We are excited to share that since we launched our Social KidPreneurz Awards Program in April, it has received a lot of positive feedback.  People have asked if older kids can apply and what should they do if they missed our initial application deadline.  Well, we are happy to announce two important things:

• We have expanded the age range so that kids who are in grades 3-8 can apply for an award.  We know that young kids have what it takes to do this kind of activity.  And, we also know that older kids are looking for fun school or faith-based community service projects or are eager to serve as mentors to younger kids by assisting them with their efforts!
• We are now set up to offer a rolling application schedule, so you and your kids can submit an application anytime during the year.  We will notify award winners within 4 weeks of receiving their application.

We are excited about the young social entrepreneurs who have won awards already, and we will continue to share their stories with you throughout the year.  And, we look forward to reviewing more kids’ award applications as well as receiving your ideas and feedback.  Keep the inspiring stuff coming!

© YesKidzCan!, 2011

Did you know that June 30th is Superman’s birthday?  As I kid, I remember marveling at this this crime fighting phenom’s super powers.  All my friends and I could recite verbatim: ”Faster than a speeding bullet.  More powerful than a locomotive.  Able to leap buildings in a single bound.  It’s a bird.  It’s a plane. It’s Superman!”

Today, Superman makes me think of a different kind of super hero.  The kind that doesn’t have to wear a cape.  Instead of an “S” emblem on his chest, he may very well have spaghetti sauce.  Instead of changing in a phone booth, it would be a miracle if he changed his clothes at all!  Instead of keeping his super self separate from his ordinary self, the two would be one in the same. I am, of course, speaking of our kids — the every day heroes of our time.

Take, for example, Sarah Conner.  Since was 5 years old, she has been raising money for various charities.  During her hometown’s two annual parades, Sarah and her mom take good advantage of the parade routes which pass by their house.  They make and sell 10 gallons of pink lemonade.  She has raised more than $4,000 for UNICEF and the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, and the March of Dimes.   In third grade, Sarah started a recycling program at her elementary school and speaks, trains, and has her own website on the subject, ProjectLemonAid.  If all that wasn’t enough, she produced an award-winning short film about endangered species called “Beauty Is Disappearing” and has started her own eco-conscious blog.  Now at age 11, who knows what tall building Sarah will leap!

All of our kids have the ability to make a difference in our world.  They may need a little encouragement.  They may need you to set an example.  Perhaps challenging or inspiring circumstances have motivated them to take action.  Or they may just have that extra compassion gene that drives them on their own.  So instead of looking up in the air for our super heroes, just look across the breakfast table at your kids!

© YesKidzCan!, 2011

The school year is done!  We handed out the teacher gifts, had the end-of-year parties, and are full-on into summer activities.  And even though the school year is complete, I wanted to share a bit more about teacher gifts because the approach we decided to take this year ended up giving us a welcome surprise!

We all know that finding time to get the appropriate gifts can involve last-minute mad dashes around town.  I happen to feel that the racing around is more than worth it!  What good teachers do year in and year out is nothing short of remarkable.  A show of appreciation is highly warranted!

As hard as I tried to plan in advance, I did find myself behind the eight ball thinking about how to show our appreciation.  My daughter and I decided that this year, we would give gifts that would allow her teachers to help other teachers through one of my favorite groups — DonorsChoose.  This website gets teachers from all over America to post classroom project requests that require funding.  Requests range from pencils for writing project to violins for a recital to microscope slides for biology class.  You can browse the projects, select one, and give any amount to the one that inspires you from $1.00 on up.  You get photos of your project, a thank-you letter from the teacher, and a cost reporting that details how each dollar was spent.  The site allows you to purchase a gift card for someone else, print out the certificate, and present it to your recipient.

We decided to get DonorsChoose gift cards for each of my daughter’s teachers.  My daughter helped write personal messages for each, and we printed out customized certificates for each educator.  To add a bit of whimsy, we purchased brightly colored mailing tubes and tucked one certificate in each. My daughter designed labels with each teacher’s name and handed them out the last week of school.

So this is where I thought the story would end.  But a few weeks after school ended, we started getting emails from DonorsChoose showing us how the teachers applied their gift cards!  It was pretty cool to see!  My daughter’s homeroom teacher supported Mrs. G’s classroom in Washington, D.C.  She developed a program called “Checking for Understanding” where she needed dry erase boards and markers as a quick and easy way for her students to work on guided practice activities and help her check their understanding.  Each student received their own whiteboard to work on.

My daughter’s science teacher supported Mrs. S’s classroom at a high poverty school in Peoria, Illinois.   Her classroom has many foster children who have been removed from bad situations and may be leaving the school soon for another home.  Mrs. S’s goal is to inspire her students to look beyond their everyday world at the hidden possibilities that exist.  So, she requested a digital microscope to show her students the magic that exists in the world.

I mistakenly thought my daughter and I wouldn’t give the teachers’ gifts a second thought once the gifts were selected and distributed.  We were not expecting to receive these heart-warming updates about how the gift cards were used.  We have a handful more of teachers who have not yet used their gift cards.  We can’t wait to get updates over the next several months to see what projects are being supported.   I guess we stumbled on a teacher gift that keeps on giving — to educators around the country and to us as well!  Keep it in mind for next year!

