Plans for 2010?

Posted by Gabe on December 14, 2009 under Kids are Heroes | 2 Comments to Read

This morning when I checked my Twitter feed I came across a particularly interesting question from my friend Eri. She asked me “What is your exciting plan for next year?”

Wow. What a great question. It’s not as if I haven’t thought about it, it’s just that noone has ever asked me that question before.  I know that when you write things down more ideas come flowing out, so I decided to write a blog post about it.

Kids Are Heroes began in March of 2008, so we are just finishing up our second year.  During that time we have featured close to 100 kids, had two Kids Are Heroes Days and been on Virgin Atlantic planes for one month, thanks to Sir Richard Branson.  We have also created our first major project where we plan to involve kids from all over.  I am happy with our progress, especially since we have become involved with social media.  But at the moment we are still very small with big plans.

It is hard to develop exact timetables, especially when I know that there are so many unknowns.  A lot of what we do will depend on what kind of financial help we can get.  We are lucky to have a few business partners who support us but I would sure love to get a bunch more. :)  Having said that plans are meant to be flexible, so let me at least speak to what we would like to do.

• Drill our first well with the help of kids out there who don’t have their own project.  We still want to encourage kids to follow their own passions, but also want to offer an alternative.  This will be done through Project KAH2O.
• Develop other projects so kids can select among them.
• Secure our 501c3 status.
• Finish our business plan (will it ever be finished?).
• Provide funding for more kids to attend Kids Are Heroes Day in October.
• Feature at least 150 more kids.
• Start to provide web site development to help jump-start kids’ projects.
• Develop materials that can be sent to schools. This will include a video (already produced) explaining what we do at Kids Are Heroes along with added resources.
• Achieve mentions in several national media outlets.
• Start to travel the country to spead the word.

We have felt from the beginning that Kids Are Heroes is something that works in every community and hope it will eventually become a household word.  Just the other night my 11-year-old daughter MaryMargaret received an email from a 12-year-old girl named Lily. She is just getting started in her project to “help the world in its desperate struggle to stop the pollution and clean up our mess.”  She noted that MaryMargaret “had some experience” and could she “give me some advice”.  This is another role we really hope to develop — to help nurture kids’ ideas and help them maintain their focus so they can follow through with their projects. You bet we are following up with Lily and watching her progress.

So, I welcome the next year and hope we can indeed accomplish many of those things.  One thing I am sure of, we will certainly be writing about it along the way!