December 2006
Inspirational Kids
Young Hero Award Winner
Grows Food for ‘Akemi’s Hungry Kids’
Akemi Takahashi, a Bellevue 5-year-old with a big heart and big dreams, is the winner of the 2006 Seattle’s Child Young Heroes Award.
Her goal of helping to feed the hungry by growing her own garden and selling the produce began with a simple question when she was 3 years old: “Who is my neighbor?”
Her mother, Kathy Takahashi, pointed to a neighbor outside their house, but Akemi was not satisfied. “No, Mom,” she said, “who’s my neighbor.” Together, they re-read and discussed the story of the Good Samaritan from the Bible. A week later, the family met a true neighbor in need – a little girl named Calista. “Calista came over to our house all the time. She had not enough to eat,” Akemi remembers.
Akemi says she was sad to lose her friend when Child Protective Services moved Calista to a foster home because of neglect. “I wanted to help her, but I couldn’t because she was taken away,” Akemi says. “So I wanted to help other children.” She and her parents considered some options, but then she remembered that Calista and her mother went to the food bank each week. She decided she wanted to plant a garden, and called her project “Akemi’s Hungry Kids.”
Earlier this year, the family worked together to clear the grass from a 10- by 10-foot area in the sunniest part of the yard. Akemi’s 3-year-old brother Kai helped remove four wheelbarrows full of rocks from the little plot. Akemi almost emptied her piggy bank to buy $7 worth of seeds – corn, carrots, green onions, lettuce, cucumber and squash – all laid out in neat rows, labeled with colorful, laminated signs. She watered the garden frequently through the long, hot summer days. Sometimes she weeded it.
Rather than taking the fresh vegetables to the food bank, the Takahashis washed and dried them and put them in paper bags decorated with stamps. After making up flyers and “Akemi’s Hungry Kids” business cards, they took the vegetables door-to-door in a little red wagon and sold them for 50 cents a bundle. Not surprisingly, most people paid more for the fresh produce.
“Grandma and Grandpa bought some of it,” Akemi says.
She then contributed the $250 she raised to Northwest Harvest, the statewide hunger relief agency that distributes food to 300 food banks across Washington. Publicity prompted more people to donate to Northwest Harvest through “Akemi’s Hungry Kids,” and $1,600 was raised by press time. Anyone may make a donation to the “Akemi’s Hungry Kids” fund at any U.S. Bank through Christmas.
The kindergartener excitedly encouraged her teacher and principal at Eastgate Elementary School in Bellevue to get involved in the school-based Cans for Kids fund drive for Northwest Harvest in November, and she plans to replant her garden next year.
“What makes Akemi’s story unique is her resourcefulness,” wrote Northwest Harvest spokesperson Claire Acey, who nominated Akemi for the Young Hero Award. “Instead of simply going door to door collecting single donations, Akemi invested in a garden that would continue to provide food to sell for many seasons to come.”
Her business card for “Akemi’s Hungry Kids” includes her title, “Master Gardener,” and a Bible verse, Matthew 25:40 – “Whatever you do for one of the least of these my brothers, you do for me.”
“Jesus is happy when you help other people,” she says.
Wenda Reed is editor of Seattle’s
Child and Puget Sound Parent.
Young Hero Runner Up Is a Role Model for Youth
Jane Boldrey, 17, our Young Heroes Award Runner Up, has been volunteering at the Northshore YMCA in Bothell since she was 12, and is now a major fundraiser and a nutrition teacher to younger kids. “She is a leader amongst her peers in other teen programs and is an excellent role model for youth and adults alike,” says Zemorah Murray, the Northshore Y’s director of youth development.
Many young people begin volunteering because their schools require it, but Jane already fulfills her volunteer hours at Bellevue Christian School, where she is a junior, through the service projects the school organizes. “I do this because I want to,” she says of her countless hours volunteering at the Y.
She started with the Partners with Youth fundraising campaign when she was 12, calling donors to ask them to invest in programs for young people, including those who may not be able to afford the full cost. In addition to raising about $1,000 a year, Jane put together a division of 20 to 30 teen volunteers for the 2006 campaign. “The teens have an edge, a different perspective about life. It helps them build rapport with the people they’re calling,” she notes.
Jane saw some of the results of the campaign when she worked at the YMCA Day Camp at Cottage Lake this summer. Some of the kids were able to participate because of scholarships provided through Partners with Youth. “There’s no place I’d rather have kids be than at camp,” Jane says with enthusiasm. “Kickball can change your life.”
