By Sarah Melody

The 2^nd annual Canada’s Top Teen Philanthropist search, created by financial company Mackenzie Investments, has awarded Sophia Gran-Ruaz with a $5,000 donation to the charity of her choice and $1000 for her post-secondary education. The 17-year-old student at John Cabot Secondary School in Mississauga, Ontario, founded Snug As A Bug, Kids Helping Kids six years ago to create care packages for children entering shelters.

“That’s probably the most difficult time for them,” Gran-Ruaz tells Samaritanmag. “Most of them come just with the clothes on their backs because they are fleeing with their mothers because of abusive relationships and things like that. The care packages are all gender and age appropriate and are filled with books, stuff animals, playing cards, puzzles, magazines.”

The Mississauga, Ontario resident created Snug As A Bug after writing a speech about homelessness for school. Accompanied by her father, she went downtown to speak first-hand with people living on the street. “It was an amazing experience, especially being so young. You certainly have stereotypes of what a homeless person is so hearing their stories really broke that stereotype for me,” she says.

Too young to volunteer at most other charities, the enterprising 11-year-old gathered 500 care packages for babies to age 16 and sent them to Interim Place North and South. The second year approximately 1300 care packages were sent to Interim Place North and South, and The Salvation Army Honeychurch Family Resource Centre. The third year over 2300 care packages were created and sent to the previous two shelters, plus VCWRS Women’s Resource Center. And so on, with more packages and more recipients added each year.  To date, Snug A Bug has distributed more than 10,000 packages.

The process takes nine months in total. Gran-Ruaz contacts companies herself and asks for donations of items.  She is prepared to send pamphlets about Snug A Bug, if needed. When the goods arrive, she organizes them according to age and gender, and stores them until everything comes in. Of course, she sends out a thank you letter.  On packaging day, such as next month for the batch of 3000, she contacts her 30 to 40 volunteers, and they all get work.  The packages are then delivered by a series of trucks to the shelters and Gran-Ruaz sends out an update letter outlining where they were all sent.

Gran-Ruaz heard about Canada’s Top Teen Philanthropist through a family friend, Robert Propeau, who decided to nominate her. Mackenzie Investments opens the search to anyone 13 to 19 years of age who have donated their time fundraising or volunteering to help his or her community.

“Mackenzie operates a program called the Mackenzie Charitable Giving Fund, where we administer and set-up foundations for individuals,” Brad Offman, vice-president of strategic philanthropy, at Mackenzie Investments tells Samaritanmag. “Part of being in the business of philanthropy we thought it was very important to take on initiatives that we choose.

“In 2007, we launched a children’s book called the Charity Glove, which was designed to help parents teach philanthropy to their youngest children between the ages of 5 to 8, and we wanted to do something to reach out to teenagers. The idea we landed on to help promote philanthropy to Canadian teens was ultimately the Top Teen Philanthropist contest. We thought it would be a wonderful way to engage and recognize teens around the notion of philanthropy”

Offman says there are many teenagers doing extraordinary things for charities and to help others, so there has to be a way to distinguish between them and narrow down the nominees to the one truly outstanding, deserving teen.  Chosen by a panel of judges comprised of Offman; 2008’s winner Jane Wu; Free The Children founder Craig Keilberger; Danielle Silverstein, executive director of Jays Care Foundation; Monica Patten, president and CEO of Community Foundation of Canada; and Carlos Bustamante, host of YTV’s The Zone, they have a set of criteria.

“It’s not the person who’s raised the most money; its not the person who has volunteered the most hours; we are looking for sincerity,” Offman explains. “After we go through the applications and interview the finalists, we’re looking for a teen that we’re really convinced is doing what he or she is doing for all of the right reasons — not for the attention, not to get experience for a future job, not to build their resume for university, but because they genuinely want to give back to the community. I think we chose the winner who really exemplifies that characteristic.

“After reviewing her application, clearly she had done so much and taken an incredible amount of initiative, but it was really after speaking with Sophia and interviewing her — in conjunction with her application — that made us recognize how sincere she was about what she was doing. We were thoroughly convinced that her motives were so pure and well intended that she really stood above the crowd.”

Just under 100 entries were received for 2009’s Top Teen Philanthropist search. Gran-Ruaz gave her $5000 winnings to Toronto’s Hockey For The Homeless. “I have spoken for them in the past and we have similar causes,” she explains. “They do tournaments and things like that to raise money for the homeless. I trust them and I know they are going to use the money for something good. I mean with various organizations you really wonder when you donate, how much actually gets used for the cause and I know they are going to use everything for something good.”

