Nomination forms for the 2012 AFP-NNE Demont Scholarship Award for Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy will be available soon, please check back.
This award recognizes service by an individual aged 8 to 17 who demonstrates outstanding commitment to the community through direct financial support, development of charitable programs, volunteering and leadership in philanthropy. The winner will be awarded a $10,000 scholarship.
AFP-NNE & Demont Associates present the
2011 Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy $10,000 Scholarship Award
Demont Associates congratulates Brandon Hamel, the 2011 recipient of the AFP-NNE Demont Scholarship Award for Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy, which provides a $10,000 college scholarship.
Video by Dan Osgood
In 2005, at the age of 12, Brandon Hamel founded Good Earth, a non-profit created to enhance the lives of those less fortunate and to provide assistance to disaster victims. Since it’s inception, Good Earth has raised over $26,000, which it has contributed to local, national, and global causes. Brandon himself has averaged a weekly commitment of 25 hours to the organization, adding up to thousands of hours cumulatively.
It all began with the "Garden of Hope," a neighborhood beautification project dedicated to Brandon’s neighbor living with ALS (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease). Brandon raised start up funds by launching a neighborhood newpaper, titled The Birchwood Way Chronicle that he peddled to neighbors. With the proceeds, he purchased plants he sold to neighbors to beautify their own yards and raise more money, and donated to creating and maintaing a flower garden for his neighbor Jane. At her special request, he also planted tomatoes.
Later that year, struck by the devastation of Hurrican Katrina, Good Earth made it’s first cash contribution to the American Red Cross with the $140 remaining from the summer’s plant sales.
In 2006, wishing to raise more money with which to broaden Good Earth’s impact, Brandon launched an annual Walk-A-Thon and 5K. In its first year it raised over $7,000 and Brandon has continued to organize and grow the event over the last five years.
Understanding the need to build a strong organizational foundation for the Good Earth, Brandon has secured 501(c)3 status for Good Earth. Brandon’s friends, Ryan Curtis and Samantha Seymour, serve as Good Earth’s Executive Vice Presidents. Brandon’s mother, Debra Hamel, and Samantha’s mother, Karen Seymour, serve as its Treasurer and Secretary respectively. And all three of the youths’ fathers are engaged as advisors to the organization.
The primary benefactor of Good Earth’s philanthrophy for the last five years has been the WLNH Children’s Auction, to which Good Earth has donated over $19,000. The Auction’s objectives are consistant with the mission of Good Earth and it funds over 18 local children’s charities, including: Baby Threads, The Boys and Girls Club of the Lakes Region, Greater Lakes Region Child Advocacy Center, Health First Family Care, Lakes Region Day Care, and Santa Funds.
In addition, as Brandon and Good Earth have identified new needs they have risen to meet them. Good Earth has donated money to Nets for Life to purchase sleeping nets for families in malaria infected regions of Africa, a local fundraiser to pay a community member’s cancer treatment costs, and the Laconia High School Holiday Fund to purchase hats, mittens, socks and other personal items to be stuffed into holiday bags for 100 high school students.
"[Brandon is] an upstanding and positive role model to his peers, hero to his charities, and has commitment to his fellow human beings and initiative beyond his years," says his high school counselor and nominator Holly Vieten.
It is for these reasons that we are proud to award Brandon Hamel the 2011 AFP-NNE Demont Scholarship Award for Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy.
Brandon is currently in his freshman year at Providence College in Providence, RI. He will maintain Good Earth while attending college, looking for new opportunities for both himself and Good Earth in his new community and when he returns home to the Laconia area during breaks.
Links & Resources:
- Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP): Youth in Philanthropy
- Association of Fundraising Professionals, Northern New England (AFP-NNE)
- Good Earth