Tri Your Best

photo: Jen's Art & Soul cc

School is back in session...and for those kids not in organized sports and/or getting themselves to school by foot or bike, racking up enough exercise can be a challenge. Enter the Applebee's-sponsored Kids Helping Kids Triathlon, scheduled for October 12 in Cary, N.C. Kids 7 to 12 can start their "training" now to participate and raise money for childhood-cancer research.

Walk This Way

photo: Kate Ter Haar cc

It's exciting to see the enthusiasm among teens at my sons' school for the upcoming Autism Walk. My only regret -- and it's a biggie -- is that the walk supports Autism Speaks, an organization that's garnered a less than ideal "financial" score from the Charity Navigator watchdog group; has repeatedly demonized autistic children in its "awareness" campaigns; and, one could argue, seems to focus more on scaring people than tangibly helping to improve life for children and families experiencing autism.

If I could wave a magic wand, I would transfer at least part the Autism Walk funds to the Doug Flutie Jr. Foundation for Autism, which actually provides grants to families -- in some cases through Joey's Fund, honoring a beautiful little girl killed in the 2012 Newtown tragedy -- for medical bills; advocacy-related legal fees; therapies; mainstream activities like art, music and horseback riding that can be extremely beneficial for autistic children and teens; and other expenses that challenge middle- and especially lower-income families.

While it may be too late this year, what about encouraging our fired-up kids next year to organize a smaller but more helpful (to real-live people with autism) walk or other event benefitting the Flutie Foundation? Alternatives to Autism Speaks can be frustratingly hard to find, but this organization -- at least as of spring 2014 -- seems to fit the bill.

True Blues

Blue Monday may be a myth, but in most places, January is doubtless one of the most brutal months weather-wise. The post-holiday comedown can be tough, too. Overall, not an easy time for teens struggling with depression.


Of course there's no substitute for a solid treatment plan for those with a clinical level of depression, but this video from the advocacy group Erika's Lighthouse offers an authentic-feeling collage of empathy and support from peers. Debunking the myth that only "the dark kid in the corner" is depressed, they mix facts with personal perspectives to help other depressed teens feel less alone.

Miss Merry MAC

photo: beautyzine.com

How can a blog called Kids Helping Kids be complete without an annual plug for the MAC Kids Helping Kids holiday card line? Made with artwork by HIV-affected kids to support their peers, these are always a wonderful charity Christmas card option. Only problem? They disappear fast! So dash over to your MAC counter if you're interested.

Candy is Dandy?

photo: jamalfanaian via photopin cc

Not necessarily, for the estimated 2.2 million school-age food allergy sufferers nationwide, who may find decoding ingredient labels scarier than ghosts & goblins this Halloween. Kids in this position, or caring peers who empathize with them, can build awareness by trick-or-treating for charity in support of the the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network. Another way to help? Have kids pick allergen free candy for your family to give out this year.

Doggedly Determined



image: amazon.com

 If you stopped by Amazon today, you probably saw the great story about 7-year-old-author Evan Moss. Afflicted with nighttime seizures that are perilous if not managed instantly with medication or, sometimes, a 911 call, Evan self-published a book, My Seizure Dog, to raise money for a specially trained canine companion capable of sniffing out seizures before they begin -- and warning his parents. The cost of such a pet is $13,000, and to date Evan's book has raised $41,000. Where did the extra cash go? He's donated all of it to help other kids -- 7 so far -- complete their fundraising goals and obtain seizure dogs.

MAC is Back

Grab 'em before they sell out: MAC Cosmetics' Kids Helping Kids holiday cards and gift tags feature art by HIV-affected kids, with proceeds helping peers through the MAC AIDS Fund. In keeping with this year's "Ice Parade" theme, the adorable cards offer plenty of shimmer & shine to light up your holidays.

Walk This Way

Today is International Walk to School Day, with nearly 3,800 schools participating in the U.S. alone. Walk-and bike-to-school rates have plummeted over the last four decades, with many parents citing safety concerns as the barrier. Safe routes are a piece of the puzzle, but kids can help also each other feel safer on the way to and from school by walking together. It's a common-sense way for kids to help each other maintain a healthy weight, manage stress, and add a little fun to the day. (What better time to debrief on the latest videogame release, Idol vote-off, or peer histrionics than walking with a friend?)

