In “Be A Changemaker” by Laurie Ann Thompson, Bill Drayton, Founder of Ashoka, an organization that finds and supports change makers, writes, “If you change your world in middle or high school, you will change it again and again throughout your life.” This book provides several stories of young people who created positive impact in middle or high school. Eleven-year-old Jessica Markowitz heard about the fact that girls in Rwanda were often prevented from going to school and formed the organization Richard’s Rwanda to help girls in Rwanda.
Nine-year-old Martha Payne from Argyl, Scotland wrote a blog about her school lunches which quickly gained fifty thousand readers a day. She decided to put it to work doing good. Within a year she raised over $200,000.00 and built an entire kitchen in Lirangwe, Malawi, Africa.
Twelve-year-old Craig Kielburger of Ontario, Canada read an article about the fact that “250 million children were working around the world, many in slave-like conditions.” He asked if any of his classmates would help him do something about that and eleven of his friends agreed to help. Together they created a group called Free the Children. Since 1995 Free the Children has provided medical supplies worth more than $16 million around the world, constructed more than 650 schools and schoolrooms and much more.
“Real Kids, Real Stories, Real Change” and “Real Kids, Real Stories, Real Character” by Garth Sundem tell of over sixty young people from around the world who had significant positive impact. Eight-year-old Omar Gallegos walked eight hundred miles to a rain forest in Mexico to protest that 50,000 species a year that were becoming extinct as the rain forest was destroyed. His crusade led to a meeting with the President of Mexico who was convinced to save the rain forest.
Sixteen-year-old Kevin Curwick was concerned about the Twitter cyber bullying in his town in Minnesota. His idea to combat that was to create a Twitter account and start tweeting nice things that were happening in his town. Within a week all the negative Twitter accounts were shut down. When students came back from summer break the next year the whole school had been transformed into a much more positive, less exclusionary place.
“Teenage Rebels” by Dawson Barrett, tells a history of students who in many cases put their lives on the line in order to create change. The book starts with the story of sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington who rode through the night to spread the word about the need for assistance for colonial troops who had been attacked in Danbury, Connecticut. Her ride through the night covered roughly double the miles of Paul Revere’s famous ride. Fast forward to the present. Student protests in Portland Oregon led to a new contract for teachers after eight months of an impasse; dozens of actions by young people in Honolulu Hawaii and other cities are also described.
“Kids Who Are Changing The World” by Anne Jankeliowitch tells the stories of forty-five kids who made the world a better place, including nine-year-old Felix Finkbeiner in Germany who wanted to lessen the amount of carbon dioxide in the world by planting trees. His efforts led to four million trees being planted around the world.
Courtney E. Martin’s book “Do It Anyway: The New Generation of Activists” provides very compelling real-life examples of positive impact that is being made by those under thirty-five. The author writes about eight individuals and the changes they are making. The stories are quite different regarding the details of each act of activism since she is telling the true stories of a peace activist, prison reentry social worker, veterans’ activist, filmmaker, radical philanthropist, and others. Because of the diversity of individuals under thirty-five who are honored, each story is a deep learning experience.
In workshops I used to do, one person in her fifties had begun doing stand-up comedy to help people deal with the negativity that surrounds them, another had become a dancer in her sixties to create positive energy for herself and others, and others in their eighties and nineties were doing part-time paid or volunteer work in residences where they lived, for nonprofit agencies etc.
I heard the story from one person I know of a woman who is one-hundred-four years old who puts on sheer stockings every day because “You never know when a gentleman caller will appear.” She explained that person has a positive impact on everyone she meets because of that attitude.
My point? I have seen first-hand the positive impact that can occur by the actions of anybody at any age through the work they do and the person who they are. If you doubt that point just think of eight-year-old Omar in Mexico, eleven-year-old Jessica in Rwanda, nine-year-old Felix in Germany, twelve-year-old Craig in Canada, nine-year-old Martha in Scotland, and the hundreds of other regular people mentioned in the resources above and who you know personally who made the impossible happen.
“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius power and magic in it. Begin it now.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There are many ways for people of all ages to have a positive impact which are outlined in my Amazon #1 International Bestseller-Have a Positive Impact During Uncertain Times – https://lnkd.in/e2KsXT9. It also received a 5 Star Review from Readers Favorite that includes this comment from the book reviewer Tammy Ruggles: “If you want to make a difference in the world, but don’t know where to start, or want to make a difference in your own life, but don’t know how, this book was written for you.”