Most Inspiring of the Month

Alice Pyne

Alice Pyne is a 15 year-old girl from the United Kingdom who was trending on Twitter during the first part of June. Alice who has been battling cancer for nearly 4 years has decided to document the precious time she has left with her family and friends. At her mother’s suggestion she decided to put together a bucket list of things she’d like to see or do before she passes and she has posted it on her blog site with the promise to update as she accomplishes each one on the list. Incidentally, the second item on her list is to make everyone sign up to be a bone marrow donor. Alice’s willingness to openly write and share about her battle is an inspiration and encouragement to individuals all over the world whose lives have been affected by cancer.

Austin Gutwein

In the spring of 2004, Austin Gutwein watched a video of children who had lost their parents to AIDS. Afterward, he felt God speaking to his heart about doing something to make a difference for those orphans, so he decided to shoot free throws on World AIDS Day. He shot 2,057 free throws to represent the 2,057 kids who would be orphaned during his day at school. With the help of sponsors, he raised almost $3,000 that was used by World Vision to provide hope to 8 orphan children. Since 2004, thousands of people have joined Austin in a basketball shoot-a-thon called Hoops of Hope. Today participants of Hopes of Hope have raised over $2 million. Because of Austin’s dedication to the cause, these orphaned children now have access to food, clothing, shelter, a new school, four dormitories, and two medical testing facilities.

Hannah Taylor

After seeing a man eating out of a trash can, 5 year-old Hannah Taylor interrogated her mother with questions about homelessness for over a year. When her mother challenged her to do something about it, Hannah organized a bake sale and clothing drive in her first grade classroom to raise money to help for this cause. Out of that effort grew the Ladybug Foundation, an organization dedicated to ending homelessness and one that has raised over $2 million for this cause. Hannah, now 15, travels widely across her native Canada, delivering a call-to-action on behalf of the hungry and homeless. She is also the author of Ruby’s Hope, a beautifully written and illustrated children’s story that inspires hope and caring, and empowers its readers to get involved and “Make Change” at any age.

Carson Pazdan

At 5 years old, most little boys are chasing frogs, playing with toy trucks or building with Legos. That wasn’t the case for Carson Pazdan. Inspired by his love to cook and experiment in the kitchen, Carson decided to create his own cookbook designed for kids by kids with his own recipes and recipes from other kids. That book evolved into a vision of creating a club for kids where they can directly impact the lives of other children and help stop hunger. The Kids Feeding Kids Club was founded in 2008 and is a nonprofit organization dedicated to feeding hungry youth through fundraising, volunteering and other charitable activities. In 2009, Carson received the Volunteer of the Year Award from the Northern Illinois Food Bank. His efforts continue to inspire kids and adults to make a difference in the fight against hunger.

Neha Gupta

Neha Gupta was just 9 years old when she started raising money for orphans and underprivileged children. Neha’s inspiration was drawn from her grandparents' tradition of volunteering at an orphanage in India. It was after a visit when she was 9 that she realized these orphans had no one in the world to love or be loved by, and didn't even have enough money to gain a proper education or health care. These truths moved her to start Empower Orphans, a nonprofit organization that has been able to impact the lives of more than 2,000 orphans worldwide by supplying them with the means to self-sufficiency. This motivational young lady is impacting lives here in the United States and around the world, including opening three libraries and a computer lab for underprivileged schools in India.

Tyler Page

After watching an Oprah episode in 2007 on human trafficking, 10 year-old Tyler Page was inspired to take action to help child-trafficking victims in Ghana. His plan was to attempt to raise $240, which is the amount of money it would take a group to rescue one Ghanian child for one year. Tyler along with his friends and family started working together to raise the money through car washes, bake sales, yard sales, etc. Within 6 months, they had raised not $240, but $19,000! And just one year later, they had raised $50,000! Tyler decided he wanted to do more so he and his mom founded Kids Helping Kids, a leadership academy that’s goal is to build self-confident, reliant and accountable young adults that understand the importance of giving back.

Alexandra Scott

Alexandra Scott, diagnosed with childhood cancer just before her first birthday, was 4 years-old when she told her parents she wanted to set up a front-yard lemonade stand. Alexandra’s plan was to raise money to help doctors find a cure. Her first “Alex’s Lemonade Stand” raised $2,000 in one day. While bravely fighting her own cancer, she continued to set up lemonade stands every year inspiring others to start their own lemonade stand and donate the proceeds to her cause. When Alexandra passed away in 2004 at the young age of 8, her stand and inspiration had raised over $1 million towards finding a cure for the disease which took her life. In 2005 her parents started Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation to continue the important work she had begun.

Brittany and Robbie Berquist

When Brittany and Robbie Berquist learned of a soldier with an $8,000 cell phone bill from calling his family from Iraq, they decided to try to raise money to help him. The Berquists children headed to the bank with $21 to start an account. The bank manager was so impressed he added an additional $500 to this worthy cause. The kids held car washes and bake sales; then decided on recycling used cell phones to raise even more funds. With help from volunteers, they set up drop-off sites across the USA, and used the proceeds to buy prepaid phone cards for troops overseas. To date, their “Cell Phones for Soldiers” program has collected 7.5 million phones and provided military personnel with over 90 million minutes’ worth of pre-paid airtime. Brittany and Robbie hope to raise more than $9 million in the next five years to fund new programs including prepaid video phone service to soldiers abroad.

Timothy Hwang

In 2005, 12 year-old Timothy Hwang visited Guatemala to volunteer in the inner-city through his church and various community organizations. After witnessing extreme poverty abroad and in the United States, Timothy decided to take action. He recruited his friend, Minsoo Han, to help in his efforts. Nearly two years later, Operation Fly Inc. was formally incorporated in 2007 by Timothy and Minsoo in an effort to combat the growing poverty rate within the Washington, DC Area. Their nonprofit business offers cut-rate tutoring services to inner-city students, and then uses the revenues to distribute blankets, clothing and soap to Washington, DC’s homeless. Their organization has since spread to five cities, involves over 800 volunteers and is entirely student-run. Timothy and Minsoo have inspired thousands of students to take action in DC and around the world.

Olivia Bouler

Aspiring ornithologist, artist, and saxophone player, Olivia Bouler cried when she heard about the BP oil spill in the Gulf Coast, a place where she spent many vacations with her cousins and grandparents who live in Louisiana and Alabama. The realization that birds of this beautiful area were going to suffer prompted her to take action. Inspired by her hero James Audubon, Olivia wrote to the Audubon Society about her fundraising idea, using her talent as an artist to give bird drawings to those who donated to wildlife recovery efforts. Olivia drew and donated 500 original drawings, and AOL distributed thousands of prints on her behalf. She was named 2011 Artist Inspiring Conservation by Audubon. To date, this inspirational young lady has raised over $200,000 for Gulf Recovery Efforts donating 150 drawings and shows no sign of stopping!