MEET THE WINNERS

Abbie Weeks

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

Founder, Ecological Action

Abbie Weeks created Ecological Action, a non-profit that provides solar energy to underprivileged communities and advocates for sustainability through education and political action. Her team has installed solar panels for a school at Nyaka AIDS Orphans Project in rural Uganda and for a U.S. military veteran’s home on the Pine Ridge Native American Reservation in South Dakota. Abbie’s group, which she launched three years ago, has also replaced her high school’s cafeteria styrofoam trays with reusable ones and is working with town officials to place a fee on single use plastic bags. When Abbie was introduced to the founder of Nyaka and learned of the school’s need for reliable electricity, she saw it as the perfect opportunity to pair her passions for environmental sustainability and human rights advocacy.

She set to work raising the $10,000 needed for the project, organizing and performing in a classical benefit concert named Notes for Nyaka. She then purchased the photovoltaic system and worked with a local trade school to learn how to install it. With 800 pounds of supplies packed in their luggage, Abbie, a friend, and three teachers lugged the gear through airports from Denver to Kampala, and then drove it the final ten hours to Nyaka. After two weeks and a great deal of creative problem-solving, the school had electricity. Abbie has since forged a partnership with Grid Alternatives, a non-profit solar company that is providing training and support for her continuing solar projects. “Through environmental and humanitarian action, each of us can improve our piece of the world,” says Abbie.

Alex Weber and Jack Johnston

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

Founders, The Plastic Pick-Up

Friends Alex Weber and Jack Johnston founded The Plastic Pick-Up, a non-profit committed to keeping plastics pollution – especially golf balls – out of the ocean. With their Fore the Ocean program, they have removed over 21,000 golf balls in the past year – equivalent in weight to 147,000 plastic grocery bags – from the seafloor below Pebble Beach Golf Course. They are partnering with The Pebble Beach Company, The Monterey Bay Aquarium, and The Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary to implement monthly underwater golf ball clean-ups and weekly beach clean-ups. They are also working with a NOAA researcher to draft a scientific manuscript, with the hope of publishing their data. Their long-term goal is to create policy that will regulate and enforce the environmental impact of golf courses along our coasts and watersheds.

The two began their work after discovering thousands of golf balls while freediving in the Carmel Bay near their home. Concerned about the balls’ impact on marine life, they learned that after a ball’s outer plastic layer breaks down, its rubber band core unravels into what looks like dried seagrass, which may be mistakenly eaten by birds and sea life. Further, golf balls with a solid core contain zinc acrylate, which is known to be highly toxic to aquatic organisms. Alarmed by what they have learned, Alex and Jack are committed to educating others about the problem of ocean plastic pollution. “When we talk to local kids, we tell them to speak up and be heard because adults care about what we think,” says Alex.

Alexa Grabelle

Founder, Bags of Books

Alexa Grabelle created Bags of Books, a service organization which distributes gently-used and new children’s books in free “pop-up” stores where children in underprivileged communities are able to fill bags with books of their choice to take home to keep. Since starting her work at age 10, she has donated over 120,000 children’s books (keeping them out of landfills) and has inspired hundreds of volunteers to join her cause. She has distributed books to schools, after school programs, homeless shelters, and children’s hospitals as a way to promote literacy and to help students build their own home libraries. Alexa is successfully scaling her project across the nation, creating marketing materials and how-to manuals with the help of students at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

Alexa was inspired to launch her project after learning about the “summer slide” – the summertime regression in reading skills that disproportionately affects lower-income students, who are less likely to own books. She has spoken to thousands at gatherings and conferences about the need for home libraries – especially for children in financially-strapped families. She also speaks to young people about the power they have and challenges them to go out into their communities to make a difference. “Regardless of one’s age, an individual has the potential to make a difference in the world,” says Alexa. “It just takes an unbreakable passion and resilience.”

Ana Humphrey

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

Founder, Watershed Warriors

Ana Humphrey created Watershed Warriors, a non-profit that pairs high school students with local fifth graders to promote environmental awareness through hands-on STEM activities (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). In the past three years, her group has worked with four elementary schools and engaged nearly 300 children, most of whom are low-income and minority students. The Watershed Warriors visit each elementary school several times during the school year to deliver state standards-based science lessons and to guide students in planting a wetland garden that they care for during the spring months. In June, the final lesson takes students on a field trip to a local wetland where they transplant their gardens, assess water quality, and pick up trash.

