Don't ignore (忽略) the difference teenagers can make.
John Michael Thomas, 14, Florida
When John Michael Thomas decided to honor his friend and classmate Elizabeth Buckley, who died from cancer, he remembered how much she loved peacocks (孔雀).
He wanted to build a life-sized peacock fountain (喷泉) in Elizabeth's favorite park in the city. He thought it could be a place for people to relax and be inspired.
John Michael raised $52,000 to build the fountain.
Barrett England, 13, Utah
The wheels began to turn for Barrett England when he heard about Karma Bike shop, a place where young people can earn free bikes by reading and performing community (社区) service.
Barrett visited Karma's owner with his idea: He would collect and repair used bikes and donate them to the shop.
He expected to get about 10 donated bikes. In the end, Barrett received 39.
Zachary Blohm, 15, Wisconsin
The 25-year-old playground at an elementary school near Milwaukee, Wis. was so small that only 70 of its 575 students could play on it at a time.
That's when Zachary Blohm saved the day. He and some volunteers wanted to build a huge playground. To raise money, Zac planned T-shirt and bake sales, sold tickets and more. He held monthly money-raising events for more than a year. Overall, he collected $130,000 — enough to finish his project.
Jack Zimmerman, 16, New Jersey
For some people, finding a meal is as simple as opening the refrigerator. For more than 366,000 hungry kids in New Jersey, it's not that easy.
That fact didn't sit well with Jack Zimmerman, who organized a drive to lessen childhood hunger in his state. His goal: create 40,000 packaged meals that could be donated to those in need.
On game day, Jack and his volunteers started their work. After the final count, the team had packaged 47, 124 meals—well above Jack's goal.