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By Harvest Ficker, Former Youth Leadership Fellow
 Hideki’s classmates at St. George’s School on Staten Island already knew his lighthearted giggles, contagious smile and lively spirit could brighten any day, but thanks to a recent roundtable experience, they discovered that behind all of that playfulness, there’s also a determined mind and a big heart.
Hideki spent many afternoons waiting for the Philanthropy Roundtable meetings even though his classes ended hours earlier. The sense of community and responsibility he gained from the roundtable was not something he took lightly. For one particular meeting, as he anxiously fiddled with an envelope from St. Jude’s Hospital in Tennessee, Hideki knew the stakes would be even higher than usual. The letter was the platform for Hideki’s personal campaign to advocate for the children of St. Jude’s, a cause he stumbled upon while watching television one night. Moved by the stories and faces of children battling with lymphoma, tumors and other severe illnesses, he was inspired to voice this cause to the roundtable.
Hideki wanted to fulfill his commitment to the sick children regardless of the personal sacrifice it would entail: exposing that he, himself, was no stranger to childhood illness. “I told the roundtable about my illness. I have Sickle Cell Anemia. I thought this might help them decide to give more money to St. Jude’s. I did not like telling them. I don’t like people knowing I am sick, but my telling them worked, and they gave more money to St. Jude’s than the other groups.”
Empowered by the Penny Harvest, Hideki recognized his impact would be more fruitful if he could educate his peers and help them understand the needs of children at St. Jude’s Hospital. Even more so, his courage to expose an issue so intertwined with his personal life demonstrated an unbridled empathy and a desire to take action with the most natural and necessary response. As a roundtable representative, Hideki demonstrated that the combined power of education and self-expression enabled positive change and exposed his peers both to the gravity of childhood illnesses, as well as to the realization that one person’s passion really can make a difference.
Harvest Ficker of Fryeburg, Maine, graduated from Middlebury College. She intends to use her passion for service-learning to help build strong communities both in the US and Abroad.
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