Nutty Buddy

With peanut allergy a treacherous condition for many kids circa 2011, brown-bagging families in some districts have found they need to operate within a school no peanut policy. Other schools, like ours, allow nuts but ask families to tag lunches that contain peanut. I asked my 14-year-old to help create a "Contains Peanut" label that would help protect peanut-allergic peers, and this is what we came up with. As always with our shop, 1/2 the design proceeds to go Save the Children.

Face to Face

image: changeforthechildren.org

Few kids like to be noticed for their differences, especially physical ones. So how to handle a prominent facial birthmark? Evan Ducker, 17, drew on firsthand experience to write a children's book dealing with the issue. The Kingston, N.Y., high schooler helped arrange a May read-along for thousands of students "to increase tolerance" of birthmarks such as his own facial port-wine stain. The book's premise -- a Galapagos Island booby bird has a chance to have his birthmark magically removed; will he take it? -- seems relatable to many types of differences kids experience. For his efforts, the teen author earned a spot on Parade's All-America High School Service Team, props from the Jonas Brothers, and most importantly -- he told Parade -- "parents' emails saying how much more confident their kids with birthmarks are" after reading the book.

It Gets Better

It's never easy, but adolescence can be especially harrowing for gay and bisexual kids. To help them cope with the pain, harrassment and isolation that can result from coming out (or not coming out), there's Dan Savage's incredible It Gets Better campaign. Thousands of gay adults have told their stories, shared their strategies, and radiated love and acceptance through YouTube videos shared on the campaign's website. But struggling kids will also find help from their peers, in the form of videotaped coming-out stories that run the gamut of emotions but all ultimately deliver the same message: You're not alone.

Hair Apparent

image: prohairdesigner.com

As is our habit in Chicago, we've done a complete 180 on the weather these past few days, turning from gray and drizzly to sunny and steamy. If I were 10 again with long long hair, I think I'd be drawn to Locks of Love, the well-known nonprofit that relies on donated hair to provide custom hairpieces for 6- to 21-year-olds who have lost their hair for medical reasons. Here's a plan for all the hip, giving young girls out there with 10 inches or more of hair to give: Clip it off now, send to Locks of Love, and enjoy the warm summer breeze on your neck (and the feeling of helping another kid). By September, your hair should have grown out enough to snip into one of those cute celebrity bobs that are all over the magazines lately -- just in time for the first day of school.

A for Effort

Typical teens today are busier than ever, but Alana Ethridge takes it up a notch further. As if balancing academics, extracurriculars, and TV & film jobs (including a stint on "Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?") weren't enough, the 14-year-old started her own foundation, Alana's Achievers, through Athletes for Education. The goal? Help other kids "achieve their dreams and set positive goals in life" and build the habits they need to get there, from strong school attendance to healthy eating and regular exercise. Understanding that extracurriculars are a pathway to discovering passions, she's offered modest scholarships for disadvantaged kids to cover the cost of these programs. She's raised funds for sick kids, including 9-year-old Danielle Lerma, who is in treatment for a rare blood disease. And she's promoted literacy, recruiting young celebs to visit her school in support of reading programs and partnering with Storytime for Me, aimed at early childhood literacy. You'd think she'd be tuckered out by now, but something tells me Alana's just getting started ...

Sew Kind

image: nonaknits.typepad.com

Tiny Baby-New-Years in Wake Forest, N.C., are waking up to the world in hand-knit hats, booties & blankets thanks to 10th grader Hannah Moyles, who provides warm clothing and blankets to "less fortunate" community members through her From Ewe to You charity. Her "Little Lambs" project supplies pediatric ward and newborn nursery patients with these handmade treasures. What a warm way to start 2011.

Turn It Up

Thought-provoking documentary "Race to Nowhere," screened last week near my home, underscores how pressured many teens' lives have become, with expectations to excel in academics, athletics, arts & community service. Structured, longer-term service projects can be tough to commit to when there's so much more to juggle. That's why the second annual Generation Cures "Battle of the Bands" online music contest is so appealing. Teen musicians can do something they already do for -- gasp ;) -- fun, within a limited timeframe, and in the process raise money for Children's Hospital Boston.

Band members ages 13 to 20 are invited to post an original song on their own personalized fundraising web pages. The theme ("make it better") is loose enough for plenty of creativity. Once songs are posted, bands' family and friends can log in, vote for their favorite tunes, and support the cause with an online contribution. The winning band earns a recording session at the Real School of Music, plus their song will be featured on the Rock Band Network.

The contest -- kicked off in September by pop rockers We The Kings -- starts next month and wraps in January, so gentlemen (& ladies), start your amps.

