10 Teens Honored for Their Volunteer Work
Youth Service America (YSA) united with Miley Cyrus and Disney to promote the record numbers of children and youth who are improving their communities through service and volunteering. Ten young YSA Service Stars from across the United States represented their generation and were recognized by Miley at her Sweet 16 birthday party at Disneyland on Sunday, Oct. 5th.
“Kids have always been a big part of making the world a better place, so my Sweet 16 is all about doing something good for somebody else and the world,” says Miley Cyrus. “I’m working with Youth Service America because we share the belief that young people shouldn’t wait until they grow up before they start changing the world. I was so excited to meet the 10 YSA Service Stars, because they represent millions of young people in my generation who are out there changing the world for the better,” Cyrus adds.
As part of the star-studded celebration, Disney Chairman Bob Iger presented Youth Service America with a check for one million dollars to support its work.
Read about the ten teens and their volunteer efforts after the jump. “We cannot thank Miley and Disney enough,” says Steve Culbertson, president and CEO of Youth Service America. “Young people are the hope of today, and we need their energy, commitment, idealism, and creativity to solve the world’s problems. American children and youth are volunteering at record rates, more than any generation in history. They are teaching others to read, raising money for disaster relief, and developing sophisticated projects to address everything from hunger and homelessness to malaria and global warming,” Culbertson adds.
To honor the occasion and Miley’s philanthropic passion, Disneyland created “Miley’s Sweet 16 – Share the Celebration,” an unforgettable event for Miley and her fans that served to recognize Youth Service America and help drive awareness of the need for youth volunteerism. For more information: www.disneyparks.com/miley.
Miley and YSA invited 10 YSA Service Stars to the birthday celebration, based on their exemplary efforts in learning about and tackling serious social issues, engaging other youth in important roles, and promoting the importance of youth leadership in improving communities. They represent millions of other American children and youth engaged in service to their community and country. They include:
Zachary Bonner, 9, from Valrico, Florida, is a multiple YSA grant winner, including a Disney Minnie Grant. His 2007 Global Youth Service Day project focused on raising awareness about child homelessness. Zach and 60 other kids spent 24 hours living as homeless children in the parking lot of a local Toys R US, raising money to buy backpacks full of school supplies for homeless youth and educating other children and the community about this important issue. He is affiliated with the Little Red Wagon Foundation. www.LittleRedWagonFoundation.com
Jade Giordani, 13, of Chicago, Illinois, is a member of YSA’s National Youth Council. She is the President of her Student Council and regularly volunteers at the local food shelf, homeless shelters, and library. Because there are so few opportunities for young people to serve in her inner-city neighborhood, she has to travel at least a half-hour from home to volunteer. One of her goals is to mobilize her community to make sure other young people in her neighborhood have opportunities to serve and improve their community.
Jasmine Warren, 14, of Albany, Georgia, is a multiple YSA grant winner (Disney Minnie Grant & Red, White and Green Climate Change Grant). Working with a local organization, Youth In Action for Healthy Lifestyles, Jasmine has led projects addressing environmental issues. In 2006, she organized a community forum on climate change. In 2008, she worked with a YSA Youth Venture team to educate her peers and the community about illegal trash dumping and recycling and adopted a neighborhood to keep clean.
