Academic 411

service
The decision was easy. If one cabbage could feed
that many people, imagine how many people a
whole garden could feed.
A few weeks later when I came home from school, I
found a single sheet of paper from my mom on the
kitchen counter. It read, “Launch My Dream T-shirt
Design Contest,” sponsored by Amazing-Kids.org,
and asked, “What’s your dream?”
I thought about it for awhile. At first I thought about
things that I wanted for myself, and then it hit me.
My dream was not meant for me, it was meant for
others. My dream was to feed the hungry. Satisfied, I
grabbed the paper and went to find my mom.
For the next couple of days, I worked on a design
for a shirt. Finally I finished. I created a world with
people from all over holding hands. On the top of
the world it read, “My Dream…” and on the bottom it
read, “No Hungry Children.” Across the back of the
shirt it read, “Because it only takes a seedling,” and
had a drawing of a tiny seedling sprouting out of the
earth. I wrote an essay outlining my dream. I sent
the design and essay and kept my fingers crossed.
Not wasting any time launching my dream, I went
to my school and asked for their support. There
was one particular high school teacher who took a
lot of interest. He listened to me. He listened to my
dream. He didn’t see me as a fourth grader; he saw
me as a young lady with a dream and he wanted
to help make it, as he said, “come to fruition.” Mr.
Newman asked me to come to his classroom one
day after school. He told me he wanted to show me
something. We went for a walk across the school’s
campus. We walked up a long dirt path to a beautiful
sunny clearing about the length of a football field.
This, he said, would be my new garden. It was
beautiful and bright. Large trees encircled the plot of
land. It would make a perfect vegetable garden.
www.amazing-kids.org
Amazing Kids! was founded by Alyse Rome.
This online magazine is created and managed by
talented kids across the country. Be sure to visit this
website—it has lots of interesting news, contests,
and articles about kids like you!
It was at this point I knew I needed help. I had
support but I didn’t have the knowledge to grow
large scale gardens. Gardening was about more
than just putting a plant in the ground. I wanted
my gardens to be successful, so I asked for help.
Help came in the form of the most genuine person
I have ever met. Her name is Ms. Lisa and she is a
Clemson Extension Master Gardener. Ms. Lisa has
taught me everything I know about gardening, and I
am proud to say that I now know a lot.
It was shortly after that walk with Mr. Newman and
meeting my new master gardener that I received a
phone call from Alyse Rome. She explained to me
with great enthusiasm that she was the director of
Amazing Kids! and, out of the hundreds of “Launch
My Dream” entries, they selected my dream, my
entry, and my design as the winner. In no time at all
my design was available on T-shirts and hoodies.
Ms. Alyse explained she would be there to support
me and my dream. True to her word, she has been
there and she, along with Amazing Kids!, has given
me support and guided me down an extraordinary
path of the wonders of giving to others, lessons
of how to achieve your goals and opportunities to
make a dream come true.
After winning the Launch My Dream contest, I
was asked to write an article for a blog called “I
Never Grew Up.” I wrote about my cabbage and
how I wanted to expand my dream and plant more
gardens. A remarkable thing happened after I wrote
that article. It caught the attention of the general
manager of Bonnie Plants, the company that started
my dream by providing me with that tiny seedling.
He, too, believed in me and in my dream. He,
too, wanted to help me. Bonnie Plants would help
by donating hundreds of seedling to the garden
at my school, Pinewood Preparatory School in
Summerville, South Carolina.
With the help and support of Bonnie Plants, my
classmates, my school, my master gardener, and
Mr. Newman, I planted that garden at the school
with a crew from “NBC Nightly News” filming us.
Yes, they also heard of my dream and wanted to
document all those who believed in me. It would be
one of the biggest steps in launching my dream.
That garden would be the first of many gardens. I
now have numerous gardens that are located at my
Continued on next page.
7