Ryan Hickman, an eleven-year-old resident of Orange County, California started and now runs a hugely successful nonprofit recycling company called Ryan’s Recycling alongside his parents. At a young age Ryan realized just how much he hated seeing trash and cans lying around outside when he would go on walks and car rides with his family. He feared all of this trash was going to end up in and pollute the ocean as well as harm wildlife. Ryan decided he was going to do something about it! He asked his dad if they could go outside and collect all of the recyclables they could find. His father thought it was a great idea and so they began what quickly became a hugely successful business. After collecting his first round of recyclables from outside Ryan and his father took a trip to their local recycling center where they cashed in their recyclables for five dollars. Ryan was so inspired by this he biked door to door to ask his neighbors and friends if they would be willing to collect any discarded recyclables they see outside as well as any used in their home in a bag for him to take to the recycling center. Not only did Ryan’s neighbors and friends collect for him but they told their coworkers and friends Ryan’s Recycling project quickly grew larger than Ryan or his family could have imagined starting out. Since then, Ryans business has done nothing but grow and he has been featured by NBC, CNN, CNBC, PBS, Fox News, Huffington post, Australia’s Channel 7 sunrise morning show, 60 Second Docs, USA Today, Good Morning America, The Todays Show, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, ABC world News and many more. He has also been on the Ellen DeGeneres show and Little Big Shots. In 2020 Ryan was nominated and one of the finalists for TIME Magazine’s Kid of The Year Award. In 2021 Ryan was featured by H&M and partnered with Old Navy for his eco efforts globally. Ryan has raised thousands of dollars to keep our earth clean and our oceans empty of plastics. Next time you go to throw away recyclables, remember Ryan and please recycle!
Author Archive for KunkelmannPL21
Katelynn Hardee was just five years old in 2019 when the idea for her now very successful non-profit business came to her. One day Katelynn and her mom were talking, and she discovered that her school in the Vista Unified School District had well over six hundred dollars of school lunch money debt and because of this some kids had parents that were unable to pay for school lunches, so their kids had to skip going to lunch at school. The thought of this upset Katelynn so she decided she was going to do something about it and the idea for Kiki’s Kindness Project was born. Katelynn first decided she was going to try and raise money to pay off the school lunch debt by selling coco and cookies around her town. Eventually by the time she had turned eight she had raised over seven thousand dollars; her goal was reached, and she was able to pay off all the lunch debt for her entire school district! Katelynn did not just stop there she wanted to continue fundraising projects to help people in her community. Since the beginning of her fundraising journey Kiki’s Kindness Project has raised over twenty-five thousand dollars for her community! Katelynn and her story have been featured on CBS Evening News, CNN, The Todays Show, The San Diego Union Tribune, Spectrum News, Kusi News, The List, and Good Morning America. Katelynn is also the recipient of the 2022 Women of Impact Award as well as the Hormel Foods 10 under 20 Food Heros award. Katelynn and her mom have also worked together to write a book called Make Your Own Sunshine. Their intent for writing this book was to brighten readers’ days by telling stories about the kindness of others. Katelynn also speaks on a podcast called Little Kids Big Heart where she encourages listeners to make “Little ripples in their community” and it can end up having a large impact. Katelynn’s main mission is “To inspire people to choose kindness and bring communities together.” Now if you’re wondering ways that you can help your community Katelynn encourages you to Build a small library if you are able, pick-up trash, or just do something nice for others. You can also make donations to your favorite local charities and nonprofits and become a volunteer!
