Growing through giving: Local nonprofit helps young kids make a difference

It was June of 2013 and Leah Okimoto and her husband, Dan Schneider, had just lost their infant son, Aaron, to complications resulting from his premature birth. In the midst of their grief, the couple agreed they wanted to find a way to honor Aaron’s memory.

Okimoto came up with the idea to provide mini grants to young children interested in positively influencing their communities in small ways.

“The first thing I pictured was having this photo gallery of all of these little kind acts that were done because of [Aaron’s] short life,” she says. “I don’t think there are a lot of opportunities for young kids to lead something and execute an idea of their own.”

Today, hundreds of children have been given the opportunity to do just that thanks to Okimoto’s nonprofit organization, Aaron’s Presents, which equips kids in the eighth grade or below with the funds, mentorship, and support they need to turn their unique skills and creativity into projects that benefit people or animals.

The 53 projects completed thus far are wide in scope. The young grantees of Aaron’s Presents have made toiletry bags for the homeless, organized an activity day for their local Boys & Girls Club, made fleece blankets for newborn babies, taught a painting class at a senior center, started an after school chess program, led a workshop to teach others how to make duct tape wallets, repaired books at their local library, and more.

In addition to providing the needed supplies and services, including other adult mentors to teach specific skills like video editing or sewing, Aaron’s Presents’ staff mentors strive to allow the kids to lead the projects and be the decision-makers, carrying out whatever steps they are able to, defining the overall vision, and determining what “success” looks like from their perspective. Okimoto says this makes participants feel empowered and allows them to take ownership of their projects. She credits this unique approach with the high levels of enthusiasm, commitment, and buy-in she sees from kids in every community she currently works with. She says this is something they may not experience when partaking in traditional school and service projects under the watchful eyes of parents and teachers.

“When they actually execute the idea and the project is done, most of them are really surprised by the outcome. The opportunity to take an idea and make it happen, they’re kind of blown away by it and it is really exciting for them,” she says. “There’s a very special kind of enthusiasm, creativity, initiative and desire to lead or to do something real, tangible, that this age group has. They want nothing more than to be taken seriously and given trust and resources.”

One of Okimoto’s favorite projects was also one of the first ones she funded. A sixth grader in Lowell noticed that many of her classmates were walking to and from school through unsafe areas and, during winter, often in the dark. The student applied for an Aaron’s Presents grant and used the money to acquire reflective vests and whistles. She created and maintained a loaner program and at the end of the year she surveyed the participants, who agreed that they felt a lot safer.

This project exemplifies the kind of thinking Okimoto hopes to inspire. She wants kids to learn to pay attention to their environment, identify the needs of others, and use their own skills to give of themselves and effect change.

When she first set out to start Aaron’s Presents, Okimoto says she was at a loss for where to begin.

A Google search led her to the Clearinghouse and to Machiko Sano Hewitt, who runs the Clearinghouse’s Legal Referral Program. Hewitt paired Okimoto with two attorneys, Michael Hardgrove and Stephan Harris of DLA Piper.

Hardgrove and Harris first helped Okimoto organize and file the articles of incorporation and bylaws, and also looked over her business plan.

Aaron’s Presents was officially incorporated in January 2014, and from there the group got to work acquiring 501(c)(3) tax-exemption. Over the next few months, Okimoto and her lawyers drafted the necessary documents and sent them off to the IRS.

Okimoto had heard that getting tax-exemption could be arduous, but she says Hardgrove and Harris helped move the process along smoothly and efficiently.

“Tax-exemption has made a huge difference in our ability to fundraise. It gives us more credibility and we can apply for grants, which we’ve just started to do,” she says. “It was invaluable, because I had no idea what I was doing and to have the support of someone on the outside, saying, ‘Oh, that sounds like a worthwhile idea,’ and who will find you professionals who are willing to give you their time and help out, and then having those professionals really follow through and pay so much attention and truly care about getting things done for us, was really amazing and helped us get off the ground.”

There are clear parallels between Okimoto’s path from small idea to big execution and the paths taken by the grantees of Aaron’s Presents. Okimoto says the process taught her the lessons she hopes she is now enabling kids to learn.

“Those first six to eight months [after Aaron’s death] were really tough, really up and down, so having this idea to develop was very helpful and healing to me, because it was something positive and something that I was excited about,” she says. “Whenever I talk to the kids I always share that message too. People don’t think of giving of yourself as a way to heal–it almost sounds counterintuitive–but it’s something I happily learned.”