Junior Drew Gooders

Meet 9 kids who care

The Week Junior teamed up with The Drew Barrymore Show to discover children who are making a difference in the world. “We regularly feature ‘Drew Gooders,’ people who are helping others, and we wanted to put a spotlight on some of the young people who are already making a big impact,” Drew Barrymore told The Week Junior. “These kids are making the world a better place, and we are so inspired by them. We can’t wait to see what they do next!” Find out about them below.

Reading is Anaik Sachdev’s “happy place,” he told The Week Junior. His passion for books drove him to launch Loving Library in 2020. He started by collecting used books and donating them to Covid patients in nearby hospitals. Since then, Sachdev has given away about 15,000 books to people in underserved communities. He has established 17 chapters of Loving Library around the world and enlisted 22 other children, including his younger brother, Jovin, to help him collect and distribute books. Inside each donated book, Sachdev places a Loving Library sticker that he designed so the person who opens the book knows that they are loved.

When the Seeliger brothers began to FaceTime with their great-grandmother after she moved into a nursing home, they realized how important her cell phone was to her. This inspired them to start Tech-Angels, an organization that ensures older people have the technology they need and know how to use it. The brothers have helped more than 300 seniors navigate their devices during sessions they’ve held in elder-care homes. They have also donated 50 used devices to seniors. “We love seeing the smiles on their faces when they learn something new or connect with their family, sometimes for the first time,” Jaiden told The Week Junior.

“The world’s first crayon activist” is how Bellen Woodard describes herself. When she was in third grade, she heard classmates refer to the peach crayon as the “skin color” crayon. But Woodard knew that there are many different shades of skin, so she took action. With help from her mom, she developed and marketed More Than Peach crayons. Woodard’s package of 12 crayons in different shades of “skin color” is now available at Target. She is also writing a book that will be released next year. Woodard told The Week Junior that she loves it when children send her letters written with their More Than Peach crayons.

Rescuing animals is a big part of Delanie Dennis’ life. Among her family’s rescue animals are five dogs, three ferrets, two sugar gliders, two horses, two mini donkeys, and a tortoise. This passion for rescue animals inspired Dennis to start Delanie’s Lemonade Stand outside her parents’ restaurant in 2019. The money Dennis has raised, more than $100,000 so far, has helped fund 36 different rescues. This year, she set up her stand outside a New York Yankees spring training game at Steinbrenner Field in Tampa, Florida. Dennis raised awareness and money for her cause and also got to throw out the game’s first pitch. “It was unreal,” she told The Week Junior about the experience. “My pitch was perfectly straight too!”

When Parth Gupta was in third grade and noticed how much food was going into the trash during lunch, he was inspired to start a compost program at his elementary school. The initiative began with Gupta and two other students collecting food scraps—and grew until the school’s total trash was reduced by 50%. “That was amazing and kept me going,” Gupta told The Week Junior. Today, about 20 students, including Gupta’s younger brother, Sheil, volunteer to collect scraps from every classroom and put them in the school’s new outdoor compost bins. Now in sixth grade, Gupta is planning to start a compost program at his middle school.

Mixing batches of slime kept Alexa Dunsche busy during the pandemic. She made so much slime, in fact, that she got the idea to sell it at farmers’ markets near her home in Brooklyn, New York, and donate the proceeds to charity. Since starting Brooklyn Slime in 2021, she has sold more than 1,000 jars and raised more than $5,000 for the nonprofit No Kid Hungry. Dunsche also helps kids discover the benefits of using slime. “I have anxiety, and stretching slime helps me relax,” she told The Week Junior. Although she offers slime in different textures and colors, she insists she doesn’t have a favorite. “They’re all my little slime babies,” she said.

“My friends call me Battery Boy,” Nihal Tammana jokes. In 2019, he started Recycle My Battery, an initiative that has kept more than 400,000 batteries out of landfills. He places recycling bins in schools, libraries, and community centers and recycles the used batteries that people drop off. Because the cost of processing the bins has risen—it is now $110 to recycle two of them—Tammana works to raise awareness for his cause. Last year, he placed 31,204 batteries in a line, setting a new Guinness World Record. “What keeps me going is the chance to make things better for our planet and future generations,” Tammana said.