Do your actions impact the world? The answer is yes.
Giving back to the community is nothing new to nineteen-year-old Amie Sandillo. Amie started out making a change in her small town in Connecticut. Her impact has stretched around the world.
Amie attended Amity Regional High School in Woodbridge, Connecticut. Here, she got her kick-start giving a lending hand through their drama program. Her drama club put on a show every year that dealt with a social issue. Unlike most shows, the students did not keep the money they earned for themselves. Instead, they asked for donations at the performance to give to a charity of the cast’s choice.
Each of the plays presented were educational and gave a better understanding of moral issues. Her first two years, they donated all their money to the AIDS Project: New Haven and the Special Olympics. However, Amie wanted to make an even bigger difference. Not only did they donate money, but they also worked with mentally challenged kids during rehearsals. By her junior year, she became the secretary; by her senior year, she was the president. As president, she took their philanthropy to the next level; she began a volunteer program called Trick or Treat So Kids Can Eat.
Through this program, she organized a group of 20 students that broke into teams of three or four. The teams went house-to-house on Halloween and asked for canned food instead of candy. The food was donated to the Connecticut Food Bank and distributed to families in time for the holiday season.
She did not stop there. She went global by helping other countries that were struggling to preserve wildlife by becoming a People to People Student Ambassador. Through this program, she traveled to Greece, Italy and France. There, she volunteered at an endangered plant and bird farm. The farm had no public funding because of the government. Help was not sufficient, so she helped water the plants and ensured that the birds’ habitats were not being compromised. This taught her that while we have programs in America to help the environment, other countries are not fortunate enough to have these.
Her impact around the world and in her community shined and continued to grow through a scholarship program. The Jamie A. Hulley Fund for the Arts is a non-profit organization dedicated to the support of young artists who share creative passion and love of art. Amie would volunteer at their fundraisers like the Arts Gala Benefit, which would raise money for art scholarships and provide funds for arts programs at schools. She assisted by working in the silent auction room and helped with setting up and closing down events. Her hard work and dedication led Amie to receive a scholarship from this program.
Amie found it to be unhinging that students at other schools were not as fortunate to be able to study what they please because of a lack of funds. She believes that all students should have the opportunity to study whatever they choose.
Besides all the other great accolades, Amie was an International Honors Thespian, which is the highest ranking given by the National Thespian Honor Society. She was also a member of the National Arts Society. Currently, Amie is a freshman at Emerson College in Boston. There, she is a member of the Living Green Learning Community. They set up programs for students living on campus to be more environmentally friendly. They recently got water bottles banned from campus and began a composting program in the dorms. Their outreach also influences the city of Boston.
Amie is a prime example of how you can make a difference in the world.
Now you can also help make a difference by just one click. For every Wave for Change® video view at Neutrogena.com/waveforchange or on Facebook.com/Neutrogena, Neutrogena® will donate $1 to GlobalGiving to support U.S. educational charities. Watch. Donate. Share.
Any Neutrogena® Wave for Change® video views on Neutrogena.com/waveforchange and on the Neutrogena® page on Facebook from 7/1/12 to 8/31/12 will activate a $1 donation to GlobalGiving. Neutrogena® will kick-off Wave for Change® with a $100K donation. Then, for each eligible video view, Neutrogena® will donate for a maximum of $130K. For more information about GlobalGiving, visit GlobalGiving.org.
“Disclosure: Compensation was provided by Neutrogena® via Glam Media. The opinions expressed herein are those of the author and are not indicative of the opinions or positions of Neutrogena®”