Ana’s inspiration for her program grew from a hands-on 7th grade life science class that culminated in the restoration of a local wetland. Determined to provide the same sort of opportunity for more students, she formed the Watershed Warriors Club as she entered high school (the largest public high school in Virginia). She and her club members reached out to local elementary schools, wrote lesson plans, and formed partnerships with the National Park Service and the local Four Mile Run Conservatory. They are currently working to expand their program to other high schools. Ana says, “I now know, given the tools and experience, that students of all ages can become drivers of change in their community.”

Aryaman Khandelwal

Founder, Get2Greater

Aryaman Khandelwal founded Get2Greater to improve access to medical care in developing countries. Through a system of electronic tablets, an easy-to-use app, and local health workers, Get2Greater allows for efficient treatment of conditions like hypertension and malnutrition, even by health workers who aren’t fully literate. Aryaman was inspired to launch his project following an annual summer trip to India to visit relatives in the city where he was born. When he and his family traveled into a nearby rural area known for its extreme poverty and illiteracy, Aryaman saw for the first time people living in unimaginable conditions, facing malnutrition, hunger, and superstition.

Determined to help, he approached the MAHAN Trust, which employs local health workers to help a handful of doctors provide basic health care to the area’s 200,000 tribal villagers. Aryaman’s app, field-tested in India and written in the Hindi language, allows health workers to enter simple inputs like a patient’s height, weight, and blood pressure – replacing lengthy handwritten forms – and provides far more timely diagnoses, which formerly, could take weeks to receive. With startup funding from Penn State Lehigh Valley Launchbox, the app is now being used and embraced by the MAHAN Trust. Aryaman plans to expand it to other locations in the future. “The problems facing our world are too great to be left to those in charge,” says Aryaman. “The responsibility for change falls on us and we must be prepared to accept it. We can all make a difference.”

Elizabeth Klosky

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

Founder, NY is a Great Place to Bee!

Elizabeth Klosky founded NY is a Great Place to Bee! to educate the public about bees and their plight, pass bee-supportive legislation, and help ensure healthy bee populations. With her team of a dozen Worker Bee volunteers leading hands-on activities, she has taught over 14,000 people about bees’ importance and easy ways to protect them. Through grassroots advocacy – including a Change.org petition, phone calls, and meetings – she has changed legislators’ minds about bees, resulting in bee-friendly legislation and state funding to support bees. Elizabeth has also installed a dozen native bee houses at nature preserves and has taught hundreds of people to build their own, as well as how to plant native, bee-friendly flora.

Elizabeth’s bee passion grew out of her homeschool years spent largely outside. When she began keeping bees on her family’s microfarm several years ago, she learned how threatened they are and decided to help them as a way to earn her Girl Scout Gold Award. Grants from The Pollination Project and Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots have helped fund her work. Her most memorable outreach event took place at Bethel Woods, site of the 1969 Woodstock Festival, where the drummer for the Barenaked Ladies borrowed her bee costume to wear as he performed on stage. “Everyone has the gifts inside that can contribute to heroic acts,” says Elizabeth. “One small act can snowball into something huge.”

Ella Morrison

Founder, Ella’s Lemonade Shop

Ella Morrison created Ella’s Lemonade Shop as a six-year-old and since then, has raised $50,000 to support pediatric cancer research. Her first lemonade stand yielded $88.00, which she used to buy lunch and a new doll for her best friend Hailey, who had recently been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. After Hailey and another of Ella’s friends, Jesse, both passed away from cancer within months of each other, Ella learned in talking with the children’s parents that only 4% of all National Cancer Institute’s funds are allocated to pediatric cancers. She decided to honor her friends by continuing to sell lemonade and donate all proceeds to pediatric cancer research.

Today, Ella and her lemonade stand are frequently requested at community events. While she donates the bulk of her earnings for research, she uses some of the funds to provide parents of cancer patients with gift cards to restaurants located near their children’s hospitals. She has also collected and donated 700 pairs of new pajamas and 300 Lego sets to hospitals that treat children. In the months when she’s not selling lemonade, Ella creates and sells lemonade kits – bags filled with a cup, straw, lemon, and lemonade recipe. “There are days in the summer when it is brutally hot or pouring rain, but I know that doesn’t compare to what a lot of kids and their families go through,” says Ella. “I will continue to work for this cause as long as I’m able.”