Moziah is the creator of Mo’s Bows. A company which has now sold over seven hundred thousand dollars of merchandise and even got invited to the white house to give a bow to President Barack Obama! Now how exactly did Moziah get there? Well at age nine Mo was struggling to find a tie that matched exactly how he wanted it to for an event he would be attending. Mos’s grandmother taught him to sew bow ties out of fabrics left over from her sewing projects. One day Mo decided to put this knowledge to work to make the perfect bow tie for the event he was going to. At the event he received a plethora of compliments on his tie which got him to thinking. If so, many people liked my tie I’m sure some would be willing to purchase one. Just like that the journey of Mo’s Bows began. After Moziah started his business, it began to quickly grow. He hired a tailor to work for him and managed the creative side of his company. Moziah was ready to take the next step with Mo’s Bows and decided to pitch his company on Shark Tank. At just twelve years old at the time Mo was able to get a deal with investor Daymond John. Since then, Moziah’s company has grown immensely. You are now able to find Mo’s Bows in retail stores all throughout the United States. Mo went on to be inducted into the Tennessee Museum, Costume and textile institute in 2014. He also was a fashion correspondent for the 2015 NBA Draft, in 2016 Moziah was on Fortune’s “18 under 18” list of most Innovative and ambitious teens throughout the country, as well as Time’s “30 most influential teens” winner. Arguably the most impressive accomplishment of them all, Moziah was invited to the White House to participate in the Inaugural What House Demo Day where he was able to meet President Barack Obama and gift him a special Mo’s Bow in the color “Obama Blue”. Moziah’s vision and passion for his business took him leaps and bounds. He serves as a great role model to young entrepreneurs everywhere
Fraser Doherty was only fourteen years old when he decided to start his first business called Super Jam. This idea came about after Fraser took a visit to his grandmother’s house in Scotland. During this visit Frasers grandmother decided to pass the time by teaching Fraser how to make jam with some of her very own recipes. Her jam was made completely and 100% out of fruit and tasted amazing! Fraser got to thinking, surely other people would enjoy this jam as well. Not only because it tasted amazing, but it was free of unnatural ingredients found in most jams on the market at that time. Fraser began biking door to door in his neighborhood asking people if they would be interested in buying his jam. To his delight more often than not people were beyond willing to give it a try. Shortly after his first round of selling he began to receive calls from his neighbors who couldn’t speak highly enough of his jam. Word quickly spread and shortly Frasure became overwhelmed with jam orders. He was having trouble keeping up with school while trying to put his best effort into his new business venture which was proving to become incredibly successful, so he made the decision to drop out of school at age seventeen and work full time on his business. After dropping out Frasure rented out a factory a few days a month in order to meet demand. This decision ended up working in his favor because after he was able to fully focus on his jam career, he was able to get in contact with Waitrose a high-end U.K. supermarket and went on to become the youngest ever supplier to a major supermarket. Five years after this event Fraser’s Super Jam launched in Korea and Japan. By the year 2019 Fraser has sold his 5th million jar of Supper Jam. Even Queen Elizabeth has heard of Supper Jam! She awarded Frasure a MBE medal which is for service to business in the United Kingdom. Fraser then went on to launch several other food companies including Beer52. To quote Fraser “My story shows that what can start a passion, with love and hard work, can grow into something amazing. Something that changes your life.”
On a casual trip to her favorite health and beauty store to buy bath bombs Hannah Grace, a ten year old girl, was challenged by her family to create a line of bath bombs of her very own. Hannah happily accepted the challenge and got straight to work formulating her own product and experimenting with fun and new ideas for bath bombs in her home. Hannah then began to sell her product to family and friends, but her product quickly took off.
Shortly after her bath bombs gained large success she expanded her product line to also include a plethora of health and beauty product. She went on to name her brand BeYOUtiful. Her mantra being you don’t have to be anyone else to be beautiful, you can just be YOU. When you buy a product from BeYOUtiful you can guarantee its hand made and with all natural ingredients.
What makes Hanna’s product so special is that 20% of every sale goes to a Diabetes Research Fund, JDRF the leading global organization funding type 1 diabetes research as well as other amazing charities. Hannah has grown up with Type 1 Diabetes after being diagnosed as a baby at 11 months old and is passionate about T1D research. Hannah and her product have been featured on the Today Show, This Is New England, Teen Boss Magazine, and Our Money-Snapchat. Hannah has already accomplished so many amazing things and is far from finished!
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Alina Morse, the founder of Zollipops, was only seven years old when she came up with the idea for her now incredibly successful candy company.
Alina and her dad took a trip to the bank to deposit a check and as they were leaving the bank teller offered up a lollypop to Alina, her dad told her not to eat the lollipop because lollipops have too much sugar in them and it was going to rot her teeth out of her mouth. So then and there Alina and her Dad got to thinking, why can’t there be a lollipop that tastes good and won’t rot your teeth out? The idea for Zollypop was born. Alina and her Dad came up with a sugar-free, gluten-free, vegetarian, non GMO lollipop made with only natural flavors and it has become hugely successful. After receiving so much positive feedback on their lollypop Lollypop expanded their product Line to also include other sugar free candies for customers to enjoy as well!
Zollypop has made it their mission to save as many smilies as possible so they have partnered with the Million Smiles Initiative to help fight childhood tooth decay which is America’s single most chronic childhood disease.