You're never too young to make a difference. Even the young are able to create non-profit foundations, raise vast amounts of money for charities or make a difference in their communities in other ways. Below are some inspiring examples of youngsters who didn't let age stand in the way of doing something amazing.
Craig Kielburger
In 1995, when Kielburger was 12 years old, he co-created an organization called Free the Children. The goal of the organization is to "empower youth to achieve their fullest potential as ages of change," according to the website. Today, the organization helps more than 6,000 youth groups and other individuals across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. They also have an annual event called "We Day" to bring youth together in person and online.
In later years, Kielburger also created an organization called Me to We that is supposed to "provide people with better choices for a better world, including socially conscious and environmentally friendly clothes and accessories, as well as life-changing international volunteer trips, leadership training programs and materials, a speakers’ bureau, and books that address issues of positive social change," the website added.
Alex Scott
When Alex Scott was less than a year old, in 1997, she was diagnosed with a kind of childhood cancer called neuroblastoma. According to her charity's website, Alex's Lemonade Stand, Alex quickly overcame doctor's predictions that she would not walk. By age four, Alex told her mother that she was determined to set up a lemonade stand to raise money for other children with cancer. Her cause inspired many others to do the same.
She died at age eight having raised more than $1 million through these efforts, and the charity continues strongly today. "Alex's family - including brothers Patrick, Eddie, and Joey - and supporters around the world are committed to continuing her inspiring legacy through Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation," the website says.
Austin Gutwein
Austin Gutwein was nine years old when in 2004, he saw a video about children whose parents had died of AIDS. Since Gutwein loved basketball, he thought it would be a great idea to shoot free throws to raise money to help them out. In his first year, he shot 2,057 free throws (representing the number of children who would die during a typical day) and raised nearly $3,000.
As the Hoops of Hope organization rounds "The Big 10", so far all the people working with it have raised more than $3 million, the website said. "The children left behind by AIDS now have access to food, clothing, shelter, a new school, four dormitories, two computer labs, teacher houses, and two medical testing facilities which Austin was told would save an entire generation," it read.
Eli Wachs
At age 16, Wachs is working hard at helping students with disadvantages in his hometown of Philadelphia. After reading a book by HeroX co-founder Peter Diamandis called Abundance: The Future Is Better Than You Think, he wrote Diamandis personally to find out how to make better connections among high school students.
"One of the biggest rifts in education is you can do everything right when the kids are at school, but at home they don’t have a stable environment. So we'll start trying out some things and will take the next step," Wachs told HeroX recently. This resulted in the High School HeroesX Challenge, which is asking $5,000 of funders to help the students come up with neat ideas to improve education in the area. You can help out Wachs through our website.
Top image: Free the Children co-founder Craig Kielburger at a convocation at York University in Canada. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
