

| Guru Vishnu Mathivanan is an eco hero and has done environmental
activities from his age of four. He has given awareness speech about
global warming with his hand made charts, drawings, ppts etc. more than one
hour continuously and insisting tree plantation wherever he goes. He has
traveled many places, schools and colleges to deliver his speech. He has received
many awards and rewards for his environmental activities. On my every
birthday he gifts me a wonderful sapling. On my view he is my hero and I
too follow his instructions and do environmental works with him. Guru's aim is to make the world full of peace, green and clean.
Guru has spoken to more than 200000 people including students and donated and planted more than 50000 saplings to all. He has done his
environmental activities in his school holidays and on important days
like Earth day etc. in order to bring the awareness to all.
The year before last year he went to South Korea to attend the
conference in which he is the winner of the global youth forum. All expenses were covered by the Korea Green Foundation and Samsung Electronics.
Guru is an eco hero for all in our country. He is
featured in the kids magazine "Chutti Vikatan". His news is published in
the newspapers too. He spends his own money for his projects. Guru Vishnu is a true hero!
Location: Tamilnadu, India School: Edison G Agoram Memorial School
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| Param Shah and his organization, the Lotus Life Foundation, are working in
the Himalayas and other rural areas of India to provide proper medical
treatment and equipment to people that have disabilities, diseases, and
disorders.
The people in these rural parts of India live below the poverty line, and
those with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, or other illnesses are not
able to pay for medical attention. Param and his organization unites other
volunteers, children and adults to hold fundraisers and drives to raise
money to make sure that these people receive the proper medical equipment
and treatment that they need. This includes raising money to purchase
different types of medical equipment, such as Cerebral Palsy chairs,
prostethic limbs, calipers, or air/water bags, as well as transporting them
to a medical facility where they can receive medical treatment.
He and his organization are currently working on a project to help 37
people in several Himalayan villages surrounding Sidhbari, India. He has
worked to identify these peoples' illnesses and is currently helping them
attain the medical attention they need. He is also working in the villages
of Kunjveri and Chonda in the state of Gujurat, India, to support schools
for blind children.  County: Irvine California, USA School: Northwood High School
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| Summer loves helping people and being artistic...and she found a way to
combine both of these skills! She joined her older brother Jaevin's Wonderful
Wishes Team last year at the age of 6 as a "toy advisor" and helps choose
gifts for families needing assistance for their children's birthdays. She
also designed a birthday card for the boys to sell to raise money for their
cause.
After attending Kids Are Heroes Day in 2012, Summer wanted to make
sure she, and other kids around the world, could afford to participate and
she designed a special KIDS ARE HEROES birthday card. The proceeds will
help cover the cost for the Wonderful Wishes Team to attend Kids are Heroes
Day, and then she wants to donate to KAH specifically for those needing
some assistance to attend the big day! 
Location: Welland Ontario, Canada School: Alexander Kuska
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| When Armani Mcfarland was 8 years old and in 3rd grade they were learning about kids
who go to bed hungry in school, she came home that day and asked her mom if
she could do a food drive to help give those kids food.
After talking her
mom into it she placed bins throughout the community and passed out flyers
letting people know what she was doing by the end of the food drive she had
collected nearly 1000 lbs of food for the needy. Soon after that she hosted
a backpack and school supply drive and collected 190 backpacks filled with
supplies for kids in need. 1 month later she collected coats and ended up
with 460 new and used coats to donate.
Armani is just finishing up her 2nd
annual backpack and school supply drive and this year has 510 backpacks to
give to kids who wouldn't otherwise have a backpack. She was awarded as
young philanthropist of northern Utah for 2013. This girl has such a big
heart and doesn't want any child to have to go without. 
County: Weber Utah, USA School: Majestic Elementary
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| Around Tey’s 7th birthday in April this year, we were dropping off
donations at a local Good Will. Tey asked if any of his toys were in the
donations. I said no but that before his birthday he should go through his
toys to see what he could give away & that he really didn’t need anything
for his birthday. His response was, “I want shoes.” Since I had just
gotten Tey a new pair of shoes I was a little irritated & asked “how many
pairs of shoes do you need Tey” & his response was “I want shoes for
kids who don’t have any.” (Can you hear the crickets chirping?!) Once
I was able to talk, I asked where he had gotten the idea & he sid from a
story on Disney where a girl had collected 300 pairs of shoes. Tey’s
goal - he wanted to collect 500 pairs of shoes!
