Tribune file/Debra Reid - A donated storage shed contains zoobies and other toys Ashlee Smith will donate to young disaster victims. Smith remained upbeat even after her own home was damaged by fire.
“We’re so excited,” said Ericka Smith, Ashlee’s mother. “It’s going to be an awesome experience.”
World of Children is a global program that recognizes the contributions individuals have made concerning children in need. According to its Web site, www.worldofchildren.org, the organization has given grants to 78 workers in more than 50 countries around the world. Nominees may be selected for a humanitarian, health or founder’s youth award.
The Founder’s Award offers a maximum grant of $25,000 and recognizes remarkable contributions that the nominee, who must be under 21 years of age, makes to the lives of other children. The nominee also must have an existing nonprofit organization in good standing and can accept any grant funds awarded to it.
Nominations were to be made by April 17 this year, but Ericka said she doesn’t know who recommended Ashlee. Her daughter’s goals, however, are to publicize her work and try to get donations to match her grant.
“Ashlee wants to partner with a little girl who wants to build a library in Ethiopia,” Ericka said.
The little girl is Talia Leman of Iowa, who is last year’s Founder’s Award winner and has been raising funds to build a school for 300 in Cambodia, build and refurbish a school in Louisiana and working on an interactive play center for 500 hospitalized children in Iowa.
The library project would help propel Ashlee’s work to an international level, Ericka said.
“That will be a huge experience,” she said.
Nationally, Ashlee has already received donations from Hasbro, headquartered in Rhode Island, and Zoobies, a producer of animal toys, in Utah.
Ashlee’s Toy Closet was created after the South Lake Tahoe Angora fire in 2007. Ashlee, whose father is a firefighter, was helping with the devastating disaster that left many children without their familiar comforts and toys. Since then, she’s sent out toys to many children locally and nationally.
“There was a family in New Jersey who was renting a house and the structure wasn’t sound and the house collapsed,” Ericka said of one example in which Ashlee is quick to respond by mailing toys.
She is expanding her program to offer a “Birthday Closet,” which will offer families the opportunity to get a birthday present if they can’t afford one for their child, especially if they’re living in homeless shelters or are low-income.
“Usually they have a social worker or government person helping them,” Ericka said.
As broad as her program is becoming, Ericka said Ashlee still favors her work at home, where the results of her philanthropy are visible.
“I think she likes it a little better in town where she can see the results of the children getting the toys,” she said.
The Smiths will leave for New York on Monday and return Saturday. While there, they will have the chance to visit the recipients of the first toys Ashlee sent outside of Nevada. The teacher of two girls contacted the Smiths upon finding out they would be going.
It will also be Ashlee’s second New York visit in three weeks. Recently, she attended a “Seven Days Across America” event, which honored young people who are making a positive impact on their community.
It’s hard to estimate how many toys have been given away since the Toy Closet began, Ericka said.
“I’d say hundreds of thousands,” she said. “We’ve sent out so many toys and Beanie Babies. … Now we have a storage shed and a garage (at home for the toys). It’s pretty exciting that all these big companies are actually helping her and believing in her effort. We knew she could do it.”
To watch Ashlee on the CBS Early Show, tune in on Wednesday at 5 a.m.
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