CALENDAR GIRL Illustrating how kids can help other kids
Even when she was just a child on the playground in her hometown of Falls Church, Va., Annina Burns could see that some of her playmates were lacking toys, clothes and often attention. At age 15 she was still troubled by the inequity, and one day found herself turning to the section on human services in the telephone book. She began to dial. Her call to the Embry Rucker Community Shelter, a facility that houses homeless children in nearby Reston, would better not only the lives of hundreds of children but Annina's life as well.
The following week she visited Embry Rucker for the first time, carrying a brightpink shoulder bag that served as a magnet for the delighted children. They tugged at her jeans and pleaded to see what was inside the bag. Annina opened it and handed out markers, crayons and paper, enabling the children to make drawings that were poignant and sometimes chilling. For six months, Annina made weekly visits, often bringing along friends to help her play with, read to and tutor the children.
For most teens, those would have been enough good deeds. But Annina went on to start an organization at George C. Marshall High School, where she was a student. She dubbed it Y-NOT. She took the drawings she had collected during her visits to the shelter and used them to illustrate calendars, which the group then sold for the dual purpose of making the public aware of these forgotten children and raising funds for the shelter. She financed the first calendar with $250 she earned bagging groceries part-time and with a donation from her proud father.
By the spring of 1996, Y-NOT had grown to 40 members and was the largest group of student volunteers at the high school. Annina oversaw its transition to an official school club. Since she would be graduating in a year's time, she also set about to ensure the club's survival. In her senior year, she persuaded two Y-NOT volunteers to serve as co-presidents and talked the English department chair into becoming the club's faculty sponsor. Annina also forged a relationship with a company that is, at no cost, printing this year's calendars. Lastly, just a week before she left for college in August, Annina met with Y-NOT's new co-presidents and turned over all paperwork and lists of current and prospective club contacts.
Today Annina, 18, attends Penn State tuition free, on a Bunton-Waller Fellows Scholarship (named for two of the college's first black graduates). She won the award because of her help to minority children. Earlier this year, React magazine donated $25,000 in kids' clothing, shoes and toys for Annina to distribute at her discretion. She will divide the goods between Embry Rucker and her latest undertaking--an educational media project on nutrition that she is designing for underprivileged middle-school children near the college. She still assists her old friends back at Y-NOT, but now it's via E-mail. --Reported by Mubarak Dahir/State College, Pa.
ROLE REVERSAL The teachers' computer guru is only 13 years old