Jahkil Jackson

Founder, Project I Am

Jahkil Jackson founded Project I Am to help the homeless in Chicago and in one year, has compiled and distributed more than 3,000 Blessings Bags filled with toiletry items, a towel, socks, and light snacks. He has organized donation drop-off sites and bag-stuffing parties where community members, family, and his fourth-grade friends help him create the bags. He has also established partnerships with homeless shelters and other relief agencies, where he distributes each of his bags and spends time in conversation with the recipients. His goal is to distribute 5,000 Blessings Bags by the end of 2017.

As a five-year-old, Jahkil began begging his parents for money to give each homeless person he passed on the street. After joining his aunt in distributing food to the hungry, he decided at age 8 to create his own way to help. He has heard from kids in other cities interested in joining his cause and is excited to expand his program. A frequent public speaker, Jahkil challenges children to find their passion and use it to make a difference. “When I speak to other kids at schools and community centers, I always say, ‘Don’t wait until you are an adult to be great,’ says Jahkil. ‘You can be great NOW!’”

Jahkil’s story is featured on our sister site, Inspiring Young Heroes.

Joris Hutchison

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

Fundraiser for Cheetah Conservation

The sanctuary protects cheetahs in the wild by convincing farmers not to shoot the animals and instead, to allow the ones accused of killing livestock to be outfitted with GPS collars. N/a’an ku sê then releases the animals back onto the farms and sends tracking data each morning to the farmers on whose property the cheetahs are roaming – data that shows in more than 90% of cases that cheetahs aren’t actually killing livestock. In this way, N/a’an ku sê has protected 86 cheetahs and has led farmers to create safe zones for the animals. Joris has purchased several GPS collars, which cost more than $3,000 each. “I’ve learned that everyone can make a difference, even if you’re just a kid!” says Joris. “You just have to start somewhere.”

Josh Kaplan

Founder, GOALS

Josh Kaplan founded GOALS (Giving Opportunities to All who Love Soccer), a non-profit unified soccer program that pairs intellectually disabled kids with neurotypical peer buddies. The pairs play side-by-side in non-competitive scrimmages held twice each month. In just two years, Josh’s program has impacted over 400 children and has become an official partner of Special Olympics Arizona.

Josh started GOALS after watching his soccer teammate’s brother, who has Down Syndrome, kick a ball alone along the sidelines during games, without a team of his own. That sense of isolation was familiar to Josh, who had struggled with acceptance because of a childhood stutter. He decided to create a way for “sidelined kids” to experience the camaraderie and confidence that he’d found on the soccer field. Through GOALS, he has been able to break down the barriers that separate kids with special needs and has seen true friendships develop. Josh is also creating a garden that will provide food to refugee families in his community and has designed the BrailleBoard, a recently-patented smartphone keyboard for the blind. “There is so much that is wrong with the world, but so much is right, and more can be made right over time,” says Josh. “It’s my job to step outside my bubble, and not just to see the world but to participate meaningfully in it.”

Joshua Williams

Founder, Joshua’s Heart

Joshua Williams founded Joshua’s Heart, a non-profit that has distributed more than 1.5 million pounds of food to over 350,000 individuals in South Florida, Jamaica, Africa, India, and the Philippines. He has raised over $550,000 and forged partnerships with businesses including Walmart, Unilever, and TJ Maxx. In addition, he has rallied more than 12,500 youth and 3,500 adult volunteers to join his cause, and has created a Junior Advisory Board to help guide his organization and execute his programs.

Joshua began his work to “stomp out hunger” at age 5, when he gave a homeless man the $20 his grandmother had given him as a gift. More than a decade later, he has built an organization that not only provides hunger relief but also addresses literacy and nutrition. His Backpack Program makes sure that children head home from school for the weekend with a backpack full of food. He is also teaming with Whole Foods to offer cooking demonstrations on how to prepare easy, nutritious meals. “I tell young people that they can do something about the world’s problems NOW,” says Joshua. “You don’t have to wait until you are older to make a difference.”

