Love Letters to Kenya
Kid's plan to shower Kenyan children with love letters and Valentine's
(PRWEB) January 29, 2008 -- Sixth-grader Johnny Crater has recently spearheaded a successful fund-raising effort raising over $5,000.00 to help build an orphanage in Kenya, but the recent bloodshed has forced him to rethink his vision of spreading hope and love to African children. Deeply disturbed by the violence and chaos following the corrupt election in Kenya, this CNN Child Hero nominee has found the answer to his prayers about how to help the suffering Kenyan children: love letters.
Crater's campaign involves kids making valentines for orphans in Kenya. No money, just the message that kids in America care about what's happening to their peers across the globe. Sending a message of love during this time of turmoil and unthinkable atrocities will be something the children remember when they're older--both the givers and receivers--and can cause a positive spark that Crater hopes will spread into a fire of positive change.
The Web site of the charity Crater directs, heart4heart.org (www.heart4heart.org), is bracing for an influx of address and logistical inquiries now that Crater is contacting kids at all the schools he knows who will further pass the project along. Holland Hall School in Tulsa, Oklahoma is the first school to participate in the letters of love campaign, where many children are already involved in Crater's Heart4Heart organization.
On Tuesday, January 21, 2008, Crater will receive the first of approximately 1,000 "Love Letters" which he will be mailing to the Tumaini Orphanage in Kenya. Other Kenyan orphanages will be listed on his web site heart4heart.org on Tuesday, January 21, 2008, along with addresses of several Embassies.
The bordering country of Tanzania has graciously accepted the task of distributing all "Love Letters" which children or adults may wish to send to the hundreds of thousands of refugees currently residing along their border awaiting the end of the Kenyan conflict.
Crater's adult corporate and philanthropic mentors have been instrumental in the orphanage fund-raising campaign. With some of these mentors in Kenya when the outbreak began, the reports Crater received about the specific atrocities and fate of the orphans he and his friends have worked so hard to help have ignited this 11-year-old's passion with more power than ever.
Certainly, Kenya has many more pressing needs such as food, water, and shelter than "Love Letters", but the kids of Heart4Heart are hoping to provide the children of Kenya with hope of a brighter tomorrow.
Africa, like the environment, poses a looming challenge to kids and adults alike. Beginning a tradition of simple, love-based concrete actions (like Crater's on-going "one kid, one dollar" campaign) sends the message that something small can make a big difference.
About Johnny Crater
Johnny Crater is not your average 11-year-old. While most kids his age are eliminating video game bad guys, Johnny is working tirelessly to eliminate childhood poverty in Africa. And he's been successful so far--the philanthropic foundation he directs, Heart4Heart.org, recently met its six-week fund raising goal of $5,000, which is enough to help 12-children enter the orphanage in Kenya he is working with. That amount is just the beginning of his larger goal to raise at least one dollar per orphaned child in Africa (a total of at least $12 million). Johnny has met with influential businessmen, bankers, politicians, accountants and lawyers since establishing his 501C organization to ensure that every cent collected goes entirely to the children of Africa, and the process has inspired kids countrywide.
While Johnny spends significant time meeting with adults such as his mentor John Coors of Coors Brewery, his real passion lies in empowering and inspiring other kids. He's created an organization called "The Congress of Kids," which he wants to expand with Heart4Heart.org to find young representatives from across the country to carry his message of one person, one dollar. Johnny speaks directly to children and asks them to donate from their allowances, not through their parents, so they can experience the joy of giving. A Christian, Johnny is an assistant Sunday school teacher to 2nd through 4th grade boys, and loves working in the nursery with babies and toddlers. Adopted as a baby himself, Johnny became a regular visitor to local retirement homes by age four. At six, he was inspired to successfully raise $1,000 for calling cards for the military through the Red Cross' Military Connect.
Johnny has raised approximately $20,000 through fundraisers he's held for different causes, including victims of Hurricane Katrina and the SE Asia Tsunami, the Special Olympics, Salvation Army and the Susan Komen Cancer Society. He also gathered enough Spanish-language children's books to begin a children's library for orphans in Matamoros, Mexico. This past fall Johnny was recognized as a finalist in the top six of the current CNN Child Heroes. CNN is the same network that originally inspired Johnny's campaign for African orphans with their special report, "Where Have All the Parents Gone?" Being that his biological father is of Kenyan descent, the program made Johnny realize that he could have been one of those orphans, and further propelled his philanthropic passion. Johnny plans to continue developing Heart4Heart.org, and when it comes to video games, he's working with a classmate to develop one of those too. It'll be called "Philanthropist" and serve as an online meeting place for kids to do good throughout the world.
Contact:
Johnny True Crater
(918) 366-9897
heart4heart(at)att.net
www.heart4heart.org
Amanda Crater - New York
(510) 684-0954
Chris Crater - Los Angeles
(818) 920-6222
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