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$500 Winners

	Meghan Sela, 22 State: New York Youth Arts Group Mural The Youth Arts Group is a culturally diverse group of high school students that work in rural and suburban areas of New York. These members are often from immigrant families and face many difficulties including racism, peer pressure, teen violence, and negative media at school and in their neighborhood. They plan to paint a mural to visually express these community issues and will unveil it at a youth conference in May, where over 100 participants are expected. The Do Something grant will help Meghan cover the cost of art supplies needed to create this powerful mural.
	Connor Dantzler, 14 State: Maryland Health Through Humor Connor believes that the gift of laughter can positively address the emotional, spiritual, and physical needs of children and adults in hospitals and senior centers. By volunteering in these places and distributing joke books to patients and seniors, Connor’s organization helps kids of all ages to learn about the program and find ways to volunteer in their communities. To date, Connor has delivered and shared more than 7,500 new joke books with children and adults in hospitals and senior centers throughout Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, and DC.
	Anna Hinz, 23 State: Kansas Youth Volunteer Corps NYSD Park Revitalization The Corporation for National and Community Service reports that youth who participate in volunteer work are less likely to engage in risky behavior and are likely to do better in school than youth who do not. In order to engage youth in volunteer work while bettering the community environment, Anna and the Youth Volunteer Corps of Greater Kansas City are revitalizing a forgotten and vandalized park in Kansas City’s urban core. They believe that their efforts at a park revitalization can both create a real difference in the quality of life in Kansas City’s urban core and also showcase the area’s youth in a positive light to the rest of the community.
	Brittany Arnold, 18 State: New York Teens Living With Cancer Welcome Kits As a cancer survivor, Brittany know first hand the difficulties of being a teenager dealing with the illness, especially since resources for coping are often geared towards younger children or adults. Working with a foundation called Melissa’s Living Legacy (a.k.a. Teens Living with Cancer), Brittany is delivering welcome kits to teenagers newly diagnosed with cancer and helping them meet and talk with other diagnosed teems to create a support system. The teen mentoring program which will pair a newly diagnosed teen with one that is in remission or close to the end of treatment who will deliver the kits to the new patients.
	Kailey Smith, 18 State: Idaho Youth Summer Camp: A Taste of High School High schools in Kailey’s community have been dealing with large numbers of teen pregnancies and drug issues. In order to provide these youth with guidance and positive role models, Kailey and members of Mayor’s Youth Advisory Council decided to create a summer camp with courses in sports, music, drama, dance, safety, and art, hoping to encourage the camp participants to pick up an activity or hobby that they love. By encouraging them to engage in activities that they enjoy and are safe, the camp hopes to prevent drug use and unwanted teen pregnancies.

