever they could. People who had to buy just one bear stuffed eight of them! I was so moved by this. The kids were so excited to build so many bears. One boy built a bear with a camouflage jacket and named him ‘Sarge’. Another stuffed a dog and called him ‘Fetch’. As they moved through the assembly line they got to choose different colored beads as the makeup of the stuffed animal. Blue represented bravery, orange honesty, pink happiness, etc. The kids had such a good time mixing these emotions together. But there was nothing more moving than the letters that were written.
Part of the project was to draw pictures and write letters to the kids who would benefit from the bears. These are either hospitalized children or ones in an orphanage in Uganda. We asked the kids to think hard about what to write to them as the letters would accompany the bears. I happened to read one of them written by Alivia who is just five years old. It reads:
“This bear is brave and will protect you when you are scared. It will give you hugs and play with you. Take it on your adventures so you can have a friend. – From Alivia”
This sentiment pretty much summed up the day. MaryMargaret brought her friend Emma to help in the craft room and they both had a wonderful time. As many as 40 bears were built by twelve families — and this was just the dry run. We are shooting for at least 300 people for our next event scheduled for April 10th. I can’t wait.
MaryMargaret & Emma build a bear for the orphans in Uganda.
To participate in the April 10th event, click here and choose the zip code 17325.
Posted by Gabe on March 3, 2010 under Kids are Heroes |
I saw a tweet by @TheLemonadeBoy this morning which read, “…dreams are seldom accomplished by an individual..being a one man army will lead only to defeat!” Recently I have been using quotes such as these to encourage myself and others. Although I did not believe the second part of this one it did make me think. I know that I feel my passions will always trump my shortcomings, but I also realize that other people have a lot to offer and can help Kids Are Heroes in a way that I cannot. A successful person always surrounds himself with people smarter than he. So I came up with a way to involve others so they did not have to commit to too much time and/or energy, they can do it no matter where they live, and could still have a markedly positive effect on our growth.
This concept is in its infancy, so I reserve the right to change it as much as I need to. As a matter of fact, I expect it to change when I get more input from others, meaning those who sign up for it, and hopefully that’s you. The basic idea is to have Kids Are Heroes “ambassadors” who will offer any kind of expertise and help that they can and are willing to do. For example, if you have a large user base and want to get the word out to them by tweeting, email, suggesting our fan page to your friends on Facebook, or all of the above, or whatever other method then that is what you will do. If you are a PR person then you can help us develop press kits and sponsorship packages. If you are a business coach then you can offer us your services. We need people to help fund raise. Whatever you are good at and/or want to do for us is what you will do. What we will offer in return is a listing on our Ambassadors web page that will have your name, Twitter ID, link, company, etc. and you will also list what you are doing to help Kids Are Heroes grow. I will of course be promoting this program to all of our followers by tweeting about this page, so you would reap the rewards there. You can network with each other knowing you all have in common the desire to promote what kids are capable of. You will get a badge like the one below to put on your web site. Unfortunately I have no monetary rewards to give and that is one of the reasons why I seek out true fans of what we do. Another reason is that if you share our passion then it will show in the things you do for us.
I am both excited and proud to announce that we already have our first ambassador on board. Her name is Jeanne (@TheRubyBooks) and we connected today over the phone. She has something very like minded going on over on her web site: http://realizewhatmatters.org/. She is also inspiring kids to give back through her literary efforts. Ruby, the star of her book series, will be starting Kids Are Heroes related discussions in some of the upcoming chapters. We are really looking forward to that.
So I am very thrilled to get this started. I do not have the web page created yet, that is what I will do after I get a few of you ambassadors on board. I do have a more detailed web page for ambassadors and what to expect which you can see here. So if you are interested, please email me directly and we can get started. Make no mistake about it — you will be part of something world changing. I look forward to working with you.
Posted by Gabe on March 1, 2010 under Featured Hero, Kids are Heroes |
We recently met Alannah Raven through her dad Eddy who tours the country speaking about disaster preparedness. As a matter of fact, Alannah often goes with him and speaks about the same subject. But it was her passion for the protection of horses that sparked this interview. A word of caution here: If you are at all squeamish when it comes to animals being harmed or tortured, you may want to skip this post. We try not to go into too much detail but I feel it is important to raise awareness about what is going on in this country. I personally had no idea. And kudos to Alannah for having the courage at such a young age to confront these horrors.