This fall, Jane began teaching the Health Smart! program for young people ages 9 to 14. Her mother, Kay Dickenson-Boldrey, and students at Bastyr University modified the Y’s Eight Weeks to Wellness curriculum for adults into the program for adolescents.
“I used to watch my mom teacher the adult class, and I changed the slides in the projector when I was in fifth grade,” Jane remembers.
In the weekly Health Smart! sessions, she leads some physical activity, provides healthy snacks, and leads discussions of the curriculum. “We’re emphasizing making a lifestyle change,” she says. “Kids get the cultural message that you can take a pill and lose weight. But you also need physical activity, fiber and a good diet. We really stress that we don’t think you’re unhealthy. We want you to keep being healthy.” Discussion may include eating disorders and factors behind obesity.
“We took the program to some school-age care sites this year, and we’d like to do more,” Jane adds.
She isn’t sure what she wants to study in college, but she hopes her future career will involve working with young people, preferably with the YMCA. “I’m passionate about seeing kids grow,” she says. “We help them unwrap their gifts inside themselves.”
Outstanding Young Philanthropist
Is Fundraiser and Teacher
At age 16, Rajarshi “Raj” Majumder is already making a name for himself as a young man who has a knack for helping to teach children – and for raising a significant amount of money to keep programs for young people going.
He has volunteered to help children read, write and do math since he was in sixth grade. Last year, as a junior at Newport High School in Bellevue, he helped the Lake Heights Family YMCA raise $15,000 for poor Bellevue and Renton children and their families to participate in preschool and after-school recreation programs. The previous year, he helped the organization raise about $12,000.
For those contributions, the Association of Fundraising Professionals named Raj “Outstanding Young Philanthropist” for 2006. He was recognized with six other local philanthropists at the organization’s National Philanthropy Day luncheon in November.
All this, and Raj hasn’t even graduated from high school yet! In fact, this overachieving teenager is now spending his “senior year” working fulltime in a neurology lab in Baltimore and attending classes part time at John Hopkins University.
You might say helping others is part of his core. He wants to be a neurosurgeon someday.
He started volunteering at about age 14 when he lived in Idaho. His mother worked as a therapist with behaviorally challenged children, and Raj helped by tutoring the kids. When he moved to Bellevue, he took on a volunteer role at Group Health Medical Center, and began to tutor at the YMCA in the summer before his freshman year in high school.
Raj originally became a tutor to fulfill his required community service hours. But it turned to a passion when he noticed the impact it had on his students. “In a few months, I continued to see parents come in and say how great their kids were doing and how much they improved. When I saw the outcome I was getting from it, it was overwhelming for me. The outcome is so much more than I expected. That really got me involved.”
Recognizing Raj’s leadership potential, YMCA staff asked him to help raise money as part of the organization’s annual campaign, Partners with Youth. They appointed him leader of the teen division and let him run with it. Over two years, he and other teens raised $27,000 for the organization.
During the 2004/2005 school year, Raj formed an Amnesty International Club at his school out of a desire to broaden his peers’ global perspectives.
What advice does Raj have for other teens?
“You don’t have to take it on such a big level. You can start anywhere,” he says. “You can start with something small, like helping the older neighbor mow their lawn. If you start on something small, it can turn into something much greater.”
Cynthia Flash is a writer and media consultant with Flash Media Services.
Jingle Bell Honoree Doesn’t Let
Juvenile Arthritis Rule Her Life
Sadie Jordan, 9, is this year’s Honoree for the Arthritis Foundation, Pacific Northwest Chapter’s Jingle Bell Run & Walk. She puts a human face on arthritis, which can strike children as well as adults.
When Sadie was 18 months old, she stopped walking. Since the Edmonds toddler could not talk in full sentences to tell her parents what was wrong, they were puzzled by the unexpected change in her walking skills. Sadie’s mother, Theresa Jordan, noticed that her daughter’s right ankle was swollen, and her parents thought she must have twisted or injured it when they were not looking. They took Sadie to her pediatrician, who examined the ankle and assured them it would probably heal in a few days. But a few days turned into weeks, and Sadie continued to avoid walking. Over the next four months, the Jordans took their daughter to eight different doctors, including an orthopedic specialist, but found no answers.
“It was so frustrating to go from doctor to doctor
and not have any reason for what was wrong,” remembers Theresa Jordan.
“One doctor even told me that it was a behavioral issue, and that
she just wanted attention. But as a mom, I just knew there was something
else that was wrong. She was just lying around, and she was not playing.
She was so little, and she didn’t have her voice yet, so I had to
speak for her,” she remembers.