Nitish Sood

Founder, Working Together for Change (WTFC)

Nitish Sood and his brother Aditya co-founded Working Together for Change (WTFC), a non-profit that has mobilized more than 600 volunteers to help 3,000 homeless people. WTFC has organized sixteen free medical fairs, recruiting doctors and nurses to provide screenings for vision, cholesterol, and diabetes. The group also stages 24-hour sleep-outs to give volunteers a glimpse of what it’s like to sleep on the street, helping them to act and speak with greater compassion as they distribute backpacks of supplies to the homeless.

Nitish began his work four years ago after a homeless man gave him a tattered copy of Dr. Seuss’s The Lorax, in which the Lorax says, “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.” Nitish focuses his efforts on raising awareness, providing medical relief, and finding innovative ways to empower the homeless – including teaching teenagers coding and sponsoring homeless students’ college tuition. His group has also traveled to Mexico to build homes for homeless families there. “One in every 45 kids in America will be homeless today,” explains Nitish. “No one person can end this epidemic. But working together, 44 kids can help the 45th.”

Ray Wipfli

Founder, Ray United FC (RUFC)

Ray Wipfli founded Ray United FC (RUFC), a non-profit that has raised more than $130,000 to fund soccer training and health education camps in Uganda, reaching over 3,000 youth. Ray has also fundraised to build a four-room primary school in Uganda, has awarded small grants for student-led projects there, and has arranged sponsors for nine Ugandan youth to complete secondary school and university.

Ray began his work at age 10, when he accompanied his mother on a work trip to Uganda. An avid soccer player, he took with him 250 pounds of new soccer gear as a gift. Moved by the entire community’s celebration of the gift and by their mutual love of soccer, Ray returned home and wrote a speech – eventually presented as a TEDx talk — about the power of globally-understood sports to bring the world together. When appeals to his community to fund a soccer and health education camp for Ugandan youth fell flat, Ray fundraised by organizing 5k walks and soccer tournaments, and by selling t-shirts, handmade baskets, and “everything in his garage.” To date, he has organized three camps (with more in the works) where Ugandan kids receive soccer training from professional Ugandan players, along with healthy meals, hygiene kits, and soccer uniforms. The youth also participate in nutrition and disease control classes taught by students from the University of Southern California and Uganda’s Makerere University. “I’ve learned that it takes hard work and sustained commitment to make change happen in the world,” says Ray.

Riley Callen founded Be Brave For Life and in two years, has raised over $265,000 for benign brain tumor research. She launched her non-profit as a 12-year-old, while still in the hospital recovering from her third surgery to remove two benign brain tumors. Determined to raise money for research to help the doctors and hospitals that were helping her, she landed on the idea of a Hike-A-Thon during fall foliage season on the trails near her Vermont home. She recruited her friends and siblings to help, and began signing up local students and teams for the hike. With a fundraising goal of $10,000, she instead raised more than $100,000 that first year and over $150,000 the second. Her third annual Hike-A-Thon will take place in October 2017.

Riley’s medical ordeal began at age 8, when an MRI revealed a benign brain tumor deep in her brain stem. After a failed first surgery, she traveled to Arizona where a second surgery was successful, though it damaged her left facial nerve and hearing. Six surgeries since have removed a second benign brain tumor and have helped correct her partial facial paralysis and hearing. Riley has recently launched a new initiative on her website, inviting people to share online what bravery means to them and to nominate others as “Brave for Life.” “I’ve learned that you can achieve anything that you aspire to achieve,” says Riley. “You just need to find the right people to help you.”

Rupert and Franny Yakelashek-Ladell

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

Working for Environmental Legislation in Canada

Siblings Rupert and Franny Yakelashek-Ladell have worked tirelessly for three years to persuade the Canadian government to join over 110 countries around the world that have legislated environmental rights into their constitutions. So far, they have convinced 23 municipalities to make Environmental Rights Declarations, formally recognizing citizens’ rights to clean air, healthy food, safe drinking water, and access to nature. They have also co-hosted events such as Victoria’s Earth Walk and have spoken to hundreds of their peers about the importance of becoming civically and environmentally engaged.

