Kids4Cause: A new mother-daughter project encourages kids driven social impact
“I want it to grow around the world,” is what 9 year old Riya said when I asked her about the future of Kids4Cause, a project she started with her mother Sowmya. Riya and her brother had watched their mother do charity bike races to raise money for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society with Team in Training. And from attending races, Riya gained an interest in activism according to Sowmya.
“LLS does a really good job with bringing in honorees and talking about why the money you raised is important and what has changed and how patients’ lives have improved. A lot of that was having a pretty big impact for Riya so — she encouraged me to sign up. She was my first donor.”
And while Riya wanted to get involved herself, an age minimum prevented her from joining the race. But Sowmya said Riya persisted and continued to ask her mother what she could do to be involved, telling her mom, “I want kids to be able to do the exact thing you’re doing.” So together the mother-daughter duo began brainstorming.
“I kept asking her questions like what does it mean and what would you call it and why would you do it,” Sowmya said. “And she said ‘it’s going to be like kids for a cause, kids for cause,’ and she settled on the Kids4Cause name. Because she said she wanted herself and other kids to bike and do other things to help raise money to find cures for different causes.”
Riya created a logo and they began assembling a team of kids who had the same desire — to help others. Some of the kids started their own projects like a lemonade stand to raise money for the homeless or put together boxes of supplies for refugees.
“These kids are looking and absorbing things around them and what I would love to do is through Kids4Cause, make it really kids driven,” said Sowmya. “We as adults can help guide them along and help scale their ideas. But really it would be ideas and missions they pick up in terms of what causes they want to go and solve for and how do they go about solving for it.”
Riya and Sowmya began working to put together the first Kids4Cause event — a bicycle race to support the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. They have a team of eight kids raising money and American Girl was generous to both sponsor jerseys for the kids and coaches, and even donated an American Girl doll to auction in order to raise funds. Aerotech & Voler gave Kids 4 Cause additional discounts on jerseys to help bring costs down. And Riya helped put the logo she designed on their jerseys.
“For me, it’s really cool to see that and support them and encourage that entrepreneurship that they have and social empathy and build their confidence that, regardless of what age they can dream big and make it happen.” — Sowmya
The team of eight kids has already raised over $6,000 through their fundraising pages and hope to keep raising more leading up to race day on August 13th.
It is easy to get overwhelmed by large problems in the world, but if we empower kids from a young age to get involved and help them when they have a passion for activism, it can make a huge impact on their lives. Sowmya agrees:
“I wanted to start doing this at an early age. I think even as you grow up, you continue to do it. It can have a positive memory for you.”
Follow along with Kids4Cause on their Instagram and make sure to check out their fundraising pages for their upcoming race.
