Nominate Your Local Hero for The Brave Nation Young Activist Award

When we launched The Brave Nation Young Activist Award, I wasn’t quite sure what type of submissions we’d get. Would we get moms nominating their sons for making honor roll, teachers nominating their students for doing a great job at Model UN, Bob nominating his roommate Jordan for remembering to recycle? I have to admit, I knew there were young people out there making change, but I was skeptical. Would we hear about them? Would their friends and loved ones write to us? Would they let us know about the people that are putting themselves on the line every day?

Boy are they ever!

Consuelo Andrade is the most hard-core 18-year-old I know. Consuelo has been at the front doorstep of our school district's school board president's house (with 20 followers) demanding that she take time to meet with students to discuss the ways lesbian and gay students are discriminated in schools.

Davida Douglas works very, very hard for a pittance that would not keep a kitten alive. She runs an organic Farmers Market food stand in an inner-city downtown neighborhood where the working poor live. The inner-city "Food Desert" exists because transnational corporate agribusiness cartels who own supermarkets "red line" and refuse to build grocery stores in the inner city. As a result, there is no place to buy healthy food in the ghetto. Davida organizes all the purchasing of organic food and deals directly with the organic farmers here in the San Joaquin Central Valley of Sacramento. Without a car, she uses her bike trailer to manually deliver huge amounts of organic produce. She runs the stand single handedly by herself — with volunteers floating in and out. Davida packs up all the unsold organic food — puts it on her bike trailer and pedals over to Alkalai Flats Boys and Girls club to donate the unsold organic produce. Because of Davida's devotion, the kids get fresh organic produce on a regular basis.

Aria Everts is an inspirational leader for labor justice. As a member of SOLE (Students Organizing for Labor and Economic Equality), she is a leader in organizing students to stand in solidarity with garment workers and other low-income workers across the world. She has organized a sit-in for labor rights, screenings around Latin America solidarity, and created partnerships between campus purchasers and fair trade apparel producers.

Just prior to the beginning of the war against Iraq, when Sydney Weddleton was just 7 years old, she passionately worked to organize a children's rally and parade for peace. From the steps of the State Capitol Building, Sydney delivered her own speech about how frightened the children in Iraq must be, offering empathy as a fellow child, and leading the other rally children in songs of peace and chants, encouraging money for schools, not for war and demanding peace now.

Tyler is an 11-year-old boy who started raising money for the trafficked fishing children in Ghana Africa. He wanted to save just 1 child which would cost $240.00. To date, together with his friends and the community, he has raised over $38,000.00! Together, we have organized car washes, lemonade stands, garage sales, ice cream stands all to raise money to save these children.