Six years ago, I adopted my first pet.  It was a little puppy named Josie.  The adoption experience and the years since that day have been fun, adventurous, and very rewarding.  I was 24; Aubry Grimm is discovering the reward in helping animals at the early age of 12.  She is amazing!

In a lot of ways, Aubry is your average pre-teen who enjoys hanging out with friends and going to the movies.   But she is becoming well known in her community for her volunteer work at the Save-A-Pet adoption Center in Grayslake, IL.

She started volunteering at the age of seven and often can be found at the shelter at least once a week, spending her time between socializing with the cats and walking the dogs.  What an inspiration Aubry is to all of us...and a hero to all our pets.  I know my Josie and her pals thank her.

To read more about Aubry’s story click on the photo below.

Kids can teach us adults how to share!

I came upon the site, www.kidsareheroes.com, thanks to my new obsession, Twitter. (Follow me @KateAtwood) Its fantastic - the site that is.   I'm bringing it to my blog for all you moms and kids out there looking for ideas and inspiration to jump in and start changing the world. 

The site recognizes "Kid Heroes" who are doing great things to give back to their community and beyond.  With their stories, you also get great ideas for projects that you too can do.  Some of the projects, such as collecting change to buy mp3 players for 150 kids battling cancer, offer great ideas that kids can do all by themselves.  Other projects take a more family approach, such as fostering dogs, but are still led by the action of the kids themselves. 

Check out Little Women for Little Women in Afghanistan. This is an amazing initiative started by Alaina Podmorow at just nine years of age to raise money to educate girls in Afghanistan.  To date, she has raised over $100,000 for the mission. 

Kids have an amazing ability to keep their lives in perspective of their capabilities - until they reach adolescence and test those boundaries of independence, but that's for another blog.  But what this shows all of us at any age, is that you can be successful in your giving of your mind, money, and time, at any level because you are doing SOMETHING. You are sharing yourself to help someone else. 

You gotta check out the full site. Its quite entertaining and inspiring. www.kidsareheroes.com

Oh and if you have a kid who is a Hero, you can nominate them on the site as well and share their story with others.