A key idea that girls learn at GLAM is that they are not too young to change the world. The world’s problems are solved by people who pay attention to the needs around them, then have the courage and take the initiative to do something about them. In this article, we salute some of the girl heroes who have stepped up and helped during the COVID-19 pandemic. If you know of others, please tell us about them in the comments!
10-year-old Chelsea Phaire
Chelsea Phaire decided she wanted to start a charity to help underserved kids at the tender age of seven. Thanks to her passion and persistence, her parents helped her set up Chelsea’s Charity. Her first initiative was launched on her 10th birthday, when she asked her friends to donate art supplies instead of giving birthday gifts. She used these initial donations to distribute 40 art kits to kids at a local homeless shelter. Since social distancing measures impeded her from personally delivering the kits starting in March, Chelsea and her family have mailed more than 1,500 art kits to children in foster homes, homeless shelters, and schools impacted by gun violence.
12-year-old Ridhi
Ridhi, a student of the International School of Hyderabad in India, founded the crowdfunding initiative, Project Care-ona, as soon as the nationwide lockdown was ordered in India on March 24. Project Care-ona partners with other local charities to deliver food packages to families in underserved communities affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. She has already raised more than 1.1 million rupee or about US$15,000. Her efforts have garnered national attention and the Indian vice-president personally thanked her in a Tweet.
13-year-old Khloe Thompson
Khloe Thompson started her charity, Khloe Cares, at the age of nine. She started out making hand-made cloth bags with her grandmother, filling them with over 20 daily necessities like feminine hygiene products and toothpaste, then handing them out to local homeless women. Within two years she had handed out 2,000 “Kare Bags”! During the COVID-19 pandemic, Khloe posted a video showing people how to make their own face masks. Khloe has also participated in GLAM as a special guest speaker!
14-year-old Kennedy McCormick
Kennedy McCormick began raising funds to feed people in her Tampa, Florida community when she was seven years old. Every year for her birthday, she asked people to donate boxes of cereal to the Feeding Tampa Bay charity’s Cereal for Summer initiative, instead of giving her gifts. This year, when COVID-19 social distancing restrictions kept her from having her normal birthday party, she used her creativity and came up with the idea to raise money through a virtual piano recital. She raised $3,000, which corresponds to 30,000 meals!
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