Sadie’s parents finally took her to a new pediatrician recommended
by a family member. The doctor remembered learning about Juvenile Rheumatoid
Arthritis (JRA) in medical school. The Jordans were referred to a rheumatologist,
and Sadie was diagnosed with pauciarticular (few joints) JRA when she
was 22 months old. This diagnosis meant Sadie had fewer than four joints
affected by rheumatoid arthritis.
Over the next six years, Sadie had what her mother calls her “active times” and her “quiet times” with JRA. “She was able to play soccer and baseball – which she loves – during the quiet times,” Jordan remembers. But in the summer of 2005, Sadie’s arthritis took a turn for the worse. “She was experiencing pain everywhere, and she was tired and weepy all the time.”
Doctors at Children’s Hospital upgraded Sadie’s diagnosis to polyarticular JRA, meaning the arthritis now affects many joints in her body. In the past year, doctors at Children’s have increased and changed Sadie’s medications many times, trying oral medicines, steroid injections into her joints and even intravenously-infused medication to help fight the inflammation that attacks the healthy cells in her joints.
Throughout Sadie’s diagnosis and treatment, she continues to be a vibrant and happy little girl. She just celebrated her 9th birthday, and says some of her favorite things are reading books about magical adventures, riding her bicycle, coloring pictures and going to the park to swing. She participates in the Arthritis Foundation’s Kids and Teens Get Arthritis Too (KAT) group where she has connected with other kids with arthritis and made new friends.
Being chosen as this year’s Jingle Bell Run &
Walk honoree is giving Sadie a lot of confidence. “It has really
brought her out of her shell,” says Jordan. “She’s finding
her voice now. She knows she has something different, and she’s
realizing we all have something different, and she’s not alone.”
Sadie and her family want to serve as an example to other children with
JRA, a disease that is often misdiagnosed or overlooked in children. They
want people to know that rheumatoid arthritis affects kids as well as
adults, and JRA is not as uncommon as many may think.
“One child in 1,000 will develop arthritis or some form of a related
disease,” says Helen Emery, M.D., professor of pediatrics and chief
of pediatric rheumatology at Children’s Hospital in Seattle.
Most children who have JRA will have it first show up as joint pain, swelling,
and stiffness when they wake up in the morning. Parents and doctors may
have a hard time realizing the problem in very young children, since they
may not complain about it. Local medical research has found that it takes
an average of 10 months from the onset of symptoms for a child to be accurately
diagnosed and begin treatment for JRA.
Emery says another problem with diagnosing the disease in children is
that the blood test used to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis in adults often
comes back negative in children. A pediatric rheumatologist usually makes
the diagnosis based on the child’s history and a physical exam.
As for Sadie’s family, it is not enough for them
to sit back and quietly wait for a cure. They are taking an active role
with the Arthritis Foundation by participating in the Jingle Bell Run
& Walk and talking about Sadie’s disease openly. This is helping
them to understand Sadie’s diagnosis, to get support from friends
and family, and to help other families by raising awareness.
Jordan’s advice for other parents is, “If your child is really
fatigued, has a loss of appetite, stops playing like they used to, and
is always sore; don’t accept that is just growing pains. Have a
voice and be an advocate for your child until they get the correct diagnosis.”
JRA is something Sadie has learned to live with. It has not stopped her from being a typical 9-year-old. In fact, it has given her strengths she may not have possessed had she not had the disease. She has an intense love, kindness and empathy for all living things. Sadie says she wants “to be a doggie day care person” when she grows up because she has a special fondness for animals.
She also has a special ability to sense other people’s sadness or pain, and has compassion for them. “I haven’t met a kid with JRA that didn’t have a special intuition about the people around them who are hurting,” says Jordan. “They know what it’s like to live with pain, and they understand that not every day is an easy day.”
Katie Amodei is a Lynnwood-based freelance reporter, mother and stepmother.
Jingle Bell Run & Walk
The Jingle Bell Run & Walk is an annual fundraiser to benefit the Arthritis Foundation Pacific Northwest Chapter. Funds raised provide funding for research, programs and services to prevent, control and cure arthritis and related diseases for more than 2.2 million people living with arthritis in the Pacific Northwest.
The event consists of a 5K run, 5K walk and 1K children’s Run with the Elves, as well as a costume contest, prizes and entertainment.
When: Sunday, Dec. 10. 1K Run with the Elves begins at 8:20 a.m. and 5K runs and walks begin at 8:50 a.m.
Where: Westlake Center, Pine Street and 5th Avenue, downtown Seattle.
Registration: Call or visit Web site for advance registration. Day of race registration begins at 6:45 a.m. on the second floor of Westlake Center.
Information: visit www.seattlejinglebellrun.org
or call 206-547-2707.
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