With 600 entries from over 16,000 children, parents, teachers and community leaders, Scholastic is proud to announce the 11 winners of the first annual BE BIG In your Community Contest. The winners range in age from 8 to 67 and are from all across the United States. We hope that these BIG Ideas inspire others to think BIG.
Remember…It Only Takes a Little to BE BIG!
Name: Madelon K. Age: 11 Team Entry: 35 Team Members Hometown: West Virginia Participating HandsOn Network Affiliate Organization: Volunteer Action Center of the Mid-Ohio Valley
BIG Idea: I LOVE going to the playground. One day I told my Mom and Dad that it was not fair that some of my friends could not play with me on the playground at our City Park. I have two very good friends that are in wheelchairs. It makes me sad they can't play with me. So my Mom started looking into special needs playgrounds. She found a playground called Boundless Playgrounds. It allows ALL children to learn and play together. My Mom is in Junior League and they took it on as a project. My Mom calls the playground JuLePs Pathways Playground. She says it's going to be a pathway for all children of all abilities to walk and come together to have fun. Clifford loves the park too and he had a show where one of his dog friends only had three legs, so Clifford understands that all dogs and all kids like to have fun!
Name: Mattie T. Age & Entry: 14 / Team Entry: 15 Team Members Hometown: Arkansas Participating HandsOn Network Partner Organization: Heart of Arkansas United Way
BIG Idea: I'm Mattie. My friend Lydia and I are 8th-graders in Middle School. We've become aware of the needs of the homeless community in the Metro area of Little Rock, Arkansas. We did research and learned that in Arkansas over a half million kids live in poverty. We want to help. The kids at Our House Shelter for the Working Homeless have a summer program called "My Picture Perfect Summer" that is lacking funds. The kids need a safe place to be and things to look forward to like we who are lucky enough to have parents and homes. Our Big Idea is to engage the community in helping to bring the children of the homeless community into the community at large through activities and contact with kids with "normal" lives. Through activities together, we will all learn to share, to be responsible to one another, to help others, to work together, to be a good friend, to have respect for each other just as we find each other, and to be kind to each other. We know we can inspire some of the other 50 members of the North Little Rock Mayor's Youth Council to pitch in and help us make it happen - and to continue to raise funds and volunteer with the children there after we're gone. We'd like to see our council's involvement with the kids continue and to see the children there all be healthy kids who believe in themselves and have lots to look forward to every summer.
Name: Fay Finn Age & Entry: 61 / Team Entry: 13 Team Members Hometown: Burnsville, MN Participating HandsOn Network Affiliate Organization: HandsOn Twin Cities
BIG Idea: We believe that students would have better attendance and perform better in school if they were well nourished. Our project is expected to improve the student learning experience for elementary students who are eligible for free or reduced-price meals by providing them with a backpack of weekend food to keep them energized for school. We named our project "BrainPower in a BackPack!"
Name: Ian Watt Age & Entry: 20 / Team Entry: 6 Team Members Hometown: Cedar Rapids, IA Participating HandsOn Network Affiliate Organization: United Way of Central Iowa
BIG Idea: My Big Idea is to create a program called Music Mentoring. The local school music program is limited, and many parents can't afford to give their kids private music lessons. The Music Mentoring program would give area elementary students free one-on-one instrumental music lessons provided by volunteer mentors with a strong musical background. The only "payment" for lessons would be each student's agreement to give back by sharing their gifts with their community. Participating HandsOn Network Affiliate Organization: United Way of Central Iowa
Name: Mike Lind Age & Entry: 27 / Team Entry: 4 Team Members Hometown: Waterloo, IA Participating HandsOn Network Affiliate Organization: Volunteer Center of Cedar Valley
BIG Idea: The Northeast Iowa Food Bank's Big Idea is to start several Mobile Pantries throughout the 16 counties we serve. The purpose in developing a Mobile Pantry is to enhance the ability of communities to better serve those in need by providing extra food product directly to individuals at or below the poverty level.
