慈善新面孔

2007年，九歲的美國少年扎克·邦納開始了一項“從我家到白宮”(From My House to the White House)徒步行走的慈善之行，以引起人們對無家可歸的兒童的關注，并為援助這些兒童籌款。今年7月，扎克在克服了重重困難之后終于完成了他慈善之行的第三段路(從佐治亞州到華盛頓，長668英里)，用實際行動向世人表明:慈善，不僅僅是成年人和有錢人的“專利”，只要有愛心，誰都可以為幫助他人盡一份力。而正所謂“自古英雄出少年”，在推動慈善事業這條路上“走”著的，可并非只有扎克這一個少年……

A Walk for Others

Camera crews swiveled their lenses2) and a crowd of a few hundred teenagers cheered when they saw Zach Bonner stride toward the White House， the final steps of a 668-milefundraising walk to help homeless children.

There was a pause， though， before the hero’s welcome， and a brief detour3): He had to use the bathroom.

Zach is， after all， just a kid. At 11， he’s one of cadre4) of child philanthropists who seem to be growing in number and visibility as corporations and colleges reward their efforts to help others.

Zach started his own nonprofit organization four years ago after a hurricane hit Florida. He asked his mother if they could donate their water bottles， and he gathered more from neighbors， an earnest little redheaded boy pulling his red wagon behind him. By the end， they had 27 truckloads of aid.

It was such a simple， innocent symbol of kindness that lots of people wanted to help. The Little Red Wagon Foundation kept growing. And it got less simple. Somewhere along the road， Zach’s little red wagon turned into an 18-wheeler.

Now a Los Angeles publicist promotes Zach’s walks to the media. Zach has met three presidents and was invited to President George W. Bush’s farewell address in January， 2009. And an Emmy-award winning journalist， Michael Guillen， is making a $5 million film about the Little Red Wagon.

Zach Is Not Alone

Children’s faces have long been used to promote fundraising campaigns. But now they aren’t just poster children anymore; some—although no one tracks how many—have become high-profile CEOs of their own nonprofit groups.

Timothy Hwang and Minsoo Han， rising seniors at Thomas S. Wootton High School in Rockville， started their organization， Operation Fly， when they were 14. They raise money through tutoring—charging much less than the market rate—and use the money to distribute blankets， clothing and soap to Washington’s homeless people. Operation Fly has spread to five cities， with 800 volunteers， and is entirely student-run.

What they are doing goes far beyond the kind of volunteering that an increasing number of young people engage in. Young philanthropists devote hundreds of hours to their causes， making appeals many donors find irresistible even in tough economic times.

“When you see a kid， it seems more trustworthy， less jaundiced5)，” said Andrew Hahn， a professor at Brandeis University.

Corporations， politicians and nonprofit groups can be drawn to them， wanting to ally with something inspirational. Some companies give out awards， such as Build-A-Bear Workshop6)， which honors a dozen child philanthropists every year.

Brittany and Robbie Bergquist were 13 and 12 when they heard about a soldier overseas who couldn’t pay the phone bill for his calls home. They quickly found that they could help， raising money by selling back old cellphones to be recycled. Since then， the Massachusetts siblings have sent more than 600，000 phone cards to troops and raised more than $5 million.

Brittany has been awarded so many community-service scholarships for her work that she has enough to cover the entire cost of Stonehill College. Actually， she has enough to cover graduate school， too: $250，000 in scholarships， including $100，000 from ATT7).

“It’s still kind of a number I twist my tongue on，” she said， laughing.

Bill Conley， dean of enrollment and academic services at Johns Hopkins University， said college admissions officials are seeing ever-more impressive philanthropic efforts from students trying to get into elite colleges. That is definitely a strong plus on an application， he said.

The Success of Zach’s Walk

Zach spent two months trudging8) 10 or 13 miles a day along sweltering9) back roads in his red-and-black sneakers， his eyebrows and eyelashes bleached blond from the sun.

The hardest part of the walk came in June. “My grandma died this afternoon，” he wrote on Twitter June 30. “She was my best friend besides my Mom. She believed in me and my walk. I will finish my walk in her honor.”

The walk has raised about $50，000， Zach’s mother says， some of which will go to a playground at an emergency foster-care10) shelter in Tampa and for bedding， computers， and other supplies at Sasha Bruce Youthwork， which helps runaways and homeless youths in the District. Some of it they spent along the way， on projects at homeless shelters.

Zach is soft-spoken， polite and preternaturally serious. He addresses police officers and senators alike with hands clasped behind his back， big blue eyes steady， telling them that 1.3 million children are homeless in this country: “It’s sad that these kids have to stay in a shelter and that they can’t have a home of their own with their parents.”

Zach said he’s grateful for the support and attention the walk received.

“I’m glad that it has gotten this big，” he said， “because the bigger it gets， the more awareness it raises. That’s the point—so I’m happy.”

