Inspired February 2015 Inspired February 2015 | Page 30

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COLTON’S
CORNER
Philanthropy In “Uncommon Places”
Colton’s Corner is a
page dedicated to
providing a spotlight
on youth philanthropy.
Stories will include
how young people
are getting involved
in their community,
ways you can make
a difference, and
personal stories/
reflections from Colton
himself. Philanthropy
is awesome, because
everyone can work
on making a positive
change in their
community. Colton
hopes to inspire you
with his stories, and
the stories of others,
so you can go out
and be a young
changemaker yourself
(if you’re not already
well on your way).

Philanthropic acts are all around us.
There are different methods of giving,
and there are different levels of giving.
There are millionaires helping students
go to college, and there are college
students helping mentor the college
students of tomorrow. As you can see,
philanthropy can be this large continuous
cycle that is never ending. The literal
Latin translation of philanthropy is “the
love of mankind,” and this can mean
many different things.

in the news recently. This campaign
was innovative and raised a lot of
money, and awareness, for ALS. Who
knew that dumping a bucket full of ice
on your head could be considered
philanthropy?!? Kid President, a young
YouTube sensation, created a campaign
called Socktober (held in October) that
rallies people to collect socks to give to
homeless shelters. Thousands of pairs
of socks were collected to help those in
need.

While it is true that donating money to
an organization you care about is a form
of philanthropy, it is not the only way
people are working to make a difference
in their community. For example, my
friend’s father was going through dialysis
treatments, and through his experience
she learned that these treatments can
make you feel very cold. So my friend
decided to make blankets for the dialysis
center to give to patients as they were
going through their treatments.

I have provided examples of both small
and large scale acts in order to illustrate
that philanthropy is all around us. Large
scale impact on social issues is really
great to see, but so are small acts of
kindness.

Another example of philanthropy involves
my father and brother. Every year they
both enjoy going deer hunting. There
is a local nonprofit organization that
partners with local butchers to process
the meat in order to donate them to food
pantries. This is an example of how my
dad and brother help out the community.
While it is not the most conventional
form of philanthropy, it is still conside