Make It Matter: Ahead of the Class

But Carly wanted to do more-she wanted to "change lives," she says. She remembered that her grandmother's Rotary club had, years earlier, raised money to build a school in Vietnam. That was it, she decided. She'd build a school too.

She put together a PowerPoint presentation on the people and culture of Vietnam. At 12, barely able to see over the podium, she gave her first fund-raising pitch. Though her new braces made it hard to enunciate, she spoke with enthusiasm. "The kids in rural Vietnam don't have decent schools," she told a room of 200 Rotarians. "That's not fair. I want to give them a place to make their lives better."

That summer, Carly set off with her family across Ohio, visiting three or four Rotary clubs a week. "We traveled like crazy people to all these meetings," recalls her mother, Kris.

The first few sessions yielded no donations. But one night, Carly and her dad, Fred, pulled up to a rundown building in Minerva, Ohio. Carrying a laptop, a projector, and a portable screen, they traipsed through a bar to a darkened back room where 15 Rotarians were sitting around a long table. There was dead silence and blank stares after Carly had finished. Fred thought, This is never going to work. Then someone made a motion: "Let's give this girl a check right now." Minutes later, an elated Carly walked out with her first donation: $500.

Not everyone was wild about the idea of giving back to a Communist country. "Why should we help Vietnam?" asked one veteran. Carly replied simply, "They're kids. And I'm just a kid who wants to help out."

As word spread, individual donors sent checks for as little as $5. A restaurant chain contributed $1,000. Carly's karate teacher organized a tournament that netted $4,000. A Bible camp chipped in to help buy 500 backpacks for the children.

In two years, Carly had raised $50,000, a sum that was matched by the Vietnam Children's Fund.

At the dedication ceremony in Hoa Lac, the school principal was impressed with the ninth grader. "How wonderful," he said through a translator, "that a girl her age wanted to do something for kids so far away."

Inspired by Carly Zalenski's story, the Reader's Digest Foundation awarded a $100,000 grant to The Legaue, an organization that teaches young people to give " time and talent to make themselves, their community, and the world a better place." Submit your Make It Matter story today.

From Reader's Digest - July 2008