OAKLAND, Calif. (Diya TV) — A third grade student of Oakland’s Montclair Elementary school has established his own non-profit called Birddayart, which will donate its proceeds to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland and other charitable institutions.
Arjun Amin, who is just 8 years old, creates greeting cards, which sell for $3, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to various Bay Area charities. He creates many of the card designs himself—Amin likes to draw birds—but artists from throughout the community also contribute to his cause—Amin has been in business since 2013. He first had the idea of using art to benefit charity at the age of 6. He suffered an accident shortly before his fourth birthday, when he was struck by a passing SUV while outside drawing on his sidewalk with chalk. During his 10-day hospital stay from that accident, he spent the majority of his time in the Benioff Children’s Hospital’s playroom, his mother said.
“He was in and out of the ICU. He had internal injuries, but he turned out totally fine,” Ami Amin said. Never forgetting their son’s experience, the family makes a sizable donation to the hospital each year.
That isn’t enough to satisfy the philanthropic efforts of young Amin—he collects a wish list of toys each year from the hospital, and buys them with his own money. This year he took a step further, writing a letter to the toy manufacturing company Valtech, the maker of Manga Tiles, asking for a discount on their toys to support his cause. In response, Valtech donated toys to the hospital, on Amin’s behalf, and suggested he instead donate the money he would have spent on toys to charity. Inspired by a first grade report he’d previously done, Amin chose to donate the money to the World Wildlife Fund’s orangutan program.
“I feel good about helping the environment. Like millions of others, I help make the planet a better place to live,” he said.
Honing his leadership skills at an early age, Amin serves as a student council representative for his class—his favorite school subjects are math and science, especially chemistry, and he hopes to become an airline pilot when he grows up.
Arjun Amin, who is just 8 years old, creates greeting cards, which sell for $3, with 100 percent of the proceeds going to various Bay Area charities. He creates many of the card designs himself—Amin likes to draw birds—but artists from throughout the community also contribute to his cause—Amin has been in business since 2013. He first had the idea of using art to benefit charity at the age of 6. He suffered an accident shortly before his fourth birthday, when he was struck by a passing SUV while outside drawing on his sidewalk with chalk. During his 10-day hospital stay from that accident, he spent the majority of his time in the Benioff Children’s Hospital’s playroom, his mother said.
