2012

When Connor was in first grade he had a very creative idea.  Noticing his marbles, stored in an old cigar box, he wondered what would happen if he dipped them in paint and then shook them inside the box.  With his mother’s help, he tested his idea.  His mother commented that the painting created was beautiful and that someday, when he’s a famous artist, it would be worth a lot of money. 

Connor suggested trying to sell the painting immediately.  His mother suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, and he wanted to raise money for the National MS Society.  With the help of his father, Connor put together a website in March 2011 and put his first painting up for sale.  Within an hour the painting was sold to a buyer in Virginia, and Marbles4MS was born. 

Since that first sale, Connor and his brother, Jackson, have gone on to sell thousands of paintings across the U.S. and in eight countries, raising over $50,000 for the National MS Society.  Marbles4MS has increased its product line to include t-shirts, biking jerseys, greeting and holiday cards, bookmarks, and Christmas ornaments.  All of the money raised through sales goes directly to the National MS Society, and helps to fund programs and research for people affected by MS. 

Once Connor and Jackson saw how much they were able to support people with MS, they wanted to engage other children in community service and started Marbles4Mankind, a school-based fundraiser that supports five charities.  In 2012, Marbles4Mankind provided support to the National MS Society, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Verona Street Animal Society, the Sierra Club, and Golisano Children’s Hospital.

In addition to being the first place recipient of the 2012 Gee Whiz Kids® Award, Connor has also been awarded a proclamation from the County Legislature and in November 2011 he and his brother were honored by the National MS Society at their convention in Dallas.

N’Jhari, currently ten years old and in the fifth grade, created his first service project after taking an unexpected trip to the hospital for a surgical procedure.  On his way into the operating room he became frightened when his mother couldn’t join him.  To help calm his fears, one of the nurses gave him a stuffed animal.  When he departed the hospital, he passed many children who could not visit the hospital play room, or play with children in neighboring rooms, because they were too sick.  Remembering how scared he was when he went into the operating room, and how much better holding the stuffed animal made him feel, N’Jhari decided to provide hospitalized children with stuffed animal “buddies” to keep them company.

Calling his project Pajama Buddy Voyage, he asked people to donate new stuffed animals.  Each stuffed animal is named by the donor and given to a hospitalized child.  Pajama Buddy Voyage has provided stuffed animals to Shriners Hospital for Children, St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, and Arnold Palmer Children’s Hospital in Orlando, as well as to ill children as far away as Macau, China.  In addition to collecting stuffed animals, N’Jhari’s fundraised over $2,000, which he’s given to Shriners Hospital for Children in Tampa. 

As N’Jhari continued to visit children in the hospitals, he realized that many hospitalized children do not always have books and games available, and so he started his second service project, Pajama Drab Bags. Pajama Drab Bags donates backpacks filled with books, games, puzzles, and stuffed animals to hospitalized children.  To date N’Jhari has delivered more than 500 Pajama Drab Bags to children across the Tampa area.

Several years ago Bailey, better known to friends and family by her nickname, Maddie, witnessed a homeless man pushing his cart down the street.  Worried about how he would stay warm during the winter, she recruited friends and family to help post flyers around her small town asking for people to donate money, blankets and sleeping bags.  Within a few days donations started coming in and she eventually collected over 200 blankets for the homeless in Warren County. 

In 2011, Bailey furthered her support of the homeless by organizing the Backpacks of Love Campaign, which donated sleeping bags and backpacks filled with personal hygiene items to the homeless in Nashville, TN.  During the campaign she coordinated thirty volunteers, fundraised and helped pack backpacks.  Through her hard work and commitment she raised over $6,000 and collected thousands of donated items. 

She attaches a short note to every backpack, sleeping bag and blanket encouraging the recipients to continue the gift of giving by “paying it forward” if they have the opportunity. 

In addition to her support of the homeless, she also assisted flood victims in Nashville in the spring of 2010, as well as participates annually in the Monroe County Angel Tree program.  This year she also fundraised for Monroe County’s Relay for Life.

2011

When Joshua was five years old he began to recognize the need for food aid within his own community and across the world, and decided to start an organization focused on feeding the hungry. With the help of family he founded Joshua’s Heart Foundation, which strives to “Stomp out Hunger” in underprivileged communities and increase awareness of global hunger issues. The organization provides food aid to people in South Florida by hosting regular food distributions, and is looking to expand its reach to other parts of Florida and the nation.

In addition to providing food aid, the Foundation also renovated a local teen center. Joshua raised the money needed for the renovation by asking people to make a donation to his Foundation in lieu of gifts for his eighth birthday. He raised $5,000, which was used to donate computers, desks, and furniture.

Most recently, Joshua launched a program to provide backpacks of food to school children to help ensure children have food available to them over weekends and school vacations. Each backpack is filled with child-friendly, nonperishable food items, and discreetly distributed before a child leaves school.

Five years after his initial idea to help people, Joshua is in 6th grade and his organization provides much needed food relief for over 100 homeless people, and about 450 families on a monthly basis. In all, Joshua’s Heart Foundation has distributed over 300,000 pounds of food, serving over 7,000 people in need. For more information about Joshua’s Heart Foundation, visit joshuasheart.org.

Sarah is an active participant in the Highland County 4-H program. In 2010, the program was struggling to raise the necessary $50,000 in annual local funding to support a 2011 season. Recognizing the importance of 4-H, Sarah, at the tender age of ten, raised nearly $32,000 to help save the program in Highland County.

