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Nov. 16, 2012
Help others because you can
Talia Leman, 17-year-old philanthropist, has a hopeful message.
LAUREN KRAMER
She’s just a “random kid,” insists 17-year-old Iowa native Talia Leman, who spoke to the almost 500 women gathered at the annual Choices dinner in Vancouver. Leman’s nonprofit, RandomKid, assists children to work on solving world problems by developing networks between kids internationally. She distributes seed funds to start their ventures, mentors them and, in conjunction with them, has raised close to $11 million through RandomKid-guided initiatives.
With her endearing smile and long legs, Leman looked like she could have been walking down a runway modeling clothes at the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver-hosted event. But her goal was serious: to inspire the generations of Jewish women gathered at the Hellenic Community Centre on Nov. 6 that they, too, could help change the world.
She did this by telling her own story, which started in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. At the time, Leman was 10 and determined to raise money to help the victims of Katrina by collecting coins for Halloween instead of candy. She appointed herself “chief executive optimist” and her brother “chief operating nemesis” of Coins for Katrina. She also created a website to publicize what she was doing, placing a picture of her brother, in his Darth Vader costume, on it, along with her fundraising goal of $1 million.
Next thing, she received an invitation to appear on The Today Show and, within hours of that appearance, she was fielding calls from the Iowa governor, from UNICEF, from a national grocery chain that wanted to help her and from kids all over the United States who wanted to participate. By the time all the coins were tallied, she and other kids had raised a combined $10 million for Katrina.
“I didn’t know youth could raise that much money, but I knew someone had to harness youth power,” she told Choices attendees. “So I started RandomKid, to solve real world problems and make a difference in the world.”
The name of her organization originated from how she sees herself, she explained. “I am a random kid,” she insisted. “If I see myself as anything more, how will those I seek to empower see the potential they have? Through this, I’ve become a witness to greatness in others that I never could have foreseen.”
RandomKid’s projects include fundraising for the 163 million orphans worldwide, bringing renewable energy to the developing world, growing food for the homeless, promoting “anti-bottles” for a greener earth and many others. She’s helped mobilize some 12 million children for these and other projects.
Leman’s philanthropic work has won her the National Jefferson Award, the International Youth Talent Award from the European Union and the designation of Champion of Intercultural Innovation by the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations; she is also a UNICEF National Youth Ambassador.
Leman said that her grandfather, a 93-year-old Holocaust survivor, taught her one of her most important life lessons. “He’s one of the kindest people I know. I knew of him as the man who never let us pay for anything at the dinner table, his credit card was always the first one out,” she said. “One time, I asked why he always insisted on paying for everything. His answer? ‘Because I can.’ That’s become my motto,” Leman exclaimed. “I think that’s the single best reason to do anything.”
The women who attended the eighth annual Choices event represent more than $450,000 of charitable giving to the community through the Federation annual campaign. Event sponsors included Aritzia, Core Bioinformatics, Vancouver Podiatry, and Marni and Shannon: Real Estate Outside the Box.
“Sponsorship is very important to maintaining Choices’ role as a community-building event by offsetting the cost of the event so that we can keep ticket prices as low as possible,” said Becky Saegert, JFGV director of marketing and communications. “It also helps us maintain the high-quality experience that we are committed to delivering, and that women in our community have come to expect at Choices. The ticket price for Choices is only $40, which includes a full kosher dinner and the speaker, but that $40 alone does not cover the cost of what it takes to produce an event of this scope and calibre.”
One of the projects JFGV supports is Yaffa House, a home for adults with special mental health needs, and Tzvia Estrin, the mother of one of the individuals who benefits from Yaffa House, addressed the audience. “His illness is not something you can see, but it’s all too real, and the boy we knew is lost to us,” she said. “Like a missing son, the pain never dies but haunts us with the hope that someday we will find him again. My son’s suffering has given me the courage to ask you today to understand. If you can take the time, you can make his world a less painful place.”
JFGV’s women’s philanthropy division is expected to raise nearly $2 million in gifts this year from women who give in their own name, which constitutes nearly 25 percent of the total annual campaign.
Lauren Kramer is an award-winning writer in Richmond. Read her work at laurenblogshere.com.
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