For more information on Gran-Ruaz’s charity, go to http://viewitfromhome.com, then select Snug As A Bug

For info on the Top Teen Philanthropist contest, go http://www.mackenziefinancial.com/teen

By Sarah Melody

We have 30 basic human rights, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created by the United Nations in 1948 to provide a global understanding of how to treat individuals.  Before I became National Youth Spokesperson for Youth For Human Rights International’s Canadian chapter in 2005 at the age of 16, I had no idea what my human rights were, and even though the document has been around for 61 years I know most people don’t.

Back in 2005, I was promoting anti-bullying through my tune “Song of Peace,” which led me to the Stop the Violence conference in Toronto, held by Michael “Pinball” Clemons, then coach for the Toronto Argonauts. I spoke on behalf of my generation, in front of teachers and community leaders. My three minutes grabbed the attention of Youth for Human Rights International, a non-profit organization teaching people their human rights. They asked if I would represent their organization.  After seeing their “United” music video, a street-savvy, multi-ethnic, anti-bullying message, and their other video PSAs and printed materials, I accepted the position. I was titled National Youth Spokesperson and my first major assignment was to represent Canada at the 2006 International Human Rights Summit held at the United Nation headquarters in New York.

Human Rights is a global term we hear often, but many people can’t define. So the question is what are human rights? “Rights” are things we are allowed to be, to do or to have, simply by being human. We each own 30 basic human rights, based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and in my role as National Spokesperson, I have been speaking and singing my songs at elementary and high schools across Ontario. We hope to expand to the rest of Canada. I educate the kids about human rights and how it’s our responsibility to learn them and spread the word, since human rights are not taught in the schools or at home. My message to everyone is not political; it focuses on education. Even in Canada, a place of freedom, we still have issues of violence in homes and on the streets. By educating each other, we can hopefully, eventually, eliminate this.

Youth for Human Rights International presently has more than 180 chapters in over 80 countries around the world, including Australia, Denmark, Ghana, Guyana, India, Japan, Liberia, Morocco, Puerto Rico, South Africa, Uganda, the UK, U.S.A. and, of course, Canada. Last August, I represented Canada in Geneva Switzerland at the 6^th annual International Human Rights Summit. I met youth delegates ages 16 to 25 from all across the globe with the same goal in mind, human rights education.

International Human Rights Day is right around the corner on December 10, celebrating its 61^st year of existence. So what can you do? Learn your rights! If you’re a parent or teacher share these rights with your kids or pass them along to a friend. Feel free to learn more about your human rights at www.youthforhumanrights.org or email info@sarahmelody.com

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

1. We are all free and equal. We are all born free. We all have our own thoughts and ideas. We should all be treated in the same way.

2. Don’t discriminate. These rights belong to everybody, whatever our differences.

3. The right to life. We all have the right to life, and to live in freedom and safety.

4. No slavery – past and present. Nobody has any right to make us a slave. We cannot make anyone our slave.

5. No Torture. Nobody has any right to hurt us or to torture us.

6. We all have the same right to use the law. I am a person just like you!

7. We are all protected by the law. The law is the same for everyone. It must treat us all fairly.

8. Fair treatment by fair courts. We can all ask for the law to help us when we are not treated fairly.

9. No unfair detainment. Nobody has the right to put us in prison without a good reason and keep us there, or to send us away from our country.

10. The right to trial. If we are put on trial this should be in public. The people who try us should not let anyone tell them what to do.

11. Innocent until proven guilty. Nobody should be blamed for doing something until it is proven. When people say we did a bad thing we have the right to show it is not true.

12. The right to privacy. Nobody should try to harm our good name. Nobody has the right to come into our home, open our letters or bother us or our family without a good reason.

13. Freedom to move. We all have the right to go where we want in our own country and to travel as we wish.

14. The right to asylum. If we are frightened of being badly treated in our own country, we all have the right to run away to another country to be safe.

15. The right to a nationality. We all have the right to belong to a country.

16. Marriage and family. Every grown-up has the right to marry and have a family if they want to. Men and women have the same rights when they are married, and when they are separated.

17. Your own things. Everyone has the right to own things or share them. Nobody should take our things from us without a good reason.

18. Freedom of thought. We all have the right to believe in what we want to believe, to have a religion, or to change it if we want.

19. Free to say what you want. We all have the right to make up our own minds, to think what we like, to say what we think, and to share our ideas with other people.

20. Meet where you like. We all have the right to meet our friends and to work together in peace to defend our rights. Nobody can make us join a group if we don’t want to.

21. The right to democracy. We all have the right to take part in the government of our country. Every grown-up should be allowed to choose their own leaders.

22. The right to social security. We all have the right to affordable housing, medicine, education, and child care, enough money to live on and medical help if we are ill or old.

23. Workers’ rights. Every grown-up has the right to do a job, to a fair wage for their work, and to join a trade union.

24. The right to play. We all have the right to rest from work and to relax.

25. A bed and some food. We all have the right to a good life. Mothers and children, people who are old, unemployed or disabled, and all people have the right to be cared for.

