Onslow County Harmony, short for Helping All Reach More Options through New Youth Givers, started last fall with the dual goals of learning about philanthropy through first-hand experience and supporting programs assisting their peers in the community.

"If we can make a change, and if we put our minds to it, we will make a better tomorrow," says Gabrielle Landi, a member of Harmony and a 16-year old sophomore at Jacksonville High School.

Landi is an experienced volunteer - having worked with the local soup kitchen and women's shelter and helped clean up the New River - but didn't know much about the concept of philanthropy.

"I'd heard of it, but never really looked into it and didn't know what it meant," she says.

But through Harmony, she says, she now understands that philanthropy is "not just the giving of money, but of time and talent."

"It's real people wanting to make a change for people you don't even know," says Landi, who is involved in the North Carolina Youth Giving Network, a statewide movement of youth philanthropists. "This moment, this thing we do, can make a real change in someone's life..."

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Read more about NCGives' involvement with the NC Youth Giving Network.