Raising Money for Others, One Paper Fan at a Time
By Ovetta Wiggins
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Seven-year-old Kamilah Bryant just wanted to help children devastated by Hurricane Katrina get their stuff back.
Last year, the Beltsville girl sat down with some colorful paper, crayons and markers and began making hundreds of accordion-style fans. Over the next several months, she sold them for $1 each at church and in the lobby of the Forestville apartment complex where her great-grandmother lived.
Her ingenuity resulted in a $1,000 donation to a Washington-based nonprofit group called KaBoom, which used the money in October to purchase a new slide for a playground that the group built to bring smiles back to the faces of children in a New Orleans neighborhood.
"A child like Kamilah gives you hope for the future," said Sarah Pinsky, director of KaBoom's Operation Playground, a two-year initiative to build 100 playgrounds in Gulf Coast communities affected by hurricanes Katrina and Rita. "She is not just caring about her own environment, but children across the country."
KaBoom held a reception this month to recognize Kamilah for her contribution.
Her creative journey started in June 2006 when Kamilah, then 5, was visiting her great-grandmother, Doris Marie Best Johnson, known by many as Mama Doris. She told Kamilah about the devastation Katrina had inflicted on New Orleans, particularly the city's children.
"She said that they had no food, no playgrounds, no houses. Most of them lost their parents, they didn't have books, any furniture anymore," Kamilah said.
The child told her great-grandmother she wanted to help the "Katrina kids."
Earlier that day, Kamilah had made a fan by folding a piece of colored paper like an accordion and taping it at the bottom. She figured she could use her creativity to make more fans and sell them.
Kamilah, who attends Woodstream Christian Academy in Mitchellville, told Mama Doris she would sell the fans for $5 apiece. But the wise great-grandmother helped her settle on a more reasonable price: $1.
With her great-grandmother's help, Kamilah set up shop in the lobby of Oak Crest Towers in Forrestville and at Washington Christian Center, where they attended church. At each location, Kamilah set up a cardboard poster that read: "Kamilah's Katrina Fan Fund for Children Affected by Hurricane Katrina." On the board were fans with designs, paintings and words.
Her sales pitch was simple: "Excuse me, would you like to buy a Katrina kids fan for $1?"
When a potential customer asked about the purpose of the fans, Kamilah would just say, "So they could have their stuff back."
Some donors gave Kamilah $5 or $10, which she stuffed in a little can. Practically every week, she asked her parents, George and Tamika Bryant, to count what she had raised. Before long, she had collected $1,000.
Anne Jackson, a friend of Kamilah's great-grandmother, had heard about KaBoom and suggested the money be given to the nonprofit group, which has built playgrounds in underserved communities around the world. Kamilah thought that was a great idea.
Tamika Bryant said she was in awe of her daughter's focus. At first, Bryant said, she thought making the fans was just something fun for Kamilah to do for the moment -- something that she would eventually push aside. But Bryant said there were days when she had to remind Kamilah to "put the fans down and get some homework done."
"She would [give a] look like this is more important than homework," Bryant said. "In her mind it was because she had a mission to complete. . . . She just kept saying 'the kids need their stuff back.' "
In April, Kamilah and her family were devastated by news that Mama Doris, 74, had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Six months later, Mama Doris died, but not before urging the family to make sure that Kamilah finished the project.
"They were like peas in a pod, kindred spirits," Bryant said of Kamilah and Mama Doris.
One day last week, Kamilah, with braids hanging past her shoulders, sat at her grandfather's kitchen table, making a fan. On it she drew a big heart and the words, "I love fans!" Another said: "Merry Christmas," "Jesus" and "I love presents."
Bryant said she is keenly aware that Kamilah wanted to do the fans in part because it was something that she and Mama Doris could do together.
"I just know she's looking down on [Kamilah], smiling now," Bryant said.
During a recent visit to the Annapolis mall, mother and daughter purchased a Christmas ornament of an African American angel holding a star. They inscribed the ornament with Mama Doris's name.
"You were her shining star, so she's holding you," Bryant said to Kamilah.
As Bryant's eyes filled with tears, her daughter took a break from her coloring. "Don't cry mommy," she said.
Her mother replied: "Okay, I promised I wouldn't cry."
The Rev. Lorenzo McKinney, pastor of Washington Christian Center, said he was not surprised that Kamilah had taken on such a project. She even made a presentation to the congregation about why she wanted to raise the money.
"Kamilah is a special child," McKinney said. "She is unusual, sensitive to spiritual matters for a child of her age."
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