We asked how your family gives back, and here are your stories of amazing kids who make the Brooklyn community better every day.
For the NYMetroParents Caring Kids Awards, we invited you to submit stories and photos of families and kids who do volunteer work to help others. We hope you will be as inspired as we were by these stories of young Brooklyn residents committed to making the world a better place and helping those in need. These local kids are making a difference in the community every day, and we salute all of them!
Taelynn-Marie and Her Family Help the Homeless
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As a Caring Kids Award Recipient, Taelynn-Marie will receive a $500 gift card and a certificate of recognition for her community service. |
My 9-year-old daughter Taelynn-Marie has been volunteering with my nonprofit foundation GOTI since she was 6. I founded GOTI three years ago and she has been a vital part of its success and impact on the Brooklyn community since then. Each year we feed Albemarle Family Shelter in Brooklyn Thanksgiving dinner, and we gift all 200 kids Christmas gifts and serve breakfast. Taelynn-Marie has served food, wrapped gifts, decorated trees, and donated time and service to the homeless families year after year without complaint. She even happily traveled to Haiti with me on a mission trip to paint houses and plant trees when she was 7 years old. Taelynn-Marie has served others without expecting anything in return and finds joy in doing so. She is shaping up to be a true servant leader.
Genevieve, 9, Raises Money for Charity With Homemade Bracelets
I have had the pleasure of knowing Genevieve from Staten Island for a few years, and she is quite amazing! She raises money for breast cancer and autism awareness by making her rainbow loom bracelets with embellishments. She is 9 years old and has been doing it for three years. Her mother and grandmother are her inspiration—her grandmother is a breast cancer survivor. Her grandmother had a full mastectomy and her mom had a lumpectomy several years ago and about 10 biopsies. So it’s an ongoing scare they have as a family. She’s just a loving and caring special little girl. She also suffers from epilepsy, for which she has started fundraising.
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A Family That Offers Services and Toys to the Needy
I have cosmetology skills, so I do little girls’ hair in my apartment building for free since it costs so much to go to the beauty salon. My three children take out toys from their toy bin every month and send them to the Dominican Republic for less-fortunate kids as well as clothing they’ve outgrown. For the holidays we purchase toys and give them out to kids in the shelters. We love helping others as a family.
A Bake Sale for Charity
My daughter started a community service group in her high school this year. They baked cookies, brownies, and cupcakes, and raised enough money to donate 25 boxes of food (yes I was able to get teenagers in the grocery store!!) for Thanksgiving to the NY Common Pantry!!! They even added decorations to the boxes for a nice touch. Because of them, at least 25 families in NYC had a nice Thanksgiving.
Sienna Donates Socks and Other Essentials to Homeless Shelters
Socks are one of the most requested but least donated items at homeless shelters, which is why my 7-year-old daughter, Sienna, and I are donating sock bundles. Sock bundles consist of a water bottle and a piece of candy wrapped in a pair of socks with a personalized note.
Olivia, 8, Raises Funds for Clean, Safe Water
For her 8th birthday, my daughter Olivia gave up gifts and instead asked friends and family to make a donation to Charity Water. She also made a presentation to her class about what she was doing and why. Her presentation and birthday campaign inspired her teacher and three classmates to use their birthdays to raise money for causes important to them. Olivia set up a web page to raise funds, sent out emails, and spoke 1-on-1 to her friends about her mission. She asked for $8, with a goal of $800 for her 8th birthday. I am thrilled to report she met her goal in less than 24 hours and went on to raise more than $1,600 to bring more than 50 people access to clean, safe water every day.
Siblings Supporting a Food Drive
Both of my kids have expressive language disorder and severe anxiety. Through their Bear Boy Scout Troop 815 and Brownie Girl Scout Troop 2339, they signed up for a food drive, believing they would only be handing out flyers to help feed the hungry for Thanksgiving. Little did they know that they would also have to approach strangers entering the supermarket and verbally elaborate on further questions from the strangers in great detail. This is an extremely difficult task for both of them. What was most difficult was each of them standing at opposite ends of the long entrance ramps all by themselves and making it happen without the rest of the troop since they volunteered in shifts. Nonetheless, despite the anxiety and fear visibly kicking in, they used every strategy they knew of to dig deep into themselves and pull out the courage to get this food for the hungry. They were only supposed to give an hour of their time but because they were so eager to join the cause, they showed up 45 minutes earlier and stood there for almost 2 hours. As I and some other adults watched them get stuck on their words at times, yet reach some good Samaritans that chose to donate food, our eyes welled up with tears of pride for their perseverance and hope for their own personal challenges as well. As a parent, I was proud of my contribution to the world in raising caring kids.
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