{"id":5339,"date":"2012-10-01T13:56:18","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T17:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=5339"},"modified":"2021-04-23T17:08:24","modified_gmt":"2021-04-23T21:08:24","slug":"jfk-random-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jfk-random-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"JFK and Random Kids"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is a movement brewing among young people who are waking up to the problems around them and taking action in meaningful, effective ways.<\/p>\n

You can see it everywhere from children planting vegetables with classmates and giving away the fruits of their labor to homeless shelters in South Carolina to college students transforming abandoned buildings to revitalize downtown Syracuse.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see this every day in our work — young people desiring to be agents of change and architects of the larger democracy,\u201d said Harry Boyte, founder of Public Achievement<\/a>, an international youth civic education and empowerment initiative now active in over a dozen countries.<\/p>\n

[pullquote]Today\u2019s youth are part of a \u201cnew civic generation\u201d able to work practically and effectively across their differences on public problems.[\/pullquote]<\/p>\n

In all the presidential election noise — speeches about citizenship, entitlements and dependency, spongers and achievers \u2013 it\u2019s easy to ignore what is really happening with young people, who are just getting on with things.<\/p>\n

Boyte told The Story Exchange<\/a> that today’s youth are part of a \u201cnew civic generation\u201d able to work practically and effectively across their differences on public problems.<\/p>\n

This generation is heeding the call made in John F. Kennedy’s inauguration speech<\/a> over five decades ago: \u201cAsk not what your country can do for you\u2014ask what you can do for your country.\u201d<\/p>\n

JFK\u2019s brilliant, simple idea is intersecting with young people today who, as the result of technology, are witnessing problems near and far in a way that was virtually impossible only a few years ago.<\/p>\n

Technology is also allowing young people to share their ideas and optimism online, to network and perhaps most importantly, to mobilize. We’ve moved well beyond the Girl Scouts<\/a> selling cookies for troop fund raising \u2013 it’s a brand new world.<\/p>\n

A young woman who embodies this spirit is Talia Leman, a 17-year-old from the small town of Waukee, Iowa, who founded RandomKid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

She was ten when Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, and the images she saw on the television left her desperate to help.<\/p>\n

But what can a ten year old do? How about leveraging the great American tradition of trick or treating?<\/p>\n

Leman spearheaded a movement that had children collect relief money on Halloween instead of candy. Her efforts snowballed and thousands of young people collectively reported $10 million raised for Katrina Relief<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After this astounding success, Leman co-founded RandomKid<\/a>, to help mobilize young people help others.<\/p>\n

\u201cRandomKid was kind of born from this need to provide the resources to other kids who want to make a difference for the things that they care about in the world,\u201d Leman told The Story Exchange<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So far her non-profit has mobilized 12 million youth from 20 countries to provide aid on four continents.<\/p>\n

Leman’s story will appear on our website on October 2nd. Watch her video and become inspired by a young woman who is making an amazing contribution to her country and to the world.<\/p>\n

John F. Kennedy would certainly be proud.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a movement brewing among young people who are waking up to the problems around them and taking action in meaningful, effective ways. Learn more about Talia, who mobilized kids to raise $10 million for Hurricane Katrina Relief. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":6330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":false,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187,3],"tags":[19452,20026,19761,19726],"class_list":["post-5339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-entrepreneur-videos","tag-social-entrepreneurs","tag-civic-engagement","tag-social-entrepreneurship","tag-youth-empowerment"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJFK and Random Kids<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/jfk-random-kids\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"JFK and Random Kids\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There is a movement brewing among young people who are waking up to the problems around them and taking action in meaningful, effective ways. 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