Dream Team Feature: Meet Brooklyn!

My name is Brooklynn and I just turned 10. I love reading, dancing, modeling and helping others in any way I can!

This year, my 4th grade teacher Miss. Free taught my class all about compassion. Compassion to me means taking that next step and trying to feel how someone who may be going through difficult times is feeling. It also means finding ways to help others.

In my 4th grade class we did a compassion project, for Teen With A Dream which felt amazing!  We were asked to put together bags for kids going thru treatment.  I really had to think about those kids fighting cancer and what items might cheer them up or help them through chemo/radiation. My teacher, Miss. Free, really helped the whole class understand how compassion works and how this small act of kindness would make a big difference to these kids. This compassion project really stuck with me and I started thinking of ways I could continue to help Teen With A Dream.

As I got closer to my 10th birthday I decided I wanted to donate all of my birthday gifts to Team With a Dream, so I asked all of my friends to bring donations instead of gifts!  I realized that I have so much and am so lucky to be healthy, while other kids spend their birthdays in hospitals. I thought about these kids going through treatment and how this small act could really cheer them up.  My friends were amazing and brought wonderful goodies for kids of all ages, all to be donated. I loved going to the Teen With A Dream office to drop off all of these presents, it was a wonderful feeling!

One dream I want to fulfill is to continue to be compassionate and keep finding ways to take that next step and help others.  I would like to continue to donate and volunteer with Teen With A Dream and I hope other young kids will also find ways to help others.  I encourage other kids my age to do the same thing and donate in any way they can…kids can be compassionate too!

 -Brooklynn (age 10)