Sarah raised much of the funds by donating proceeds from the sale of her market lamb. She spent nearly 150 hours speaking with the news media, clubs, and schools to generate interest in 4-H, and rallied donors to bid over $12,900 for her lamb – which generally would sell for about $450. All proceeds from the sale went toward the County’s 4-H program. Approximately 130 other exhibitors, impressed by her efforts, enthusiasm and vision, also donated all or part of their proceeds, which brought in another $9,000. Finally, her efforts convinced and inspired three local businesses to contribute $10,000 to the 4-H program, bringing her yearend total to just under $32,000 and providing much needed support to continue the program.

After funding was secured for 2011, Sarah turned her attention to raising money for the 2012 season. To kick off her fundraising she implemented the “Yes We Can” campaign with the help of the Marshall Stockmen 4-H Club. An aluminum can collection campaign, “Yes We Can” promotes recycling and environmentalism and all proceeds benefit the 2012 4-H season. When speaking about 4-H, Sarah said, “4H isn’t about pigs and sheep and cows, it’s about kids learning to become self-sufficient, to grow into tomorrow’s leaders. Letting this program fail would be letting yourself down.” So far the campaign has collected over half a million cans, amassing over $16,000.

Gabrielle is passionate about serving people in her community, and helping people in need around the world. She is an active volunteer at a nursing home in West Chester during Easter and Christmas, as well as a regular visitor at Cedar Village retirement community in Mason, OH throughout the rest of the year.

Since early 2011 she has served as a Junior Volunteer at Cedar Village, contributing more than 70 hours helping residents with physical therapy, guiding them to and from the lunch room, and assisting nurses. She has played the violin since she was seven, and will often play a few pieces while the residents eat lunch, or during special occasions. She continues to serve at Cedar Village throughout the school year for three hours each week.

In addition to her work at Cedar Village, Gabrielle often raises money through hosting concerts outside her local grocery stores. With the help of her older brother, she raised over $1,800 for the American Red Cross to support international disaster relief.

On top of her other volunteer activities, Gabrielle also teamed up with her brother to fundraise for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, and to collect toys for the Shriner’s Hospital for Children. By selling cold water to spectators on hot, summer days at the soccer field, she and her brother raised nearly $600 for the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Then, they collected over 200 stuffed animals and toys for children in the burn unit of the Shriner’s Hospital for Children.

An excellent student with a passion for serving others, The Heart of America Foundation® is proud to recognize Gabrielle’s commitment to service!

2010

When Alexander was four years old, he learned about a program in Haiti that serves nutritious meals in schools to ensure that children receive at least one healthy meal a day.  When he learned that not all children could afford to attend school, he told his mom that he wanted to raise money for the program by selling lemonade.  His family pulled together, helped him set up a lemonade stand, and held a garage sale.  By the end of the day, the family had raised $200 for Haitian relief. 

After that success, Alexander began to hold lemonade stands at every neighborhood function. He gradually branched out into other forms of service, from collecting food and saving his allowance to donate to a local food pantry, to fundraising over $300 to purchase clothing, personal items and medicine for the City Union Mission, a local shelter.  

In 2009, Alexander decided to open Clean Hands Bakery.  After researching different non-profits, he decided that all proceeds from bake goods sales would support Heifer International, an organization that strives to end world hunger and poverty through providing a sustainable source of food and income.  He registered Clean Hands Bakery with the state of Missouri, started a blog and website for people who wanted to order items online, and created a Heifer Team to promote sales.  So far, through the sale of loaves and cookies, he has raised over $3,500.  You can find his webpage at cleanhandsbakery.com. 

2nd Place - Anthony from Columbia, SC

In 2007, Anthony’s mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005, attended a breast cancer luncheon.  At the luncheon she purchased a pink bracelet with the words “Find the Cure”, and gave it to Anthony.  Inspired, Anthony told her that he wanted to raise money to help stop breast cancer. 

By selling his school pictures to family and friends, passing out a personal letter asking for assistance in “Finding-A-Cure”, and selling family toys and lemonade in his front yard, Anthony raised $3,124 for the Palmetto Health Foundation for the First Lady’s Walk for Life.  When asked why it was important to him to raise money, he said, “I wanted to raise money for breast cancer awareness so no one else, including my baby sister, will get sick from this disease.”

Over the past four years Anthony has donated over $12,000 to the Palmetto Health Foundation for the First Lady’s Walk for Life.  He continues to sell lemonade and toys, and has started his own organization: Kids Inspired by Cancer Kampaign (KICK).  KICK strives to raise awareness of the disease and is now the sponsor of Anthony’s Lemonade Stand and Dodgeball Tournament. 

In addition to his recognition with the Gee Whiz Kids Award, Anthony’s service has been recognized by Congressman Jim Clyburn and the Governor of South Carolina.  He was also awarded the Humanitarian Award by the Mayor of Columbia, SC, and spoke on August 7, 2010 about KICK at the National Health Awards Banquet in Artlanta, GA.

3rd Place - Marlee from Saginaw, MI

Marlee began raising money for St. Jude’s Hospital in 2008, after seeing a video of children and families at St. Jude’s.  She held a carnival and invited business and community members to participate.  By the end of the day she had raised over $1,200.  In 2009 she held an 80’s roller skating event that collected over $600, and this past year she hosted a bowling fundraiser that netted nearly $1,000.  In all, she has fundraised over $2,800 for St. Jude’s Hospital.

In addition to raising money for St. Jude’s, Marlee actively volunteers at her school and supports local MS walk events.  She excels in Karate, runs cross-country with her middle school, and aspires to be a pediatrician.  In addition to her recognition with the Gee Whiz Kids Award, Marlee was awarded the 2008-2009 Nicholas Green Award for Michigan.