Trevor Dougherty, 16, of Ithaca, New York, is a 2008 winner of YSA’s Harris Wofford Award and is currently working with YSA on managing its YouTube channel. He describes himself as “a teenage lad with a camera, some cheap editing software, and a passion to inspire you.” He produces internet videos to raise awareness for causes such as poverty, AIDS, and peace in Africa and South America. One of his videos received so many views on YouTube that he was named a “select” homepage editor – the youngest editor in YouTube’s history. http://www.youtube.com/maddogza
Andrew Leonard, 16, of Redwood City, California, is a two-time YSA Disney Minnie Grant winner and organized projects on Global Youth Service Day in both 2007 and 2008 focused on the environment and climate change. In 2007, he led his group’s environmental project for monarch butterflies and formed a relationship with a school in China using digital pictures and video. That relationship continued and, in 2008, Andrew led the first ever joint ecological project between students in the United States and students in China. http://www.andrewleonard.com/globalpartners
John Holland-McCowan, 16, of Los Gatos, California, was a youth emcee at the 2008 National Service-Learning Conference. At age 6, John (with his mother) founded Kids Cheering Kids, a volunteer organization with the mission of providing opportunities for children to reach out and enrich other’s lives. Through Kids Cheering Kids, young volunteers regularly visit, mentor, and/or tutor other youth in hospitals or homeless shelters. Kids Cheering Kids has more than 400 members improving the lives of other youth. www.kidscheeringkids.com
Konstantine Buhler, 16, of Lake Forest, Illinois, created his own organization with support from the YSA Youth Venture program. Always Ready Kids (ARK), launched on Global Youth Service Day in 2004, is a youth volunteer organization that helps people prepare for disaster situations. ARK’s projects include speaking about disaster preparedness, distributing preparedness information, and creating individual safety supply kits. ARK has distributed hundreds of safety kits, raised more than $20,000 for disaster relief efforts, and recently launched the Preparedness Promise Bracelet Campaign. www.alwaysreadykids.org
Becca Robison, 17, of Layton, Utah, is a multiple YSA Disney and State Farm grant winner and a regular Global Youth Service Day participant. She founded AstroTots, an organization that inspires girls ages 4-10 to explore the exciting world of science and math. She has been featured in multiple publications, including the New York Times Magazine and Teen People and she was one of several young volunteers who were featured by YSA during “America’s Future Rocks Today” activities. In 2004, she worked with the Office of the Governor of Utah to issue a proclamation honoring Global Youth Service Day. www.astrotots.org
Luisa Diaz, 18, of Tucson, Arizona, is a YSA Lion-in-the-House grant winner. She is a cancer survivor, having survived leukemia and two bone marrow transplants with the support of Candlelight and now works to support other teens battling cancer and other life-threatening illnesses. Luisa is the coordinator for the Candlelighters Youth Council, a group of cancer survivors and their siblings in Tucson. That group organizes activities for children with cancer and their families, including a free movie and funfest for Global Youth Service Day 2007 and a “Dream Night” prom
Hillary Griffin, 19, of Presque Isle, Maine, is a YSA Able-to-Serve grant winner. After learning that scent-trailing dogs have a hard time finding people with Down Syndrome, a group of 25 youth with and without disabilities set out to educate the public about this and to teach other youth with and without disabilities what to do if they get lost. Over 60 children, including local Girl Scouts, participated. Youth without disabilities got to know peers with Down Syndrome and see their abilities by working with them side-by-side.
About Youth Service America:
Youth Service America seeks to improve communities by increasing the number and the diversity of young people, ages 5-25, serving in important roles. Founded in 1986, YSA is an international nonprofit resource center that partners with thousands of organizations in more than 100 countries to expand the impact of the youth service movement with families, communities, schools, corporations, and governments. YSA accomplishes its work through public mobilization campaigns, including Global Youth Service Day and the Semester of Service; micro-finance grants for youth projects; and tools and resources that help children and youth affect change. For more information: www.YSA.org.
About Disney:
Disney brightens the lives of children in need around the world through global outreach programs, local community initiatives and the Disney VoluntEARS program. Last year, Disney donated more than $177 million in cash and in-kind support to various charities around the world, and the Company drew upon its unique magic to make wishes come true for children and families. Last year, Disney VoluntEARS contributed more than 466,000 hours of service. The Disney VoluntEARS program provides opportunities for Disney employees to contribute their time and expertise towards making a positive impact in the communities they serve while furthering the traditions and ideals of The Walt Disney Company. This year, The Walt Disney Company is celebrating 25 years of giving back to communities around the world through the efforts of Disney VoluntEARS. Since the program’s inception, Disney Employees and Cast Members in over 42 countries have donated over 5,000,000 hours of service. For more information: www.disney.com
My son was a latchkey child at 8, a neighbor was able to look in on him, for 1 hour or less after school. When he got home he would sign onto IM and let me know he was home and we would IM back and forth until I was ready to leave my office and drive the 15 minute drive home. I did not allow him any other contacts for his list.
