MEET THE WINNERS

Deepika

Leaf indicates winners who were honored for projects that benefit the environment.

Invented a solar-powered water filtration device

Deepika has invented a practical, low cost, and sustainable method to purify contaminated water. Her solar-powered device destroys bacteria in wastewater within 15 minutes of filtration and exposure to sunlight. Because it is completely solar powered and its materials do not become depleted, the device can easily be used in developing countries and can be scaled-up for large water purification systems. She has two patents pending and in 2012, was named America’s Top Young Scientist as the national winner of the Discovery Education 3M Young Scientist Challenge.

Deepika was inspired to begin her work three years ago following a trip to India to visit her grandparents, where she saw children collecting and drinking polluted water from nearby streams. She learned that worldwide, many children spend more time collecting water than attending school and that 4,000 children die each day from water-related diseases. Convinced that she could create an easy way to filter water, she began conducting research at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell, where an engineering professor supervised her work, which combines materials science, photochemistry, and biology. Deepika is committed to educating children about the importance of clean water and has spoken to groups and schools around the world. “My work has taught me to be persistent and not give up, and I feel it’s made me a more enlightened and humble person,” says Deepika.

Emma and Julia

Founders, Books with No Bounds

Sisters Emma and Julia created Books with No Bounds to provide much-needed reading material to First Nations children in Northern Canada. In four years, they have shipped 90,000 books, 30,000 school supplies, over 100 computer tablets and thousands of clothing items to First Nations children in Ontario as well as to orphanages and schools in Pakistan, India, and Africa. Their work has impacted the lives of 10,000 children around the globe. Through their Africa Food Sustainability program, the girls purchase farming equipment, seeds, and pigs to support feeding 54 children at an orphanage in Uganda. The girls also advocate for children’s rights within First Nations communities and speak out about the inequities in funding between schools on reservations and schools elsewhere.

The sisters’ work is born of their own love of reading and their conviction that all children deserve access to books. They have organized hundreds of book drives and have received more than 20,000 new books from publishers – all of them stored, sorted, and boxed for shipping from the basement of their home. Faced with the challenge and staggering cost of getting heavy boxes of books by air to native fly-in-only communities – $50,000 in shipping costs and donated air services so far – the girls have sold homemade candy, created raffles, and knocked on doors to raise funds. Three times, they have traveled north for ten hours on five small planes to visit a First Nations community where their books are making a huge impact. They have also traveled to schools across North America and to events around the world, speaking about the potential for young people to change the world and the need to work for peace and justice. “I have a voice and the power to create change and, like Margaret Mead, I ‘never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world,’” says Emma. Adds Julia, “This work has taught me there are no bounds to what you can do and who you can be in this world.”

Evan

Leaf indicates winners who were honored for projects that benefit the environment.

Creates Braille nature trails for the visually impaired

Evan creates Braille nature trails to improve access to the outdoors for adults and children who are visually impaired. His trails include guide ropes and Braille signage about the trails’ natural features, allowing the visually impaired to walk and experience nature on their own. Evan began his work five years ago, when he joined forces with the Nature Conservancy to repair a vandalized Braille trail in a Conservancy-maintained forest in Rome, Georgia. After leading a trail walk for members of the Georgia Council of the Blind, he realized that walking outdoors on a trail was a special and rare experience for them and resolved to build more Braille trails. He arranged for donated materials and rallied support from a cadre of volunteers, including dozens from his high school and from Home Depot. He also asked visually impaired community members to help with trail design. He has raised over $4,000 to purchase Braille signage and recently completed a second Braille trail in Buford, Georgia.

Passionate about nature since a young age, Evan has volunteered for National Park Service educational programs and founded the Georgia Young Birders club. He conducts scientific research to repair habitats damaged by road construction and helps with a nearby sea turtle nesting project. His newest venture, Nature for All, trains youth volunteers to guide walks for children with visual impairments and other disabilities. Evan is using the trails he’s built as prototypes for more Braille trails in the Atlanta area and across the U.S., and is lobbying legislators to better fund programs for the visually impaired. “I’ve learned how important it is to speak up for what you believe in – for yourself and for others,” says Evan.