I anticipated Tey changing his mind about what he wanted for his birthday &
decide he’d want gifts as his birthday approached however I am proud to
say that he never wavered from wanting to give rather than wanting to
receive! We started researching & together we found Soles4Souls. Tey was
very interested because his wish was for kids to have shoes & Soles4Souls
gave statistics on the number of kids without shoes. It drove Tey’s
desire to want to help even more. (Approximately 300 million children in
the world do not have shoes.)  County: Manassas Virginia, USA School: Weems Elementary
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| Laura Graham started 1 Closet, a teen charity collecting gently used and new
clothing for low income teens. Teens are often overlooked for donations of
clothing basics.
Laura reached out to friends, schools, neighbors and stores for gently used
clothing.Laura partners with more than 15 East Bay High Schools, both
public and private host all teen clothing drives along with donating their
lost and found. This provides a number of sweatshirts and coats, while a
small army of volunteers launder donations.
Laura has developed strict criteria for donated garments; they must be free
from stains/holes, current styles and have no demeaning print. Garments are collected and
stored, later sorted by size
and sex, with each garment neatly folded and placed in a designated labeled
box for easy distribution.  County: Oakland California, USA School: Unspecified
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| It all started with a book and a big heart! 10 year old Matti was reading
"I Walk For Water" by Lindsey Andrews and her heart was broken for children
around the world that do not have access to clean water. She immediately
wanted to help, but her 'giving fund' had already been given to her
school's Jumprope for Heart program. Matti began telling her story to
everyone that would listen and within a month she had raised $197 for
Living Water. But she didn't want to stop there. She was beginning to
realize that even kids can make a difference and she wanted to involve her
friends. With the help of her youth director at church, Matti gathered
friends together to plan a 6K walk to raise funds for other children around
the world.
Did you know that women and children around the world spend 200 million
hours a day collecting water? In Africa, they often walk up to 6K just for water that is not clean. Recently the kids completed their planned walk and wrote their check out for a little over $5000 (enough to build one
shallow well)! Plans are already underway for next year's walk and the
kids have BIG plans.
Matti has said that her favorite part of this endeavor is hearing from how
she has inspired other children along the way. 
County: Saint Joseph Missouri, USA School: Coleman Elementary School
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| Having observed the seclusion of the lower caste in the community, Arti
Verma, a class V student of Satya Bharti Government School, Raiwana,
decided to challenge the caste system prevalent in her village.
In India, discrimination on the basis of caste has been predominant since
ancient times. Even today, it remains as a progress barrier in the
development of modern India. This custom of discrimination based on castes,
is common in rural India with the village of Raiwana, Rajasthan being no
exception.
Arti started her crusade by gaining the support of her father, who was also
the head of the village. She then, met up with other villagers to
sensitize them towards the need of equality. In order to reach out to
masses, she conducted a rally and communicated her message through
hand-made posters and slogans. Arti's efforts slowly began to show results
and the upper caste community became more tolerant towards the lower castes.
Their children were allowed entry into schools, men and women found
employment and were also made a part of social activities of the community.
This inclusion and acceptance, brought pride and hope of a brighter future.
It was a commendable effort from Arti, which brought about this change.
With her strong and eternal determination she was able to bridge the caste
gap in the village of Raiwana.
Location: Raiwana Rajasthan, India School: Satya Bharti School
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| Olivia has always wanted to help in big ways from the time she was small.
She began volunteering for organzations like the Ronald McDOnald House,
Nashville Zoo, and Leukemia and Lymphoma Society when she was just 7 years
old. Ironically, she still serves all 3 of those organizations still today!
When Olivia was 9, she wanted to do more so she began her own organization called
"Tennessee H.U.G.S." to help those who might not have shoes. She knew she
had MANY shoes in her closet and that many other people did, too, so why
not get people involved and why not recycle to help others in need?
Olivia
has collected more than 35,000 pair of shoes from people all over the U.S.A. and
has delivered them to people in need all the way from Kentucky to Russia.
People want to help others, Olivia said, and to date has had missionaries
and friends carry shoes to the Appalachia Mountains and U.S. places of
poverty, Russia, Uganda, Liberia, Brazil, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Japan
and Honduras!  County: Hendersonville Tennessee, USA School: Hendersonville Christian Academy
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| A few weeks ago, my husband and I signed up to be part of a Good Misfit
project. The project we
signed up for is to raise $15,000 to build a windmill for the village of Gambella in Kenya, Africa.
While my husband and I were brainstorming about how to raise the money, our
boys, Jordan and Nikolas, jumped in and said they wanted to help. Not only did they want to help, but they wanted to get their friends involved in helping too!
