We can not do what we do without your support!

Please join us in celebrating our twenty-sixth year of nurturing the Earth and our community as a youth-led group! As you may know, Change the World Kids was established in 1998, with the goal of helping local and global communities. In 2003 we became a non-profit organization, and have been able to expand our humanitarian and environmental efforts. We believe that it is important for us, as young adults, to provide help and lend our voices, in services and support for anyone who needs it. With this letter, we invite you to support us in our work.

Change the World Kids was founded on the belief that young people have the power to make a difference in the world. Over the years, we have witnessed countless young individuals grow into compassionate, driven, and socially-conscious leaders through our programs. From environmental conservation to social justice initiatives, we empower youth to take action, raising their voices, and inspiring change.

Helping individuals throughout our greater community is the backbone of our organization. We have both environmental and humanitarian ambitions to foster greater community connections across socio-economic and generational barriers. As we work, averaging about five jobs a week, we provide both service and friendship. So far we’ve committed over 57,000 hours of support to our community.  One of our most important initiatives is our fall wood stacking and wood delivery.  This fall we averaged three wood stacking jobs a week!

Our group believes that all people in our communities—regardless of class, ability, or location—must have access to healthy, nutritious, sustainably grown food. Food insecurity is an urgent issue. This year—like most Vermonters—we faced a unique issue in our food justice efforts. July’s rains caused flooding of our main food justice garden, washing away the fertile soils of our regenerative agriculture beds, ripping up plants, tearing apart our solar fencing system, and destroying the infrastructure of our irrigation system. The next day, we were planting! From intense efforts and with produce from our small gardens unaffected by the flood, we continued to donate beautiful and bountiful harvests.  So far we have provided 53,600 pounds of food donations thanks to our hard work in our Change the World Kids garden! Our goal this year would be to restore the fertility and structure of the compromised vegetable beds and to rebuild the irrigation system, enabling us to once again grow and distribute nutrient-dense, organic vegetables to food insecure Individuals. 

We believe no one is ever too young to make positive impacts on their community. In the last year, we have launched Change the World Kids Rising. A group of enthusiastic, caring third through sixth graders, our group holds conversations about humanitarian and environmental issues. At our last meeting we unpacked the topic of food and heat insecurity to better understand why we stack so much wood, and why we care and work so hard in our gardens. In starting a group of motivated elementary schoolers, they are able to get mentorship from our Change the World Kids, and be prepared and excited about joining Change the World Kids when they are in seventh grade. 

Our extensive reforestation and conservation initiative, which was born from concern about our Vermont migratory songbirds, continues to lead us back to Costa Rica every summer. Change the World Kids traveled to Monteverde, Costa Rica in June for our twenty-first  year of reforestation for biodiversity, habitat restoration, erosion prevention and conservation. We are creating biological corridors critical for our New England migratory songbirds and native Costa Rican species. We plant an average of 3,000 trees each year and help with data collection in forests planted in previous years by Change the World Kids. The trees that we planted our first year are now higher than houses, and birds are now eating their fruit. Over 248,080 trees have been distributed from our Monteverde nursery. This trip is one of our most important contributions to the Earth, and it continues to be a great source of inspiration, learning, and fun for all of us.  We’ve also helped with local riparian restoration and reforestation efforts, helped to establish a tree nursery in Woodstock dedicated to varieties that benefit wildlife, and are working with local farmers to improve the summer breeding habitat for migratory species.

We recently launched our Ash to Oak initiative in and around Woodstock.  To counter the loss of ash trees due to the emerald ash borer and to combat invasive species that are reducing biodiversity in our forests, we are raising and planting oak trees over the invasive species. We’ve already planted over 100 trees! The goals are to shade out the invasive species and populate forests that might otherwise convert into a reduced habitat.

We work diligently all year but can't reach our goals without your support. Our annual budget is $110,000, and we meet most of our fundraising goals through our community projects and supportive individuals and Foundations. We are asking you to be a part of something great, to contribute to the world around you, and to your community. Your tax-deductible gift of $25, $50, $100, $250 or more would be greatly appreciated. Checks, made out to Change the World Kids, can be mailed or donations can be made here using the donation link below.

Your contributions enable us to provide the necessary resources, mentorship, and inspiration that empower children to become the change-makers of tomorrow. Thank you. 

Our very best,

Skye Cully  

For Change The World Kids