Kids4Connunity started with a young boy named Kenan Pala. At the age of 10 Pala was walking the beach with his father and saw a beached seal. The people on the beach flocked to help the seal, but Pala had a different thought on his way home. They passed a homeless man that was clearly sick, yet no-one was helping him.
Why would they help this beached seal, but not the people in their community?
And thus, Kids4Community was born. Pala main goal was to get the youth of his community involved in their neighborhoods and town. In 2016 he planned an event to beat the Guiness World Record for the largest mural, created with cereal boxes. He and his fellow students put together a food drive and with the donated boxes created this mural. It was a massive success. The other students were passionate with the event–hoping to beat the world record–and they donated pounds of food to local food banks. On top of this event, they help homeless people, raise money for shelters, help with meals at these shelters, and they have a blog to raise awareness. They even created a 5k run that raised over $10,000 for a local organization.
The business is now very successful, but when he founded it at 10 not many listened to him. People though he was crazy or a silly child, only with time did people see his vision and want in on the goal. Toward the end of the interview Pala talked about his proudest moment. He was volunteering at a school, where 30% of students are homeless, and the principle was so excited and thankful for the help. Pala talked about the joy and excitement from the principle and how it stood out to him, even years later. His next goal is to beat the half marathon record time.
Interview with Kenan Pala, Creator of Kids4Community (kidpreneurs.org)
This is a great post with an inspiring story! I really liked how you walked us through Pala’s train of thought as he began developing his business idea. Also, the passion that Pala has for helping the homeless is clearly evident through this post and through his actions in his community. He was able to find a social issue in society and got the youth in his community to work with him to make a difference. Inspiring and motivating youth can be very challenging, but it is clear that Pala’s passion, commitment, and entrepreneurial innovation inspired those around him to help Pala with is mission. Great job!