Canadian Living Me to We Award winners and honourable mentions

Youth in action
CODY CLARK, LITTLE GUY MAKING A BIG DIFFERENCE, HECKSTON, ONT.

Ten-year-old Cody Clark is a charitable tour de force. At age seven, he raised $2,500 for the Heart and Stroke Foundation because his friend Brenna needed a new heart. And when the cardiac unit where she was treated threatened to close, he started a petition (the unit remains open).

Cody often visited the hospital himself, due to ear infections. During the long waits he felt "sad and lonely, with nothing to do," he says, so he dreamed up Cody's Comfort Kits, packed with books, crayons, small toys and teddy bears. He has donated 140 to local hospitals and designed Grandma and Grandpa kits, too. Cody raises most of the money for the kits himself. With a hand from his mother, Janice, he started Cody's Poor Boy's Supper; last year's event raised $7,380.

"Doing good work makes me glad inside," says Cody. That gladness shines against a dark shadow, though. When Cody was five, his dad was diagnosed with lung cancer and his mom with melanoma shortly after that. "I thought I was going to be an orphan," he says.

His mom is now cancer-free but his dad is terminally ill. Cody raised money for the local palliative care centre, "so my dad has a room when he needs it."

Click here to see Cody in Canadian Living magazine.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS
Regis Dudley, Waterloo, Ont.
For establishing recycling programs at her summer camp and high school.
Samantha Milner, Beaconsfield, Que.
For starting her own businesses and turning over a portion of her profits to charity.
Natasha Richardson, Port Moody, B.C.
For responding to the plight of impoverished children by embarking on volunteer vacations and organizing fund-raisers.
Hannah Taylor, Winnipeg.
For launching a foundation that spreads her message of sharing and caring for others while she raises money for homeless people.
Marilyn Ize-Dukuze, Toronto. For bringing hope – through books, fund-raisers and field trips -- to children who have been victims of war, violence and prejudice.
Jessica Johnson, Vancouver. For letting her love of writing and performing be her vehicle to raise funds for paediatric cancer research.
Kaitlyn McIntyre, Mallorytown, Ont. For "protecting those who protect us" by raising money and supplying protective vests to police K9's in Brockville and Cornwall, Ont.
Hunter Robinson, Brantford, Ont. For benefitting many causes -- victims of Sept. 11, cancer research, a local food bank -- with his unrelenting fund-raising.