© YesKidzCan!, 2011

We all remember our first. Mine was a bunny.  (Did you think I was asking a different question?)  I’m talking about my first stuffed animal.  It was actually my sister’s, but she rejected it.  For me, it was love at first hug. So many hugs, in fact, that my mother had to re-sew the legs and arms back on countless times over the years.  When my daughter was born, my husband gave her a stuffed raccoon.  Eleven years later and she still keeps it in bed with her.

There is such sentimentality and nostalgia surrounding stuffed animals.  So it should come as no surprise that June 24 is Teddy Bear Day.  Yes, there is a “day” for everything…but I couldn’t resist this one.  So, in honor of all the bunnies, raccoons, and other furry friends we bonded to, I choose to acknowledge Teddy Bear Day.  You can as well.  There are a handful of groups who take pre-loved stuffed animals and make the day of a child who has experienced some kind of trauma or lives in war-torn areas.  Other groups gratefully accept new stuffed animals for children in hospitals, foster kids, orphans, and more.

• SAFE (Stuffed Animals for Emergencies)
• Project Smile
• Loving Hugs
• Project Night Night

Is Teddy Bear Day corny or a gimmick?  Perhaps. But I say turn it into an opportunity for you and your kids to pay it forward so other little ones can remember their first or most cherished stuffed animal.

© YesKidzCan!, 2011

We at YesKidzCan! are beyond excited to have made our first series of awards to support kid social entrepreneurs — kids who takes the passion they feel about a cause and undertake a business-like activity that earns money (or provides other resources) to support that cause.

We invited  invites kids in grades 3-5 (with an adult’s assistance) to apply for our Social KidPreneurz Awards Program with the hopes of winning a $100 award to undertake a simple entrepreneurial activity to benefit society.

Meet one of our award recipients — Cade from Kansas!  A fourth grader, Cade is going to bake cinnamon rolls and bread to sell at his local Farmers Market on Saturday mornings during the summer.  The money Cade raises will support the Marysville Food Pantry and the Back-Snacks Program where kids in need get back packs at school that are filled with food to take home over the weekend.  He has eager helpers including his mom and sister, and he plans to get the word out through free advertising via his local radio station, newspaper, community calendar listing, and his mom’s Facebook page!  His goal is to raise $1,000!  Simply fantastic!  We also applaud Cade’s mom for supporting her son and seeing this as a unique learning experience for him to help others – particularly kids around his own age!  Congratulations to Cade and our other award winners.  We will be sharing their stories with you over the coming months!

Also, check back with us by the end of June when we will have breaking news about more opportunities with our Awards Program!  In the meantime, to learn more, check out our Awards Application as well as our Learning Tools for easy, age-appropriate, and free  information about social entrepreneurism.

At YesKidzCan! we believe that by exposing kids to social entrepreneursim when they are young, we’re helping them imagine more ways to solve problems and believe they can use the power of entrepreneurism to change the world for the better.

© YesKidzCan, 2011

Summer’s here!  That means a lot of outdoor activities, sporting events, and warm-weather fun.  Amidst the swim meets and ball games, you can help your kids practice a different kind of good sportsmanship by making a difference in someone’s life.  Here are two easy things to consider:

• Donate sports equipment. During any one of your kids’ sporting events, ask them to bring gently used athletic equipment that can be donated to other kids who can’t afford them.   You can tap into our Good Sportsmanship Community Service Project Kit to find all the information you need to organize this effort including groups that accept these donations.
• Donate sports tickets. Can’t make it to a ball game?  Donate the tickets to your local hospital for kids who would benefit from a distraction from their health concerns.  Simply call the volunteer coordinator at your area hospital to see if they accept tickets.

These are just a few simple ways to have good fun this summer!

© YesKidzCan!, 2011

You should know Asya.  She went from doodling to making a difference.  She is an impressive 13-year-old who took her drawing skills to a whole new level with the support of her mom by creating Stinky Feet Gurlz — a quirky and amusing apparel and accessories line with a 1940′s feel.

Even more impressive, Asya uses this platform to bring attention to a serious issue — child sex slavery and trafficking.  She has started a foundation called She is Worth It! which donates a portion of sales from Stinky Feet Gurlz to support the rescue and recovery of young girls who are sold into prostitution.

Who knew a doodle could end up having such a meaningful effort behind it!

© YesKidzCan!, 2011

So you want to motivate your kids to take action around a cause that is important to them?  Why not try tapping into their love of all things “point and click?!”  Thanks to a Homepage Heroes, you can sit down with your kids and marvel at how far superior their technology skills are by creating a personal homepage that supports causes.  Your homepage serves as the gateway to online purchases from any of the 960 participating merchants.  Your transactions result in donations to the charity of your choice. You pay exactly the same product price you would normally pay and deal directly with the retailer.  You can even apply coupons or special offers! Create your own page, or use one of the site’s 70 backgrounds, various widgets, feeds, and search engines.   Your efforts will bring to mind a new spin on an old saying,  “Your homepage is where the heart is!”

© YesKidzCan!, 2011

What do you get when you take a group of kids, plain glass jars, and a bunch of big hearts?  A really fun community service project!  It’s called the Giving Jar Community Service Project and involves kids taking simple glass containers, decorating them to look like stained glass, and collecting money in their containers to donate. Kids can take part of their allowance, do chores to earn change, or fashion any other creative idea to top off their jars with well-earned dollars for their charity of choice.  Everything you need to do this project is available in a downloadable kit format.  The kit is almost free — just $8.00 — with 100% going to children’s causes.  It’s a winner among kids, but don’t take our word for it.  This video says it all!

© YesKidzCan!, 2011