Grace

Founder, Ears for Years

Grace founded Ears for Years, a non-profit organization that provides solar-powered hearing aids to deaf children in developing countries. She has traveled to Haiti, Honduras, South Korea, and Sri Lanka among other countries to fit over 350 children with hearing aids. She has organized fundraisers and arranged corporate partnerships to raise more than $20,000 and has created multiple high school chapters of Ears for Years to ensure her project continues and grows.

Grace began her work at age 14 following her father’s diagnosis with a brain tumor, which left him with partial permanent hearing loss. She decided to volunteer at a theater center for deaf children, who taught her Sign Language, deaf culture norms, and the perspective that deafness isn’t a disability but rather a different way of life. Inspired by those children, she founded Ears for Years, creating a club at her high school, now 80 members strong. She provided her first hearing aids to a school for the deaf in Mexico where she conducted hearing exams, made ear molds, and then fitted the children, allowing some to instantly hear their mother’s voice for the first time. Grace uses low-cost hearing aids with solar-powered chargers and batteries, making them a good choice for developing countries. She squeezes her non-profit work into her school days, once having to leave history class to take a phone call from the FDA in order to get a shipment of hearing aids out of customs. “You start truly living when you start living for something bigger than yourself,” says Grace. “I’ve realized my capacity to create change in the world.”

Harper and Maggie

Founders, Books and a Blanket

Sisters Harper and Maggie founded Books and a Blanket to share their love of reading with children in need. In the past three years, they have gifted a mini-library of fifteen books along with a blanket to over 1,200 children from low-income families. Each December, the girls present recipients with a collection of books carefully selected by age and gender, packaged in a plastic crate, which doubles as a bookshelf. They tuck a fleece blanket inside. So far, they have distributed nearly 20,000 new and gently-used books.

The girls fundraise for their project by selling friendship bracelets, requesting books and blankets in lieu of birthday presents, organizing fundraisers, and asking for donations. They have also reached out to community groups, book clubs, and Scout troops to donate books and make blankets. They recently began partnering with the local Habitat for Humanity, Voices for Children, and food bank so that children in families benefitting from those services will receive a Books and a Blanket crate. They have also started shipping their mini-libraries to children in other states and overseas. “I’ve learned that I can make a difference in the world,” says Harper. Maggie adds, “I think if you try hard enough, you will succeed and that is what we did!”

James

Leaf indicates winners who were honored for projects that benefit the environment.

Co-Founder, Project Green Teens

James co-founded Project Green Teens, a group of nearly 70 teens in Virginia Beach working to protect and restore the Chesapeake Bay in the Tidewater Area of Virginia. He helped created the group six years ago as a seventh-grader, with the support of several adult community members. Since then, James has served as Project Green Teens’ only president and has initiated marsh restoration projects, dolphin counts, beach clean-ups, public education initiatives, and dumpster dive trash audits. In the past year, his group has removed nearly 5,000 pounds of debris from waterways and marshes. It has also embarked on its most ambitious project yet – the Great Neck Oyster Reef Restoration, set to be the largest oyster reef in the world created solely by teens. When completed in the next year, the reef will filter three million gallons of water each day and provide vital habitat for over 200 species.

A lifelong lover of the Chesapeake Bay, James began his environmental activism by organizing a clean-up of the tidal creek next to his middle school. In three years, he and his classmates worked to remove almost 6,000 pounds of pollutants from that stream. He has also helped lead a local Ban the Bag initiative, lobbying city and state leaders to permit localities to tax plastic bags as a way to discourage their use. “Years ago, I realized what a unique treasure the Chesapeake Bay is and that it had to be somebody’s responsibility to restore it,” says James. “I decided to protect what I loved.”

Josh

Leaf indicates winners who were honored for projects that benefit the environment.