26. The right to education. Education is a right. Primary school should be free. We should learn about the United Nations and how to get on with others. Our parents can choose what we learn.

27. Culture and copyright. Copyright is a special law that protects one’s own artistic creations and writings; others cannot make copies without permission. We all have the right to our own way of life and to enjoy the good things that “art,” science and learning bring.

28. A free and fair world. There must be proper order so we can all enjoy rights and freedoms in our own country and all over the world.

29. Our responsibilities. We have a duty to other people, and we should protect their rights and freedoms.

30. Nobody can take away these rights and freedoms from us.

* List provided by Youth For Human Rights International, adapted and simplified from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Here is a link to the original:  http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

Nine-year-old raises $2000

By Kevin Shea

To look at him, Toronto’s Michael Fessaha is a regular kid – just turned nine, a handsome young man with a twinkle in his eye and who is always on the go. But beneath the exterior lies a soul that’s wise and compassionate beyond its years. Few of us, let alone a kid, can lay claim to raising $2000 for cancer research.

In December 2005, Michael’s father was diagnosed with stomach cancer. His frequent visits to the hospital for chemo treatments had impacted Michael, and as his journey was coming to an end, his only child was deeply affected. Although his final five weeks in palliative care at The Princess Margaret were filled with love (“His room could easily have been mistaken for a maternity room, there was so much joy,” explains his wife, Gaby Abdelgadir), Michael’s father passed away on February 13, 2008.

Michael took his father’s death exceptionally hard, and through sage advice, was set up with a guidance counselor, Carrie Mack, to ease him through the tragic loss. Mack brought Michael together with Lisa Slater, a teacher at St. Albert Elementary Catholic School in Scarborough, Ontario.

One day, Michael’s mother received a phone call at work. “A teacher [Slater] from Michael’s school was on the phone,” recalls Abdelgadir. “I asked her if everything was okay and she assured me that it was. But then she got emotional as she told me of a plan Michael had discussed with her.”

The plan was nothing short of astonishing. She relayed to his mom what Michael had said: “I want to do something to help other kids who have lost their father or mother. I want to raise money for cancer research and give it to three hospitals in Toronto — Princess Margaret because that was where my dad was; Toronto General because that’s where my dad had his operation, and Sick Kids.” Michael wanted to do something “so no other kids ever lose their mom or dad, and so no mother or father ever has to lose their kid.”

Abdelgadir was stuck for words. Through shaken speech, she asked, “My Mikey said that to you?”

“Yes,” came Slater’s response.

Michael had already thought through his plan. He believed that a toy sale at the school could raise the money he envisioned. He explained that toys, games, DVDs and books that other students and their families didn’t want any longer could be sold with the proceeds split three ways between the hospitals.

“Do we have your consent to go ahead with this special project?” asked the teacher.

“You’ve not only got my blessing, but tell me how I can help,” replied Abdelgadir.

With Slater’s assistance, Michael created flyers that went home to parents, and Abdelgadir also circulated the flyers around her office at Deloitte and Touche. Michael couldn’t have dreamed of a greater response: a flood of toys, games, new iPods, DVDs and books arrived at the school. But in addition, brand new sports equipment, jerseys, gift certificates, games and a new bicycle were donated by his counselor, staff and students. It was decided that these items would be objects of desire for a raffle, so tickets were sold for these prizes. A few surprise cheques were also received.

The entire school community got involved with what some came to call “Michael’s Wish.” From beginning to end, Michael, Abdelgadir, Slater and Mack worked tirelessly. Michael’s teacher, other staff, students, families, the secretary, caretakers, and the principal and vice-principal also joined in. The toy sale and raffle raised just shy of $2,000 – a large sum for anyone, but a staggering amount for a shy nine-year-old boy. But that boy had a mission, and it was most certainly accomplished.

Slater made the appointment, and on Monday, March 2, a beaming Michael Fessaha marched into The Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation and was greeted by Paul Alofs, president and CEO of Princess Margaret Hospital Foundation. “I wanted to deliver this cheque in person in memory of my dad. He died from cancer,” Michael told Alofs.

“I’m so glad you did, Michael,” said Alofs, accepting a cheque from Michael for $662.37, the portion allotted for PMHF.

“It’s why I got a day off school,” Michael said.

Alofs smiled. “Michael, I think there’s a whole lot more to it than that!”

When Michael returned to school later that day, he shared the story of his visits to the hospitals with the principal and vice-principal. At day’s end, he made a P.A. announcement to the entire school.

“I had a wish to raise money for cancer research,” he explained. “I want to say a big thank you to all of you for helping to make my wish come true. Take it from me, you are never too young to make a difference, and to help other people.”

* Kevin Shea, sports writer and hockey author, is also the manager of public relations at PMHF and wrote this piece after hearing of Michael Fessaha’s mission