Staying Power

image: printliberation.com

Covering so many kids who've taken a charitable idea and run with it, I'd almost started to think all it takes is caring, creativity, and a little elbow grease. An email this weekend from two teens reminded me of one more prerequisite: perseverance.

When high schoolers Henry Dyke and Casey Karnes set out this summer to collect hygiene supplies for their homeless peers in Chicago, they started by asking upscale city hotels for donations -- soon learning these businesses "were not all that interested in helping two teens from [the suburbs]."  They cast their net wider and started phoning, faxing, emailing and visiting suburban stores, congregations, and inviduals. The result? The two met their goal and were able to deliver to the Night Ministry 199 complete hygiene packs, plus $150 in leftover monetary contributions. If at first you don't succeed...    

Give Me Shelter

Like 16-year-old Mackenzie Bearup, I found refuge in books as a young kid, wandering for hours a day in the world of words. Unlike Mackenzie, a CNN Hero, I wasn't driven to this place by intense physical pain.

Six years ago, Mackenzie was dancing to "American Idol" when her knee seemed to explode with pain. By the next day, it had swollen to grapefruit size, and within a week it would collapse when she tried to walk.

Doctors diagnosed Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, an incurable condition affecting anywhere from 200,000 to 1.2 million people. When meds and other treatments failed to ease Mackenzie's pain, she found that the only thing that distracted her from it was reading.

The experience inspired her to reach out to other kids who were suffering. She began collecting books for a residential treatment center, near her Georgia home, for severely abused children. With a goal of 300 books, she gathered 3,000 -- and a passion was born.

Mackenzie has gone on to collect more than 38,000 books to date for homeless and abused children in six states. With her mom's help, she launched a nonprofit organization, Sheltering Books, in 2009.

That's a story worth a book of its own.

(ps Thanks to Generation Cures, via Twitter, for the heads-up on Mackenzie)

Birth Day

Talk about kids helping kids! Check out this story about the Sanders family from San Francisco. Jabari, 9, and his 11-year-old sister Faith brought their baby brother into the world when mom unexpectedly went into labor. Moral of the story (besides keeping a towel & string handy when you're expecting!): Stay calm under pressure. And be ready for anything.

(Sanders family photo: Anda Chu, AP/Bay Area News Group)

Rice & Beans, Beans & Rice

It's hard to imagine my 3 picky eaters chowing down rice and beans for 3 meals, let alone 25 dinners in a row. But that's just what 8-year-old Riley Goodfellow (pictured) did, along with a corps of kid (and adult) family members and friends, to provide clean water for children in the developing world.

On a family trip to Guatemala, Riley was saddened to learn that 5,000 kids a day die from lack of clean water and basic sanitation. To illustrate the magnitude of this tragedy, she spent days drawing 5,000 hash marks on paper. And she set a fundraising goal of $2,500 to build a well through charity: water.

Birthday and tooth fairy money went straight to The Riley Project, along with contributions from individuals, home businesses & local service clubs. Riley inspired a rash of creative giving from friends -- from a peer who collected bottles and cans for recycling and handed over the resulting cash to an adult friend who contributed prize money from her award-winning jelly. Her parents helped, too, by applying "earnings" for time she volunteered at local agencies to her campaign.

In November, Riley and her family committed to eating rice and beans every night during Advent -- and applying their grocery savings to the Riley Project. "You will not believe what happened on Christmas Day!" Riley blogged. "There was an envelope on the tree for me, and I opened it and it said that I had finished raising all of the money for the well! I was so happy because I had written at school that all I wanted to give for Christmas was a well and then my dream came true."

Ultimately, so much was raised when other families joined the Goodfellows in their dining adventure that Riley doubled her fundraising target and contributed enough for two wells. Most inspiring? "One day I'm going to live wherever my well is built," she blogged. "So I need to get used to rice and beans."

Bald is Beautiful

Hair is a big deal when you're 15. But for 260 students at Palm Beach (Fla.) Central High School, helping sick kids is a bigger deal. The students shaved their heads en masse this month for St. Baldrick's Day, a worldwide campaign to raise money for childhood cancer research. With each student snagging $100 minimum in pledges from friends and family, the school turned over $75,000 in total to the St. Baldrick's Foundation. Inspired faculty members joined in, too, amid cheers and heartfelt tears.

The Palm Beach students are among more than 11,900 (wow!) kids and teens who have registered to shave their heads this year, says a St. Baldrick's Foundation staffer. Although most events took place in March, they'll continue throughout the year in different locations, with more than 100 scheduled for April.