The boys have created a "Pocket Change to Change Our World" campaign and have
recruited their classmates, neighborhood friends, family, and even local
businesses to collect and donate as much pocket change as possible to this
project. Jordan and Nikolas are not only organizing the collection effort,
but they even donated their own "vacation jar" which they collect coins
in year-round, to go on a family road trip!
With just over 2 weeks left in this campaign the boys are very close to
crushing and surpassing their minimum goal! 
County: Los Angeles California, USA School: Royal Oaks Elementary
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| When Sabina Frohmann was 7 years old she painted her Daddy's nails. Suddenly she
shouted, "Daddy! I could do this for charity!"
Sabina loves animals, so the name "Pretty Paws" was born! And now Sabina sets up her table at the Beaches Boardwalk in Toronto and paints people's nails to raise money for The Toronto Humane Society.
Last summer she raised $433.92! This summer her goal is $1744.00, enough to
rescue, fix and care for 8 animals.
To help her reach her goal, Sabina talks to people on Facebook, Twitter,
and even has a Piggybackr site to take donations online. 
Location: Toronto Ontario, Canada School: Whitchurch Highlands Public School
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| Tara-Nicole is a Teen Actress, Director & Writer who is doing her part to
make a difference in the world one film at a time. 3 of the 5 films she's
written & directed deal with social issues.
In addition to acting, writing and directing, Tara-Nicole is also a
passionate community activist. Addressing issues such as bullying,
homelessness, eating disorders and waiting to date. She has been a guest
speaker at film festivals and events around the country, including
participating in a celebrity teen panel at the 2012 California Women’s
Conference and appearing at the Kids Helping Children anti-bullying rally
in Anaheim.
Tara-Nicole is the recipient of the meritorious Silver Award in Girl Scouting, The
Corlin National Community Service Award and National Community Service
awards from NAM & ACP. Tara-Nicole is passionate about the prevention and
treatment of eating disorders and has supported various fund raisers for
the cause.
County: Stevenson Ranch California, USA School: Unspecified
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| Kylie Trawick is not your average 13 year old. For the past four years her goal has been to complete a thru hike of the Appalachian Trail starting in Georgia and ending in Maine. Her dream will be coming true starting on March 21, 2013 when she starts her trip to bring awareness to local hunger.
When the decision was made for Kylie and her Dad to do the trip, Kylie's goal
was not only to complete the hike but also to make a difference. After
some research Kylie determined that she would hike to bring awareness to
local hunger.
Many families go hungry every day and depend on local food pantries to bridge the gap. Kylie’s conclusion was that the local food pantries need our help; they do not have enough food for the families in
need. So Kylie will be hiking to bring awareness to local hunger.
Kylie has been hiking now for 69 days as of May 29, has hiked 733 miles and has raised
over 5000 pounds of food! 
County: New Gloucester Maine, USA School: Gray New Gloucester Middle School
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| Alyssa's Bedtime Stories is a non-profit organization that brings happiness to underprivileged children by giving them books to read and pajamas to keep them warm.
When Alyssa Deraco was just 10 years old, she wanted to share her own love
for reading while helping those less fortunate. When she began collecting
used books and donating them to local organizations that help these
children, Alyssa’s Bedtime Stories was born.
Five years later, Alyssa's Bedtime Stories is still helping
underprivileged and homeless children. Since 2009, we've given more than
10,000 books and more than 5,000 pairs of pajamas to children in need. But
our mission is far from over...because as long as there are children that
need comfort, affection and love, we'll be there to bring joy into their
lives. 
County: Lancaster Pennsylvania, USA School: Hempfield High School
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| For 1 year Ella Vallely grew her long blonde hair. Her aim was to grow it long
enough to be able to cut 10 inches off to donate it to a UK based charity
called "Little Princesses". Little Princesses then take the hair and
make it in to a wig for a child with Cancer. During this period, Ella also
managed to raise over £1500 for the charity through various activities.
Ella has also taken part in Race for Life and run 5km when she was just 7
years old. She is also a 4th generation Pearly Queen. Pearly Kings and
Queens have been a fundamental part of London's history for over 100
years. Ella inherited her title through her mother's
family and avidly wears her pearly buttoned suit to raise money for
charity.
Most recently Ella worked for 4 hours on a train with her mum
entertaining kids and raising funds for a local charity called "Havens
Hospices" which looks after Children who are extremely ill. Ella is an
inspiration to many children her age and to her family and friends she is
already a hero. 
Location: Essex, England School: St Nicholas
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