I would suggest you continue to enforce the rules that you believe are best for your daughter. Peer pressure is not a reason to change how you would like to raise your daughter. If you find later on that you would like to provide her with some IM time, there is a wonderful software that I use for my kids. It allows for day/time constraints and you can limit according to application or the entire computer. It also tracks the sites and keystrokes entered by each account. The application is at http://www.softwaretime.com/ and it’s only $30.
Dear mum
sooner or later your daughter will be IMing her friends, and unfortunately, we cannot keep our kids away, even if that is the safest way. I should think putting limits to the use of IMing and the rest is a wise decision which time frame will increase with age too. Teach your daughter that she does not need to go around saying she does not have access to IMing because of the rules if she does not want to be picked on. Secondly, I think, it is better to educate your daughter about the use of the internet than trying to keep her totally away from it. There will be a time when we have to let go of our children and the first time we do that, is always so difficult, so we have to make sure they are well armed to face the hard challenges in society and the life around them. Remember the first time our children went to school, when they were just toddlers? What a headache and how stressful that was for us as parents? So it is with everything else as our kids are growing up. Sounds easier said but that is the hard fact
good luck
ruth
I think 11 is too young to IM. I also believe that our children are so caught up with technology they are not making face to face friends and forming those social bonds. I think you should encourage her to call friends on the phone and even set up limits with that.
I’m amazed how many kids I see with cell phones. In the carpool I drove the other morning kids were sitting next to each other texting. It’s taking away from our childrens social skills and manners. Encourage them not to use these devices. I’ve seen so many adults most young who are addicted to these devices and can’t even sit in a restaurant with family and friends without talking on their cells or texting. Don’t get me wrong though. I think cell phones can be very useful tools in keeping our kids safe. My 17 year old son keeps one with him to contact us in an emergency when he drives somewhere. He doesn’t use it otherwise though. Just my 2 cents. I’m guessing I’m probably more strict then most when it comes to cell phones, Instant messages and texting. I just think we need to encourage more one on one communication and face to face socializing.
Amen Lisa
11 yrs old is too young
We regret letting our youngest daughter getting her own computer. We wish we would have just let her spend sometime on the family computer and then when she is more mature then let them earn money to buy their own.
If you try to keep your daughter from iming then she will find a way to do it with out you. I have found that aol has a very good parental controls and you can add who she can talk to and that way she has to tell you who she wants to add to her buddy list and she cant change it and just enforce if she messes up she breaks her deal to obey by your guide lines she cant use the computer for that day or more serious offenses she cant use it a week and so on. It should be a privilage and just make sure supervised and make her understand that there is guide lines for her safety as well as a concerned and loving mother for her daughter.
my daughter is 11 and is limited as to when she can im and who she can im with. she too logs on when she gets home from school & we chat until i leave work to go home. if she wants to add a friend she must get it approved. kids can be cruel on im. if that’s the case, you can also block your child from receiving messages from that individual. you can view the log history to see who’ve they’ve talked to, how long and what the messages entailed. as with the internet in general; your child should be taught to use it appropriately and to earn the right to use it; he/she must gain your trust in order to use it. talk with your child and let her know the rules and responsibilities. if she doesn’t follow the rules; uninstall aim or any other programs. however, as stated above, they will find a way to use im if you say no. in today’s world of technology, im and internet are very useful tools if used properly. good luck !