Founder, Elephant Highway

Josh founded Elephant Highway, a non-profit organization that raises awareness of the plight of African elephants killed in ever-increasing numbers for their ivory tusks. He speaks at schools and community events to explain that if the current rate of poaching continues, it could spell extinction for the species in 20 years. Josh has raised over $15,000 for anti-poaching and elephant conservation groups by selling custom designed t-shirts and African-made crafts, both through his website and at street events throughout New York City. In selling crafts made by artists living in areas of Africa where poaching is prevalent, Josh provides the villagers with a means of income outside of poaching and gains their support in protecting the elephants.

Josh was first inspired to help the elephants three years ago following a trip to Kenya, where he and his family marveled at and photographed elephants for two weeks, learning more about them from their guide, a Maasai elder. The group was horrified to hear one night that poachers had killed a female elephant not far from the lodge where they were staying. Returning home, Josh vowed to do what he could to protect the elephants. He launched Elephant Highway, naming his new non-profit in tribute to his Maasai guide who had used the phrase to describe the paths elephants make in the bush and that poachers use to track them. Josh has used his filmmaking passion to create a powerful documentary titled One Every Fifteen Minutes, highlighting the alarming rate at which elephants are being killed. “Together, we can turn the tide and save these exceptional animals,” says Josh. “We can show the world that we care and that we stand with the elephants.”

Lynnea

Leaf indicates winners who were honored for projects that benefit the environment.

Founder, Junior Refuge Rangers

Lynnea created the Junior Refuge Ranger program at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge to connect youth to nature and propel childhood curiosity into environmental stewardship. She recently began the national rollout of her program, with the vision of expanding it to all 560 National Wildlife Refuges across the country. Already, National Wildlife Refuges in California, Nevada, New Mexico, Virginia, Maryland, Idaho, and Colorado are working to implement her program.

Lynnea founded Junior Refuge Rangers after years of volunteering at a wildlife refuge in Alviso, California, a community with few resources and great need. Her program uses hands-on activities, habitat hikes, and interactive experiments to engage youth organizations, local school groups, Scout troops, and the public in learning about the important role of the National Wildlife Refuge System in conserving critical habitat and endangered species. To facilitate the program’s nationwide adoption, Lynnea has authored an instruction manual and created a comprehensive how-to kit for the use of other National Wildlife Refuges. She has also worked with Fish and Wildlife staff to present a national, hour-long webinar on her program. “I’m committed to keeping places wild for generations to come,” says Lynnea. “I hope to instill in the youth of today a sense of environmental optimism, appreciation, and motivation.”

Mary-Pat

Creator of Think Twice Campaign

Mary-Pat created Think Twice, a national billboard campaign featuring graphic ads that encourage teens to think twice before picking up a gun. She began her work in 2013 by researching other “shock ad” campaigns such as the hugely successful one discouraging cigarette use. She set her sights on having Think Twice billboards in her first city by 2014 and assembled a group of her peers to help make that happen. Mary-Pat and her team held focus groups with have-been shooters, would-be shooters, and family members of victims. They spoke with grieving mothers, asking to use the images of their sons and daughters – including ones taken at their funerals – in order to save other lives.

Mary-Pat began calling advertising agencies for help in creating and placing billboards and didn’t receive a single return phone call. That’s when she decided to fly to Chicago for a surprise visit to Burrell Communications, one of the world’s leading African-American advertising firms – and located in one of the world’s most violent cities. The COO was so impressed with Mary-Pat’s moxie and determination that she met with the teen herself and helped her create a budget and find funding opportunities. When Mary-Pat won a $50,000 Peace First Prize, she finally had her seed money and by July of 2014, had placed 35 Think Twice billboards across Atlanta. She has traveled to nearly 30 states and spoken to more than 200 youth groups and schools, asking young people to Think Twice. She also serves as youth co-chair for Cities United, a group of 38 mayors working on the issue of gun violence, and as National Youth Director of the Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, promoting civil rights. “I was tired of attending more funerals than graduations and realized that change starts with me,” says Mary-Pat. “With dedication and perseverance, you truly can bring awareness to a problem.”