Name: Adrianne L. Age & Entry: 15 / Individual Entry Hometown: Florida Participating HandsOn Network Affiliate Organization: Hands On Miami
BIG Idea: My BIG IDEA involves two of my passions: the sun and kids. Skin cancer rates are very high among young people in places with warm climates like Miami. My project, which I hope to call ‘SunSmiles’, involves an educational part that will reach each child one school at a time, and a structural part to raise funds to set up sun shades in under-privileged schools and parks where children spend most of their summer. In this way, I will both educate children from the sun and protect them from it on a daily basis for the future.
Name: Skyler P. Age & Entry: 9 / Individual Entry Hometown: California Participating HandsOn Network Partner Organization: Excel Youth Zone
BIG Idea: My name is Skyler and I am 9 years old and my brother Cody is almost 7. My mom is helping me write this. We have been doing really cool things for our community with a group called Kids for Peace for 3 years. Our Peace Pledge, which we perform for people in our community, reminds us a lot of Clifford's Big Ideas: I pledge to use my words to speak in a kind way. I pledge to help others as I go throughout my day. I pledge to care for our earth with my healing heart and hands. I pledge to respect people in each and every land. I pledge to join together as we unite the big and small. I pledge to do my part to create peace for one and all. My BIG IDEA is to create to create "Kids Care Packs" and give them to children in homeless shelters and hospitals throughout San Diego. "Kids Care Packs" are hand-painted knapsacks filled with school supplies, toiletries, a healthy snack, a copy of "The I AM! Affirmation Book: Discovering the Value of Who You Are," a toy and a note of care and friendship. These are similar to "Peace Packs" we have made for and sent to children from other cultures that we learn about in our monthly meetings.
Name: Susan Jensen Age & Entry: 59 / Individual Entry Hometown: Asheville, NC Participating HandsOn Network Affiliate Organization: Hands On Asheville-Buncombe
BIG Idea: Our school exists in a mountainous rural community. The community and school are as one, so both depend on each other. The community needs assistance in purchasing books for their children. The Big Idea is called the "Readers' Oasis" - which would be a special place in the community's school where there are "islands" of books, beach umbrellas, palm trees, flamingos, and monkeys. Students read books and earn points. Points will be exchanged for new books. Students will take these books home in order to start a library of their own.
Name: Joseph A. Fiore Age & Entry: 41 / Individual Entry Hometown: Wilton, CT Participating HandsOn Network Affiliate Organization: Volunteer Center serving Western Connecticut
BIG Idea: Our idea is to form an "Adopt A Grandparent" program or club. Through this program, students would be paired with seniors that would come from different living situations in the community. Students would literally "adopt" a senior that they would develop a relationship with over the academic year. Some of the experiences we propose would be creating a scrapbook, sharing music, or singing.
Name: Suzanne Nozaki Age & Entry: 54 / Team Entry: 16 Team Members Hometown: Hilo, HI Participating HandsOn Network Partner Organization: Children for Children
BIG Idea: My BIG Idea for my community is called: "Eat Your Lawn!" As a team leader and a teacher, I would create a service-learning project to help students "learn to serve"- as well as to "serve to learn." This community service project would provide community members with fruit trees to plant on their property in an effort to help them to "eat their lawns!" This idea would help teens to enable community members to "help themselves" by becoming more self sustaining.
Name: Darren Chapman Age & Entry: 37 / Team Entry: 13 Team Members Hometown: Phoenix, AZ Participating HandsOn Network Affiliate Organization: HandsOn Greater Phoenix
BIG Idea: Through our intergenerational community organic gardens, we want to work together to create community revitalization, healthy lifestyles and self-sufficiency. We want to start in our local neighborhood with an organic gardening project that aims to address nutrition education, exercise, and organic gardening. To achieve our goal of self sufficiency and sustainability, we propose organic gardens as a healthy lifestyle.
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