愛心之旅

在攝影師不斷推移的鏡頭中，在幾百名少年的歡呼聲中，扎克·邦納邁著大步走向白宮，這是他為幫助無家可歸的兒童而進行的668英里募捐之旅的最后幾步。

不過，在這個歡迎儀式之前，還有一個小小的插曲:他短暫地跑開了一會兒——因為他要上洗手間。

畢竟，扎克還是個孩子。11歲的他是兒童慈善家中的一員。這些兒童慈善家助人為樂的行為受到了企業和大學的肯定和鼓勵，他們的隊伍在不斷地發展壯大，知名度也在不斷地提高。

四年前，在佛羅里達州遭受了颶風之災之后，扎克組建了他自己的一個非贏利組織。當時他問媽媽是否可以把他們的水壺捐獻出去，還從鄰居那兒搜集到更多的水壺，人們經常看到一個熱心的紅發小男孩拉著一輛小紅車。最后，他們搜集了滿滿27輛卡車的救災物品。

這一簡單而又純真的善舉得到了許多人的慷慨相助。“小紅車基金會”不斷壯大，而且已漸成氣候。不知不覺中，在愛心之旅的路途上，扎克的小紅車已變成一輛18輪的大車。

目前，洛杉磯的一位時事評論員向媒體介紹了扎克的愛心之旅。扎克曾會見過三位總統，并被邀請出席了喬治·W·布什在2009年1月舉行的告別演說。一位曾榮獲艾美獎的新聞記者邁克爾·吉倫還打算投資五百萬美元拍攝一部關于“小紅車基金會”的電影。

扎克并不孤單

利用孩子的面孔來推動募捐活動，這一做法久已有之，但現在他們不再僅僅是海報上的形象，有些——雖然誰也沒有留意有多少——已經成為自己創辦的非營利組織的赫赫有名的CEO。

蒂莫西·黃和韓旻洙是羅克維爾市托馬斯·S·伍頓中學即將升入四年級的學生，他們在14歲時創辦了自己的慈善機構“飛翔行動”。他們通過做家教來籌集錢款——收費要比市場行情低得多——用這筆錢購買毛毯、衣服和肥皂來分發給華盛頓地區的流浪者。“飛翔行動”已擴大到五個城市，擁有800名志愿者，而且完全是由學生來管理的。

他們的行動遠遠超越了那種越來越多的年輕人所參與的志愿者行動。年輕的慈善家們把大量的時間投入到這一事業中，他們的訴求，即使是在經濟困難的時期，也讓很多捐獻者覺得無法拒絕。

“看到孩子，你會覺得更加可靠，而不會疑神疑鬼。”布蘭代斯大學的安德魯·哈恩教授如是說。

企業、政治家和非贏利組織被他們所吸引，因為他們需要激勵人心的東西來支撐門面。有些公司還為此提供獎勵，比如熊熊工作室每年都會獎勵12名兒童慈善家。

在布里塔尼·伯奎斯特13歲和羅比·伯奎斯特12歲時，他們聽說一位在海外服役的士兵支付不起打往美國的電話費用，他們很快找到了幫助這位士兵的途徑:通過把舊手機賣給回收公司來籌款。從那時起，這對馬薩諸塞州的姐弟給美軍士兵們寄出了六十多萬張電話卡，籌集了五百多萬美元的善款。

布里塔尼的愛心之舉多次為她贏得了社區服務獎學金，這些獎學金已足夠支付她在石山學院學習期間的全部費用。事實上，這筆錢也足夠她讀研究生的:總共25萬美元的獎學金，其中包括美國電報電話公司提供的10萬美金。

“這些錢數目太大了，到現在我讀起來舌頭還直打結呢。”她笑著說。

約翰斯·霍普金斯大學招生與教學服務部主任比爾·康利指出，學院負責招生的官員發現，那些有志于進入精英學院學習的學生，現在都越來越注重慈善事業，在這方面都有過突出的表現。他說，這對于他們的入學申請來說，毫無疑問是一大優勢。

愛心之旅終完成

在兩個月的時間里，扎克每天冒著酷暑、沿著小路徒步跋涉10～13英里，他穿著紅黑相間的運動鞋，眉毛和睫毛被太陽曬成了金色。

愛心之旅中最困難的時刻是在6月。6月30日，他在Twitter上寫道:“奶奶今天下午去世了，她是除媽媽之外我最好的朋友。她相信我，支持我的愛心之旅。為了她，我要把愛心之旅走完。”

據扎克的媽媽說，扎克的這次愛心之旅共籌集了約五萬美元，其中一部分將會用于為坦帕市的一座緊急避難看護所修建操場，以及為薩莎·布魯斯青年工作站提供寢具、電腦和其他物資，該工作站旨在幫助這一地區離家出走和無家可歸的孩子。還有一些資金是在旅途中花掉的，花在了流浪人口收容所的一些項目上。

扎克說起話來輕聲細語，舉止彬彬有禮，有一種和年齡極不相稱的嚴肅神態。不管是面對警官還是議員，他說話時總是雙手緊握放在背后，藍色的大眼睛露出鎮定的目光。他告訴他們，美國有130萬兒童無家可歸:“很不幸，這些孩子不得不待在收容所里，他們不能和父母一起擁有自己的家。”

扎克說他很感激人們對他的愛心之旅的支持和關注。

“我很高興它有了今天這樣的規模，”他說，“因為規模越大，就越能喚起更多人的關注。這才是最重要的——所以我樂在其中。”

1.philanthropy [fI5lAnWrEpI] n. 慈善事業

2.lens [lenz] n. 鏡頭

3.detour [5di:7tJE(r); (?@) dI5tJEr] n. 繞路

4.cadre [5kB:dE(r)， 5kAdrI] n. 骨干隊伍;小組成員

5.jaundiced [5dVC:ndIst] adj. 猜疑的，有偏見的

6.Build-A-Bear Workshop:熊熊工作室，一家銷售泰迪熊和其他毛絨玩具的零售公司。該公司是全球唯一一家提供互動型毛絨玩具的公司，它讓消費者自己動手制作喜歡的毛絨玩具，使他們體驗到娛樂型零售的樂趣。

7.ATT:美國電報電話公司(American Telephone Telegraph Company)，創建于1877年，曾長期壟斷美國長途和本地電話市場。在近二十年中，它曾經多次分拆和重組。目前，它是美國最大的本地和長途電話公司。

8.trudge [trQdV] vt. 跋涉

9. sweltering [5sweltErIN] adj. 悶熱的，酷熱的

10. foster-care:看護