Meagan

Leaf indicates winners who were honored for projects that benefit the environment.

Works to protect endangered wildlife species

Meagan works passionately to protect endangered species and has conducted extensive research to help the ocelot, an endangered species new to her home state of Arizona. In 2014, she helped establish critical habitat to postpone and possibly prevent a proposed copper mine in an area of the state where the ocelot had been sighted. She drove and hiked to isolated areas in 112 degree heat to capture photos of the ocelot with her remote-sensing cameras, helping to document the species’ presence and establish its critical habitat. She has also aided in the reintroduction of desert bighorn sheep in southern Arizona – the only high school student in the state invited to work on the project with the Arizona Game and Fish Department and several environmental organizations.

An animal lover since preschool, Meagan began volunteering in sixth grade at the local zoo and then as a citizen scientist helping to track animals in remote areas. In response to the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, she created her “Coins for the Coast” campaign, raising $5,000 for sea turtle and bird rescue groups. She is currently working in the Conservation Genetics Lab at the University of Arizona, analyzing the DNA of several species of big cats such as mountain lions. She hopes to determine the animals’ travel patterns as they cross from Mexico into the U.S. to find out if the border wall is restricting the cats’ movement, which could limit genetic diversity and compromise the animals’ health. “I am as shy and reclusive as many of the species I observe and protect, but I speak out nonetheless,” says Meagan. “I have a voice and they do not, so I use mine on their behalf.”

Molly

Leaf indicates winners who were honored for projects that benefit the environment.

Founder, Raleigh Aquatic Turtle Adoption

Molly founded Raleigh Aquatic Turtle Adoption to prevent the release of unwanted pet turtles into waterways where they compete with native species. She has also raised more than $15,000 through the sale of her handmade turtle soap, donating the proceeds to support native turtles, their habitat, and conservation education. Molly first learned of the pet turtle problem as a 7-year-old, when she adopted two red-eared slider turtles and was told they are the most discarded of all pets, often “set free” into local waterways, where they disrupt the ecosystem. She began facilitating adoptions and has fostered and re-homed hundreds of turtles all across the country, often donating them to classrooms as pets. She has also developed a three-thousand-gallon pond in her backyard where she fosters turtles temporarily.

In 2011, Molly tapped her grandparents’ knowledge of soap making to develop a line of soaps she sells to fundraise for native turtle protection programs. With each soap sale, she also asks customers to sign her conservation pledge and has gathered approximately 1,000 signatures so far. In recent years, Molly has partnered with the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences to create her STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Leadership Camp, which she offered for the second time this past summer. “I’ve learned that positive change takes time, and that it helps to ‘take the long view,’ says Molly. “But I know I’m on the right path and that I want to help change the environment for the better.”

Elizabeth (“Pearce”)

Founder, Pearce Q. Foundation

Pearce created the Pearce Q. Foundation to help children fighting cancer following her own treatment for a rare type of brain tumor at age 10. In the past seven years, she has raised nearly $200,000 to provide financial support to more than 140 families whose children are battling cancer. She has also donated over $24,000 to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia for pediatric cancer research.

Pearce began her work following six months as an inpatient at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she endured 31 rounds of high-dose radiation and 120 days of chemotherapy. Surrounded and supported by other hospitalized children fighting cancer, Pearce realized it was their strength, courage, and hope that sustained her. As a survivor, she vowed to make a difference in the lives of children with cancer. Pearce has kept her promise, meeting often with recently-diagnosed children and speaking at local and national events to share her story. She has forged partnerships with Stand Up 2 Cancer and the Make-A-Wish-Foundation, and her largest annual fundraiser, the 4 Miles of Hope Walk/Run, draws hundreds of participants each April. “Having cancer taught me lessons of courage, hard work, bravery, and service,” says Pearce. “Those lessons formed the basis of who I am today and who I want to become.”

