Most 11-year-olds learn money management by saving and buying things for themselves, but not Skye Zagorski of Clifton Park. She spends it on people she doesn’t even know.
Her selfless acts include donating $350 in gifts to kids at the Children’s Hospital at Albany Medical Center last year through a small group she organized called Reach for the Skye.
Her fundraising projects recently earned her a regional Kohl’s Cares Scholarships in the amount of $1,000 to go toward her college education in about seven years. Kohl’s awards 200 such scholarships annually, and it a program now in its 12th year. Over 2,000 youths were entered in this year’s contest. The 200 winners will now be entered to win 10 available national scholarships.
“The program was formerly known as Kohl’s Kids Who Care or KWC. Kohl’s Cares, the philanthropic arm of Kohl’s Department Stores, is dedicated to children’s education and giving back,” said Ashley Thill, a spokeswoman for the program.
According to Thill, Zagorski’s actions are similar to those of other winners of the program who are awarded scholarships. The common theme is community involvement.
While she was “very excited” about her win, Zagorski doesn’t focus on what her efforts have brought her. That wasn’t her goal last fall, when she rounded up four friends to form Reach for the Skye. The idea for the group came to her when she was raking leaves for her elderly neighbors.
“I was just doing it because it needed to get done,” she said. She didn’t ask to get paid for her labor, but her neighbors insisted on it.
Zagorski said she didn’t really want the cash but took it with the intention of doing something good with it. She then enlisted her best friends to do other things in the community and help raise money for those in need. So, the five young women started volunteering at the Saratoga County Animal Shelter and raising money for the Clifton Park Chabad Synagogue by selling lemonade, and things grew from there.
It was with their earnings that Reach for the Skye was able to donate gifts to the kids at The Children’s Hospital.
“I figured, why not give it to somebody who needed it more?” Zagorski said. “They weren’t going to be home for the holidays to open gifts under the tree.”
Zagorski’s actions don’t surprise her mother Layne Zagorski.
“She’s always doing things for other people. …She’s just that kind of kid,” she said.
Rich Zagorski, Sky’s father, said that he’s very proud of Skye and that she has a good social conscience for somebody her age.
He added that Skye’s a gifted photographer and a museum buff, so much so that she writes about museums on museums411.com, a site dedicated to the museums and historical sites in New York.
At the moment, Skye intends to use her Kohl’s scholarship toward an education in photography.
Kohl’s will award more than $420,000 in scholarships and prizes this year through the program.
