At just 17 years old Miguel Aldrete is taking the world by storm.
He’s combatted deforestation by raising money for La Reserva Forest Foundation to plant trees around the globe, he’s had cultural exchanges with indigenous people in Central America, and helped local high school students find community service hours through technology.
All of this philanthropy is not to meet community service requirements for school or to look good on college applications. It is for his nonprofit Kids 4 Our World, with a goal of planting “the seeds of leadership in young adults through meaningful community service.”
“It’s basically just empowering people our age to know that they can make a difference in the world,” said the Olympian High School senior.
He said a lot of times youth want to volunteer for a cause but don’t know how to go about doing so. Or they feel they need to have money to contribute to an organization.
But he said that’s not the case and Kids 4 Our World is a prime example.
Kids 4 Our World has 10 international ambassadors from five different high schools in the Sweetwater Union High School District and has more than 100 volunteers.
The inspiration for Kids 4 Our World comes from Miguel’s parents, who taught him the importance of philanthropy at a young age.
Miguel’s mom and dad are involved in a charity that raises money to pay for cancer treatment for children in Mexico.
“In my early years I always saw that example of giving back, no matter what it was,” he said. “Whether it was (helping at) an orphanage, whether it was helping kids with cancer, whether it was helping the homeless, it was always important and emphasized in my household to give back.”
When Miguel was in first grade he learned about deforestation and immediately felt a need to do something about it.
So at 8 years old he started recycling cans and bottles and asked his neighbors to save recyclables for him. He made about $20 every two weeks from recycling then gave the money to nonprofit groups that fight deforestation.
“It wasn’t like I was asking for money or asking for sponsorships. It was the only way I knew how to make money,” he said.
At the age of 10, Miguel wrote and published his first book called “The Glowing Mask in Hawaii”, followed two-years later by a sequel called “The Mayan Prophecy”, All proceeds from both books went to a nonprofit called Trees 4 The Future. Through the books and book signings he made enough money to fund his own charitable projects.
After donating to La Reserva Forest Foundation for several years, Kids 4 Our World put together a program where instead of donating money they would actually plant trees themselves. To date Kids 4 Our World has planted more than 1,600 trees in eight different countries – Brazil, Columbia, Costa Rica, Honduras, India, Kenya, Mexico and the Philippines.
Recently Sweetwater Union High School District Superintendent Karen Janney asked Miguel if he could find a way to help local high school students find community service opportunities to fulfill graduation requirements.
Through their research Kids 4 Our World found an app called Helper, which college students can use to see what community service opportunities is available. Such an app though was not available for high school students. Kids 4 Our World partnered with Helper to redesign the app with high school students in mind. The program launched last summer.
The city of Chula Vista awarded Kids 4 Our World the 2015 Clean Champion Award. The nonprofit also received two proclamations from the city, and received a letter of recognition from former President Barack Obama.