thank you for your comment on IM. We just established rules after a discovery of misuse on im with our 12 yr old who appeared to be imming in the middle of the night…. after a rough couple of weeks, with her having to hand in her computer for 2 weeks, we talked and discussed the danger of imming in general and why we as parents need to protect her. I regret we did not establish rules beforehand, but it seems to work now. She is not allowed her computer in her bedroom anymore, and she is not allowed on the computer after 8 pm unless it is for homework. She has to finish homework before she im’s. This means, there are days she cannot im, but it prevents her from becoming dependent on it. She was unhappy at first, but now that routines have been established, she seems to be content with it. I do not have to remind her of the time anymore, and just recently she mentioned that she is actually glad only to im until 8 pm; this way she can watch some tv and unwind until she goes to bed. She knows we can look over her shoulder, and she knows we need to have all her passwords, and we do check in on her im messages every other day or so. I am very grateful she bent the rules; this was a wake-up call for all of us, and we function much better with clear established ruling on imming.
As far as texting on the phone: she hands in her phone at night, it is on the kitchen counter, not in her bedroom anymore, and her messages are checked by us. She had to delete some contacts of people that she did not know in person, with area codes far from ours, and she is not allowed to give her phone number to people that we do not know (because they are in a different part of the country!, not because they are a new friend from school). We do not allow her to text during dinner, and in other places we are when we are together as a family (restaurants, or museums, for example). This rule, I have to be honest, can be played with as we go. If she is waiting on an answer to be somewhere that day, with a friend, we let her receive the answer…
In addition, we as parents, are making more time for her, we talk more, since she is not on her computer as much as before, nor does he have her head above the phone and is busy texting, so because the ruling, we can spend more time together, which has been beneficial to our relationship with each other. Her complaint was that she was bored, and therefore spent so much time on her computer. We took that to heart and are trying to make a change.
Good luck on your choices with imming and your daughter!
what i did for my child when he was still of using internet access because he really was addicting to any internet access, i let him stop schooling because ’twas useless for me sending him to school then when the yaya leaving the school, the child step out from the school and go to internet cafe’for games or whatever he wants for the internet access. he leave in the cafe’ even until 24 hours. what i did was i let him stop schooling and let him do any internet access he knows… until such time came and he was feed up of using internet. Now, he is back to school and got and honors award in his class.
Being a parent is not an easy task and so is being a child. I always think it is best for the parent to deal only with what they can handle. If you feel you are not equiped emotionally to deal with your child doing something then it is up to you to decide. If you do not see the benefits of them imming then surely for you and your kids it is not a necessary evil. You do not have to fall for peer pressure, the child will feel pressured but if you explain to her that this is how we do it in this family then kids understand, ok they might still break the rules here and there but they know when they have transgressed from a family tradition.
She is 11. And though our kids are speeding along towards a culture of a faux maturity, you’re making sound decisiions for her and need to stick by your guns. Whoever said moms must cave to the every “must-have and gotta-get-it” when implored by our kids? They don’t need them – they want them – definitely two very different objectives. Hang in there mom – life is hard enough for children these days, but love and hugs and parental intelligence in coralling what your kids are exposed to goes a long way to helping them gain perspective on whats important in life and what is merely timewasting.
My daughter is 11 and has been asking to IM, she says all her friends are doing it and she is the only one not participating. OK so I know this is not true because she has at east 2 friends without computers…anyway, I am not comfortable with the idea. I am standing my ground with her and I hve allowed her to have her own email account that I set up with our internet provider (not hotmail) and we SHARE an inbox on our family computer.
This way I can monitor the activity and she can still communicated with her friends. We have set the email notification with a really cool sound and it plays really loud when she gets email. The emails transmit so fast that it is almost like IM but always one on one and with people she knows. I think this is much safer. I have a friend with a teenage daughter and I cannot believe the way that teens communicate while using IM, there is no substance to their communications, just alot of crap! It is better to not let it get to that.
Greeting, when it comes to I,M,
I, believe any child under the age of 13 should be supervised by a adult.
for safety reason. whoever is posting a message that message is seen by countless of people, so we teach our’s
children what he or she can say in a message +what can’t be said enforce that
rule,god bless,