Rupert and Franny began their campaign after learning about environmental rights at events hosted by Dr. David Suzuki, renowned environmental activist. A few weeks later, the siblings led a rally outside Victoria City Hall and convinced the Mayor and Council to make a municipal Environmental Rights Declaration. Since then, the two have made the same appeal to all 43 municipalities on Vancouver Island and are leading a campaign to pass a Provincial Environmental Bill of Rights. At the Federal level, they’ve met with local Members of Parliament and written to the Prime Minister. “I’ve always cared about the environment and I’m more passionate than ever to do my part to make a positive impact,” says Franny. “You don’t have to be of a certain age to start creating the world you want and need,” adds Rupert.

Sharleen Loh

Founder, STEMup4Youth

Sharleen Loh founded STEMup4Youth and has provided interactive STEM activities (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) to more than 5,000 economically disadvantaged children in Southern California. She and her team of 140 student volunteers provide weekly programs at 40 locations across Los Angeles and Orange County, including Boys and Girls Clubs, Title I elementary schools, and libraries. They engage children in over 100 hands-on activities that Sharleen has spent her days (and nights) researching and developing.

Passionate about science and committed to introducing more low-income kids to it, several years ago Sharleen created the first-ever STEM night at her former elementary school, drawing more than 700 attendees. Fueled by that success, she began providing biweekly STEM programming at a local Boys and Girls Club. As her class sizes swelled, she recruited a team of volunteers (her STEMbers) from fifteen area high schools and created her non-profit, designing a logo, t-shirts, posters, website, and social media accounts. She has since partnered with forty other organizations and has raised more than $60,000 to fund her project for the next several years. “There’s nothing more rewarding than realizing you’ve made a difference,” says Sharleen. “I’ve learned that doing something I’m passionate about can have such an impact on others.”

Sophie Bernstein

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

Founder, Grow Healthy

As the founder of Grow Healthy, Sophie Bernstein has created 22 vegetable gardens at low-income child care centers across St. Louis, and has harvested and donated nearly 17,000 pounds of organic produce to local food banks and families in need. She and her team of 785 teen volunteers, recruited from high schools across the city, have presented 225 workshops at her garden sites, teaching children about plant science, sustainable gardening, and the benefits of eating fresh produce. Additionally, 22 of her teen volunteers have started similar gardens in their own neighborhoods, finding, as Sophie has, how easily gardens can bring people together and foster a sense of community.

Sophie first planted a backyard vegetable plot as a gardening novice five years ago. In donating all of her harvest to local food banks, she learned of their lack of fresh vegetables, the food deserts across St. Louis, and the huge racial disparities in accessing fresh produce. Two years later, when race riots broke out in nearby Ferguson, she decided to do something to address social and food justice; Grow Healthy was born. To fund her work, she has received grants from groups such as Youth Service America and continually asks garden centers for donations. She is currently working to expand her project, with plans to add eight additional gardens each year. “I’ve learned that one person can make an impact and that age is not a deterrent to creating change,” says Sophie.

Stella Bowles is spearheading the clean-up of Nova Scotia’s LaHave River, which contains alarmingly-high levels of fecal contamination. Because of her work, the Canadian government has allocated $15.7 million dollars to address the problem. As an 11-year-old tasked with a science fair project, Stella decided to investigate if it was safe to swim in the river, which flows directly in front of her home. Working with her mentor and neighbor, Dr. David Maxwell, to conduct water quality testing, she found levels of fecal contamination so high in places as to make it unsafe to even be splashed by the river water, let alone swim in it. She wasn’t completely surprised by her findings, given the number of “straight pipes” (illegal since 1974) that still drain raw sewage directly from residents’ toilets into the river.

Stella began posting her alarming water quality results on Facebook and began sharing the “gross numbers” at community forums and meetings. The Canadian government took note and agreed to fund a river clean-up plan. Two years since her initial research, Stella continues to test the river and recently won a silver medal at the National Science Fair with a second project titled “Oh, Poop! It’s worse than I thought!” She is also pushing the Provincial government to pass a resolution that will phase-out the use of illegal straight pipes, and has posted online her letters to politicians, accompanied by their often dismissive replies. “I’ve learned that kids do have the power to make change,” says Stella. “And I’m just getting started.”