Every child can make a difference in the lives of others. You may not have ever heard of Generation Cures until now but I think it’s a very important website you should see and share with your children. It’s all about teaching and empowering our kids to give back. Generation Cures was founded in May 2008 by Children’s Hospital Boston, and it inspires kids to help cure other kids via hospital fundraising programs, local fundraising activities, and digital media. It empowers kids to believe they can make a difference in the lives of others and to do what they can to help find cures to the most debilitating childhood diseases. It’s also an award winning site: “Website of the Year” by Mom’s Choice Awards, “Kid Zui Seal” from leading kids’ web browser KidZui (given by a review board of 200 plus teachers and parents as well as Gold Davey Awards for creative excellence and out of the box thinking and a Parents Choice Awards in the Fall of 2009.

By visiting their website at Generation Cures you can certainly see fine examples of young people who have taken that belief and are making it a reality, changing the lives of sick children, giving hope that research they helped fund will someday find a cure.

In just visiting the site myself I learned of Rachel, a youth who at 14 was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor who is giving back in an amazing way – $10,000 to cancer research.  I learned about the Zebrafish and its importance in the study and research of disease. There are special areas set up For Kids, For Teens, For Parents and For Teachers, webisodes, online games – all in a safe online place to learn, play. For teachers there are lessons and activities that work in conjunction with the webisodes. What a wonderful resource for teachers to teacher character development, social responsibility and how to give back to the community along with math and science concepts.

Zebrafish, (published by Simon & Schuster and endorsed by the Junior Library Guild and American Library Association-for kids in middle grade) is an extension of the Generation Cures animated series Zebrafish, which as I learned is a small, transparent fish used for studying disease, and tells the story of five friends who form a rock band who use their music to make a difference in the world and encourages kids everywhere to do the same.
If you’d like more information on Generation Cures please visit their website at GenerationCures.org , like them on facebook or follow them on Twitter.

Little Hand Big Heart will be giving away a copy of Zebrafish to you, one of our readers courtesy of  Generation Cures.

To be entered to win simply leave a comment below.

Disclosure: The giveaway item will be provided free of charge for the giveaway as well as the complimentary copy I will receive. No monetary exchange took place.