Robbie

Founder, All Kids Should Play

Robbie created All Kids Should Play, a nonprofit that collects, recycles, and redistributes new and used sports equipment to recreation centers and youth groups serving low-income children in the Baltimore Metropolitan area. Since inception, he has repurposed nearly 15,000 pieces of sports equipment valued at approximately $200,000, outfitting dozens of recreation league teams and giving many kids their first chances to participate in organized sports. He has also funneled donations of sports equipment to various schools and community centers for after-school and summertime sports programs.

Robbie launched his project after learning of 150 pairs of used roller skates at a local school that were gathering dust and destined for the dumpster. Certain that kids somewhere would enjoy the skates, he started making phone calls and within a week, had delivered them to cheering children at a Baltimore recreation center. Galvanized by that powerful first experience, Robbie resolved to continue “playing it forward.” He created a website, began asking schools and recreation centers for used equipment, and convinced Dick’s Sporting Goods and Under Armour to both donate new gear and help him spread awareness of his mission. Robbie passes on much of what he acquires to the Baltimore City Department of Recreation and Parks, which now boasts a storage shed full of equipment that teams can tap. When a boys’ baseball team recently needed ten gloves, it was simply a matter of unlocking the shed. Groups from all over Maryland and several states beyond now host equipment collections in their own communities and send Robbie truckload after truckload of usable gear. “I’ve realized that the greatest difference I can make is through rallying others in the community to make differences of their own,” says Robbie. “That’s what service is all about.”

Ryan

Leaf indicates winners who were honored for projects that benefit the environment.

Fundraises to protect our oceans

Ryan is passionate about protecting our oceans and marine animals. He makes and sells sea-themed magnets, ornaments, and key chains and donates his profits – approximately $3,500 so far – to Ocean Conservancy. At age 4, Ryan began picking up trash along the beach near his Florida home. At age 5, he told his parents he wanted to help the ocean’s creatures. With support from them, he began painting small pieces of driftwood, stamping them with his Dad’s illustrations of sea animals and selling them to raise money for ocean conservation. He recently began making sea-themed key chains, as well, creating them out of recycled glass and natural stones.

As a first-grader, Ryan wrote a book to explain how children can “be the solution to ocean pollution.” He donates all profits from the sale of his book to Ocean Conservancy. For the past several years, he has also created a short film for the annual Youth Ocean Conservation Film Competition, submitting winning entries that have been shared by Ocean Conservancy and Greenpeace USA, among others. Ryan has organized extensive beach clean-ups and used a $1,000 grant from Youth Service America to rally friends and family in planting over 2,000 sea oats at a local beach. “When I was younger, I realized that trash affected the ocean animals and it made me feel sad,” says Ryan. “I really wanted to make it better so I started my project!”

Sonali

Leaf indicates winners who were honored for projects that benefit the environment.

Founder, Recycling4Smiles

Sonali created Recycling4Smiles and has raised over $40,000 by redeeming recyclable cans and bottles to fund 44 cleft lip surgeries. She has also funded dental care for over 1,000 rural children in Sri Lanka and has provided school supplies, clothing, and school lunches for hundreds of children in need around the world.

Sonali launched her project as an 11-year-old, when she received $100 from her parents at Christmastime with the stipulation she use it to make a difference in someone’s life. She decided to raise an additional $150 in order to fund one cleft lip surgery through Smile Train, and to do so by collecting and redeeming recyclables, which she was learning about in her sixth grade science class. When she easily met her first goal, she set her next at $2,000. Three years later, she has collected and redeemed well over a half-million recyclables. Outfitted in long rubber gloves and with help from her brother and friends, Sonali collects, sorts, and redeems 2,000 cans and bottles in order to raise each $100. She regularly collects recyclables from a number of businesses and receives bag upon bag of bottles and cans on her doorstep. “I’ve learned that you can make a difference in the lives of others and help our earth without needing to have a lot of money or power,” says Sonali. “Nothing is impossible if you are dedicated to a cause.”