I am very interested in your work for the salvation of horses. How did you discover the atrocities that are being leveled against them?
I knew about soring from my work with horses in the area. I have also seen horses being sold for slaughter at auctions. One of our family rules is that as we kids tour more we have to choose a cause so I looked for an organization that needed help raising awareness and the International Fund for Horses seemed like the best fit for me.
Without being too graphic, can you describe what is going on?
It’s hard not to describe it so it is not gross. Wild horses are being rounded up and slaughtered for meat. Pregnant mares are tortured for years to collect their urine in a certain way to make medicine. Show horses are sometimes tortured to make better shows. Every day we read news stories of people that put horses out to pasture to watch them starve rather then finding them a good home.
How many wild horses are in the US?
There are less then 25,000.
Why are horses so important to you?
Horses are important to me because, out of all the animals I have, they are the most sensitive to people. I have always liked horses since I was a little girl. Through history horses are the one animal that helped up build our country but now are to often neglected and abused. They are amazing animals. They are strong and so beautiful and if you care for them they can be so much fun.
Besides donating to the International Fund for Horses, how can people help?
Awareness is the biggest thing. It is expensive to try to do what the folks at the International Fund for Horses are doing, but money is not always most important. I have links on my website people can use on their websites to help create awareness, they can assist in horse rescues, and horse owners could even help themselves just by considering how important it is to have disaster plans for there own horses!
What do you want to accomplish with the horses and what do you think you can accomplish?
I tour a lot around the country and I get to speak to thousands of people every year. As a member of Chasing4Life, I am building a good following and I hope I can motivate all of my friends to help me keep the International Fund for Horses going. Of course, I intend to keep rescuing horses personally as long as I have room to keep them.
I know you tour the country speaking about disaster preparedness. Do you speak about the horses too? What kind of feedback do you get from kids? From adults?
This spring will be my first horse-focused tour in the last two years as I have toured with Chasing4Life. I have been well received by grade school kids and older adults. I expect (and hope) that it will be the same.
Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
I would hope to still be involved with the International Fund for Horses perhaps as a board member. I am looking into school for Pre-Veterinary Medicine at the Nebraska College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
Do you have anything you would like to add?
The International Fund for Horses has accomplished so much already and thankfully there are no slaughter houses left in the United States but there is so much to do. I have raised a little money so far and I think that my efforts have raised quite a bit more awareness too. Just today while doing a photo shoot for IFH ads, I came across a neglected horse with no one to care for it and am bringing it to our farm. Making a difference can be done one horse at a time.
We are so lucky to have kids like Alannah. She truly gives us hope. I must say that before I met her I had absolutely no idea this was going on. My personal feeling is to live and let live and to each his own, but transgressions against animals are always sickening to me. I just cannot understand how people can lose their heart for the sake of their personal monetary gain.
So please visit the International Fund for Horses and check out their web site. (Twitter: @Fund4Horses) In their “Issues” section you will see exactly what we are dealing with. Be forewarned though, some of their images are very graphic and indeed disturbing. In the “Horse on the Hill” section you can see how they are attempting to affect change. There are lots of ways you can help. I just spoke with Vivian Grant, the president and founder of this organization. She is a very learned and determined woman who is working tirelessly for these horses. She loves the fact that Alannah is in her camp. Her biggest need are volunteers. The good news is that most of her volunteers (currently 80+) work out of their homes and set their own hours. She has volunteers all over the globe helping her. If this is something you think you might want to be involved with, you can really make a difference. Contact Vivian directly by email, or go right to the volunteer section of her web site and sign up. The phone numbers for the Int’l Fund for Horses are 917.675.3453 (NY) and 713.893.7813 (Houston). If this is not your cup of tea but you still want to help neglected horses, she can even help you find a local horse rescue in your area, no matter where you live.
Please take it upon yourself to spread the word as much as you possibly can for them and for the horses.
Check out Alannah’s profile on the Kids Are Heroes web site. For more information, visit Alannah’s web site at http://www.alannahraven.com.
