At 12 years old, Braeden Mannering is already well on his way to running an empire! A 2016 win of Delaware's Healthy Lunchtime Challenge brought Braeden to the White House, where the president asked the children at the event to think about how they could pay the experience forward.

A few days later, on the drive back home, Braeden saw a homeless man in the rain. He had his parents stop so that he cold give the man a bag of snacks. Braeden knew at that moment that this was how he wanted to pay it forward. He knew what he wanted to do in the future. He felt that it was his duty to help people in trouble.

Since that day in July,2016,Braeden has handed out over 8,000 bags to the homeless through his organization Brae's Brown Bags, also known as 3B.These bags vary (各不相同) in contents, and include food, toiletries (化妆品) and even books for the kids 'bags.

In addition to packing and distributing (分发) bags, Braeden travels the country, giving talks in schools to inspire other young people to help their communities. On his travel, he's raised$60,000 to expand his program. He also is a leader at the annual Delaware Hunger Conference, where he encourages kids to write to lawmakers and help pack bags, showing them how to make a difference.

This is a huge accomplishment, especially for someone of his age. But, as he says, “Anyone can change the world, as long as you dream big."

When I was four years old，I got stung(螫) by a bee－twice in one week！After that，I had a fear of bees.That's when my parents suggested that I learn about bees instead of being frightened. I read picture books and watched videos about bees，and I learned that bees help make the food we eat because of their pollination(授粉). Take pizza，for example. If we didn't have bees to pollinate tomato plants，we wouldn't have tomatoes for sauce. And we wouldn't have cheese without pollination，either.

The bad news is that bees are struggling to survive. Many are dying. Some scientists think it might be because of chemicals that are used to kill other insects. What would happen if there were no more bees? I wanted to help. I thought, “What if I make lemonade，sell it，and raise money to help bees?” I talked to my grandmother Helen. She gave me her recipe(调制法) for lemonade. It came from a cookbook from 1940.

I added honey to her old recipe. That way，I could sell the lemonade and donate some of the money to groups that are helping to save bees. I could also support local beekeepers by using their honey in my product. And I would be educating others on the importance of bees and helping to save them.

My dad showed me how to work out what supplies I needed to buy. At first，I sold lemonade at a stand at a kids' business event. But I wanted to help bees all year round. We talked to a pizza place near where I live. They said they wanted to sell it. Now more than 30 stores sell it，too. This year we sold about 140,000 bottles. I love helping to save bees. It's the sweetest feeling ever.

It was Christmas Eve when my elder sister and I decided to open our presents before our mom got home from work. She usually came home about an hour after we got home from school, which we thought was plenty of time to sneak a look (偷看) at the gifts under the tree.

My elder sister opened present after present while I was ordered to stand guard at the big window in our front room. Finally, when my sister’s curiosity was satisfied, we changed places.

After opening a few presents, I found it faster to open one end of a present and look inside. “Cool! Mom and Dad got me headphones!” I pulled the headphones out of the box and was about to put them on when my sister shouted, “Quick! Wrap (包裹) it back up! Mom’s coming!”

I put the headphones back in the box but my hands were shaking. My heart beat faster as I tried to get the tape to stick. I had just finished burying the package with my headphones in it when my mother came into the front room. I jumped up and said, “Hi, Mom!” She smiled at me and said “Hi” back, but didn’t appear to suspect (怀疑) anything. My heart began to slow as I took a deep breath.

On Christmas morning, my sister and I smiled, and gave award-winning performances when we opened our presents—again. “Headphones!” I shouted. “Thanks, it’s just what I wanted.” After everything had been opened, my sister and I looked at each other, and our eyes met. Our secret was safe, but somehow Christmas morning didn’t feel the same.

My sister and I never opened our Christmas presents early again. I don’t know if it was that opening our gifts for the second time just wasn’t as much fun as the first time, or if we came too close to getting caught and didn’t want to think about what our mother would have done to us.