"Little Hero, Big Heart" (From WFMY News 2)

Greensboro -- His peers are calling him a hero after 11-year-old Matthew Olive surprised 31 mentally challenged adults with tickets to a Greensboro Grasshoppers Game.

Olive is a volunteer at Sanctuary House. The nonprofit group is a social integration program for mentally challenged adults.

Olive said he views the members of Sanctuary House as his friends and decided to help them even more. On his own, Olive saved his allowance money and collected donations.

Through donations and saving up from his allowance, the sixth grader raised $650 to buy tickets. Thirty-one members from the Sanctuary House went to the Grasshoppers Game with Olive on Monday afternoon...

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"Rural youth lead change in their town" (From Philanthropy Journal)

Thomasville -- Piling into a school bus, a group of high-school students wonder what a tour of the small town most of them grew up in will teach them.

But a scavenger hunt reveals areas of need, a brief town history and a tour of social-service agencies previously unknown to them.

Seeing their hometown with new eyes is a first step in the "community assessment." Over the course of a semester, the Youth Philanthropy Class at Thomasville High School learns how to use their "3T's" - time, talent and treasure - to make a difference in their community...

...It all began in 2007 with a call from Eric Rowles, founder of Leading To Change, about an opportunity to participate in the Youth Philanthropy Project. Through a generous gift from NCGives, Communities In Schools of Thomasville was able to become a part of the N.C. Youth Giving Network, with seed money for youth grantmaking and a year of training and group facilitation for the fledgling youth philanthropy program.

Eventually, the extracurricular program transitioned to the alternative of a school-hours Youth Philanthropy Class, emphasizing a hands-on approach to community change.

The Youth Philanthropy class is a group of hand-picked students, focusing on kids who haven't yet found their niche or place in the spotlight.

Donald Mock, the teacher, leads the young people over the course of a semester through a process of self-discovery and community awareness to the final product - a service-learning project created by the class to meet a need they identified as being the most important for the teens of Thomasville.

Teens use their time and talent, along with some fundraising of their own to earn any necessary treasure, to complete the projects they select. Last semester, students identified a community park in dire need of a make-over...

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