$250 Grant Winners

	Danielle Breidung, 17 State: Wisconsin Pencils and Papers Galore! One of the greatest problems that Argentinean elementary, middle, and high schools face is the lack of funding provided by local governments for school supplies and maintenance. Danielle’s organization is a youth development initiative designed to meet the needs of the students in rural schools in Argentina by providing school supplies, clothing, canned food goods, and other educational and entertainment items. By providing these supplies, Danielle believes that the spirits of these students will be lifted and thus instilling in them a sense of self-worth and school pride, while also helping teachers better prepare students for the future.
	Anya Agarwal, 15 State: New Jersey Paws of Gold Anya’s community animal shelters are forced to euthanize animals on a daily basis, while the animals that are housed in the shelter do not have beds, air conditioning, or any space to roam free. Most people in the area don’t know about the shelter, much less utilize their services, leaving tons of unwanted pets to the care of just two employees in the shelter. Anya plans to build a dog park in her town to educate the public about the shelter, animal welfare, and local programs available for pets. Anya hopes to lower the number of euthanized animals by exposing the problem and encouraging people to adopt pets.
	Monette Isaac, 15 State: New York Family Fest Claremont Park has been a neglected park in Monette’s neighborhood that has gained a bad reputation. In order to make it a safe and clean place for community members to gather, Monette and the Bronx Helpers are hosting a Family Fest in the park, which will start with cleaning up the park by removing graffiti, picking up trash, and painting benches, followed by team-building activities and a barbeque. The purpose of the event is to create a sense of community pride in the park as well as show people that the park is a great, clean and safe resource they can utilize with their friends and families.
	Lillian Vandemark, 13 State: Michigan Cinco De Mayo Celebration Lillian’s 7th grade Leadership Class’ goal is to create more cultural awareness, and in order to do so, Lily and her classmate Katie Duffy have led the class in planning a Cinco de Mayo celebration for their community, which is 75% Caucasian. With the help of the Alma College students, the class will set up four different stations for younger children in the community to rotate through, namely, a station where students will create a snack that resembles a sombrero, a Mexican game, a beading station, and a map explaining how the French came over to fight the Battle of Puebla. The class aims to provide a fun and relaxing day of learning on Cinco de Mayo.
	Sinan Denny-Brown, 22 State: Massachusetts WIN-WIN (Weight Initiative Now) at the South End Community Health Center 40% of pediatric patients at this health center are overweight or clinically at risk for obesity. As part of the health center’s WIN-WIN program, Sinan’s program will attempt to help avoid the development of life-threatening illnesses that frequently accompany obesity through a nutrition and exercise education program aimed at 8- to 13-year-olds. Grant money will help Sinan provide educational materials for the program participants as well as purchase exercise equipment for the health center, which currently does not have its own exercise program, despite the WIN-WIN program.
	Jeffrey Hosselrode, 14 State: Pennsylvania Put a Smile On Inspired the thousands of Americans who commit suicide every year thinking that no one cares about them, Jeffery started “Put a Smile On” Through "Put on Smile" Jeffery and a group of peers have set up a visiting programs at nursing homes and children’s hospitals in his areas. Jeffery hopes to increase thier visits and plan a cross-country tour of children’s hospitals in the next few years.
	Naim Martin, 13 State: New York Become Your Dream Team Naim’s school encourages students to give back to the community. Over their spring break, Naim and his classmates will be at school to make baked goods and put the treats, along with fruits and nuts, in bags decorated by 4th and 5th graders for the men in the Bowery Mission. Any additional food they make will be given to local soup kitchens as well as a veteran’s hospital. Grant money will help provide the students with art and cooking supplies as well as the fruits and nuts they wish to include in the food bags.
	Antonisha Wiliams, 13 State: Florida Music Connects As a leader of the Lavoy Lyrics Chorus Club, Antonisha along with 10 of her peers plan to hold a concert and sing-along at a local senior home. The members of the LaVoy Lyrics Chorus Club, all who have moderate to severe disabilities can relate to the feelings of isolation and loneliness that plague many seniors living in homes. They are planning not to just sing, but provide hand made crafts, flowers and refreshments for the seniors.
	Daniel Gurry, 23 State: New Jersey NOLA Adventure After School Club After returning from and 8-day volunteer trip to New Orleans, Daniel and the friends that accompanied him on the trip saw problems in their city, Jersey City, NJ, similar to the ones they saw in New Orleans. To combat the problem of students not having creative outlets, Daniel and his friends enter a local elementary school on Fridays to give students creative options in order to open their imaginations, a change from the after-school programs offered Monday through Thursday, which are highly structured and solely academic-based. Activities will help the students learn about their African-American heritage as well as keep New Orleans art alive. Grant money will help provide art supplies for the students to use, as well as providing them with a healthy and tasty snack to promote healthy eating as well.
	Shuba Bhat, 21 State: Massachusetts Health Advocacy Program (HAP) Poor health habits in diet and exercise are contributing to the currently health crisis currently facing America’s youth. HAP aims to address this growing problem by empowering youth with the knowledge and skills to be proactive about their health through good nutrition and physical exercise. HAP teaches two 10-week sessions per school year (two hours per week) targeting 25-30 middle school students in a low-income neighborhood of Boston. In these sessions, students are taught exercise methods as well as how to make health snacks through an Iron Chef-like competition, where the winning teams’ recipe are included in an end of the year Healthy Lifestyle Magazine.