What may make Hannah Harrison and Grace Stewart different from other 14-year-olds or even adults, is while it took time and they got discouraged, the teens stayed with their commitment to make a difference. Harrison and Stewart are eighth-graders at Marshall Area Christian School.
The two teens organized a Hoops of Hope Event on Friday in Marshall to raise money to build a medical lab and counseling center in Zambia. Hoops of Hope raises awareness and money for orphans whose parents have died from HIV or AIDS.
"It was laid on our hearts to do this," Harrison said. "We're not something special for doing it. We're not more mature."
But in some ways, I tend to think they are just a little more special and just a little more mature.
We've all had some good ideas and good intentions as teens and as adults. Sometimes, we follow through, sometimes we don't.
Harrison and Stewart had hoped to have a Hoops for Hope event in December. That was after they first decided in November to plan the event.
It was an ambitious schedule, they admit
So, the event was moved to January or February but that didn't stick.
"That was kind of a low point," Stewart said. "I wondered if we were going to pull it off."
"That was a low point," Harrison said.
The teens lost a student leader from the MACS school staff who was helping but could no longer help, which was tough, they said.
But they re-grouped and set the April date and things clicked.
The pair has made dozens of contacts with businesses and other sponsors to donate food or other items, they said.
"We started out by talking in our school chapel," Harrison said. "We changed that, worked on the outline and over time shortened it and added a DVD to get the kids more enthusiastic."
They took their presentation to various youth groups in the area to encourage kids to shoot baskets and gather sponsors to raise money for Hoops of Hope.
"What was huge was the support we were hearing from teachers and how excited the kids were getting," Stewart said.
Kids were actually excited about Hoops for Hope and wanted to participate, Harrison and Stewart said.
"...it's been so much work," Harrison said. "There have been times when we've been frustrated but it's been so much fun."
But why spend so much time on the project? These are teens who use Facebook. They play sports. They hang out. They babysit.
And more than once, they've been asked by peers and probably adults: Why spend so much time on a project that raises money for kids in Africa?
"People in our grade, sometimes, they think something like this is not cool," Harrison said.
Kids and others have asked why don't they do something about the needs in their own hometown.
"While that is important, why not make a difference where you can?" Stewart said. "We are two Christian eighth-graders; we just want to help."
"Not that people and needs here aren't important but people don't see the needs in other countries...," Harrison said.
When they compare the situation of orphans in Africa to life in the United States, the teens said they can't ignore the need in Africa.
It's too great of a need.
"It doesn't make a difference who you help, it's that you are making a difference for someone," Harrison said.