By MAGGIE JARUZEL POTTER
- YouthBank is by young people and for young people
- Grantmaking program challenges and teaches
- Participants can come from different races, religious backgrounds, and social classes
This article is part of an occasional series about the community foundation field and the Mott Foundation’s role in supporting and strengthening it. The series reports on what is occurring in Mott’s major geographic focus areas — Central/Eastern Europe and Russia, South Africa, and the U.S. — as well as providing information about how the field is expanding globally. Mott’s goal is to inform the public about the latest trends in the community foundation field in advance of its 100th anniversary year in 2014.
About 2,000 spectators attended a recent air show in Bucharest, Romania, which featured aerobatics, parachuters and glider pilots. Afterward, many adults gave positive comments to the event’s organizer — and all their remarks shared a common theme, says Paul Craciun, a 12th-grader and third-year YouthBank member. [See YouthBank main article.]
“People kept asking me, ‘How old are you? What? You are only 18 and you did all this? That’s amazing!’,” Cracium said.
“It seems like they thought teenagers were only doing drugs and other bad things, but YouthBank projects are opening their eyes.”
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Paul Craciun is a 12th grader and third-year YouthBank member.
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He credits his parents with providing encouragement for all the activities he pursues — including aeronautics, for which he recently passed a series of pilot exams and earned the highest grades in the group.
But Craciun cites YouthBank as the program that changed his perspective on the positive impact young people can make by volunteering in their own community.
To him, and many other Romanians, he says, donating time is a new concept due to a lack of promotion of volunteer opportunities in his country. Except for the Red Cross, Craciun says, YouthBank was the first volunteer organization he had ever heard of when he was in the ninth grade.
“It changed my thinking 180 degrees,” he said. “Before YouthBank, I wanted to be a pilot because I love to fly. But now I want to be a project manager. After I complete my university studies, I will come back to Romania and help make this a great country. Before, I would look and see so many bad things. But now I say, ‘Hey, we can change this!’”
Craciun laughs when he remembers how he was before joining YouthBank, noting that he had been terrified to speak in front of others. However, much of the fear faded after he made a successful presentation to a group of about 50 business people and secured financial support for a YouthBank project.
In addition to developing public speaking and fundraising skills, Craciun says, YouthBank taught him the value of targeted grantmaking. Even a small sum of money, he says, placed in the right hands, can meet a specific need and can change people’s lives.
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A successful air show in Bucharest, Romania, was organized by a YouthBank member.
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One unusual grant proposal really excited him, Craciun says, but it was not well-received originally by others in his YouthBank committee. After much discussion, including comments that the project would be a “waste of money,” the group finally agreed to fund a person to dress as a teddy bear and walk the streets, passing out hugs, chocolate and flowers.
The grantee created a Facebook page that generated many posts with upbeat comments and warm remarks from those who had met the teddy bear, Craciun says. Ultimately, the costumed character connected with 3,000 Romanians and started many discussions about kindness.
“He made a lot of people smile and very happy to get free chocolates,” he said. “Even someone that everyone knew was a bully smiled after he was hugged.”
When the bully asked Craciun, who was standing nearby, why the bear was walking the streets, Craciun used the opportunity to talk about YouthBank, he says.
“‘Wow! That’s really nice.’ That is actually what the bully said to me. I realized he’s not such a bad person,” Craciun said. “If it had not been for YouthBank, we never would have met, and both our views would not have changed.”
Another time, a teenager asked Craciun how much he gets paid to be on the YouthBank committee and appeared shocked when he learned it is a volunteer organization. Although he gets no money, Craciun says, he told the young man that he has received a lot from YouthBank — and named all the skills he has learned. He also challenged the young man to join YouthBank.
“It is so important for teenagers to do something like this,” Craciun said. “We are young and we have lots of free time because we don’t have jobs and families. We have time that we can give to benefit our communities.”
Read more about Mott-funded programs that are helping to develop the next generation of leaders in the U.S. and around the world.