After hearing about the oil spill in the Gulf that is affecting many people and animals there 11-year-old Olivia Bouler was moved and decided to take action. The Gulf Coast was a familiar place to her, where she spent many vacations with her family who live in Louisiana and Alabama.

Olivia, who describes herself as an “aspiring ornithologist, artist, and saxophone player,” decided to put her artistic skills to work, creating and selling original artworks of birds, because she knew birds would be affected and could likely suffer as a result of the spill.

She contacted the National Audubon Society to ask for help, in hopes of giving her illustrations to raise money for clean up costs. The response has been enormous and, Olivia has raised thousands and has over 27,000 members on her Facebook page: Save the Gulf: Olivia’s Bird Illustrations. Her story has appeared in several news outlets like BBC radio, AOL News, Newsday, Italian news, and Belgian news. Her work is now also featured as an AOL Artist, with AOL giving The Audubon Society $25,000 in honor of Olivia’s efforts.

What an amazing effort; we love Oliva’s artwork and commend her for the work she’s doing! Want to donate or contribute to her efforts? Visit http://www.aolartists.com/projects/help-the-gulf to donate and visit Save the Gulf: Olivia’s Bird Illustrations to find out how you can get a print of her work for your donation.

Read more about Olivia in this feature from AOL’s Good News Now and read the letter she wrote here.

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Here are some cool links and stories of young dreamers to inspire you:

Sweet Success

Check out this article, Teenage baker turns hobby into profitable company and video about a teen girl from Florida who runs her own bakery, and has more than 50 clients that range “from music superstars to local civic clubs.” Visit her website Shea’s Bakery (via NBC WPTV).

Presidential Bloggers

Check out the “Malia and Sasha Fan Club” blog by two tween sisters whose creative coverage of the President’s daughters got them invited to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll 2010 (click here to see pictures and videos of their journey). The blogging duo even published a book called Our Journey with Radiance and Rosebud, and were featured on ABC News Nightline and other news outlets. Though they still haven’t been able to meet the Obama girls they’re still blogging away hoping their dream will come true.

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Black History Month Spotlight: Sojourner Truth

You may remember the Ron Clark Academy students from their “You Can Vote However You Like” video that went viral around the web and was picked up by CNN during the 2008 Presidential Election. In the video below the students perform a tribute to Sojourner Truth, who was an influential civil rights leader of the 19th century. They did their creative performance at an event a few month ago to unveil a bust by sculptor Artis Lane of Sojourner Truth. Esteemed guests like First Lady Michelle Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Members of Congress, were attendance.

The bust is the first sculpture to honor an African American woman in the U.S. Capitol and was donated by the National Congress of Black Women. You can learn more about the bust at http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/truth_bust.cfm.

Sojourner Truth

“Sojourner Truth was perhaps the most famous African-American woman in 19th century America. For over forty years she traveled the country as a forceful and passionate advocate for the dispossessed, using her quick wit and fearless tongue to fight for human rights.

“She traveled around the east and midwest speaking out for human rights. This illiterate ex-slave was a powerful figure in several national social movements, speaking forcefully for the abolition of slavery, women’s rights and suffrage, the rights of freedmen, temperance, prison reform and the termination of capital punishment.”

Find out more about Sojourner Truth at http://www.sojournertruth.org.
Photo Source: http://www.nps.gov

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Join in the action by entering The Battle of the Bands competition, and find out how you can support the campaign at your own school with this list of ideas. Also check out the teens who won the “Save Our Music” grant from Do Something and VH1 to support music education programs at their own schools.

Speaking of Nick Jonas and bands, be sure to check out the great new debut album, Who I Am, from his group Nick Jonas & The Administration.

From DoSomething.org
School music programs are being cut across the country and Nick Jonas is joining teens nationwide to do something about it! Nick, along with DoSomething.org and The VH1 Save the Music Foundation, is kicking off the Battle of the Bands campaign to save music education. Tune into VH1 on Thursday February 4th at 9pm ET to see the winners from this fall’s Save Our Music campaign and the debut of Nick’s PSA for Battle of the Bands. The spots are part of the Pepsi Fan Jam concert in Miami, Florida featuring Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Timbaland, and more!

The Battle of the Bands campaign will run from March 1st through April 16th. You’ll be able to submit your videos of your own musical performances with a testimonial telling us why music ed matters to you! Then, a panel of judges will evaluate the entries and the Grand Prize winner will be flown to NYC to perform at the Apollo Theater in front of major music execs! Other winners will be chosen to receive up to $5,000 for your school music program, and other prizes like concert tickets and Rock Band video games!

So what are you waiting for; join Nick and sign up for the mailing list on Save Our Music to stay informed on the upcoming campaign.

Got questions about the upcoming campaign? Email battleofthebands@dosomething.org

More about the VH1 Save the Music Foundation:

The VH1 Save The Music Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring instrumental music education in American public schools, and raising awareness about the importance of music as part of each child’s complete education. Since 1997, the VH1 Save The Music Foundation has provided $45 million worth of new musical instruments to more than 1,700 public schools in more than 100 cities around the country, impacting the lives of more than 1.4 million public school students.

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14-year-old Alexander Niles, a middle-school student from South Florida, is mixing his love of guitars with entrepreneurship, creating custom guitars that he will sell on his online store. He constructs each guitar from scratch, and creatively embellishes them to the customer’s liking.

Alexander received his business training from the Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship NFTE, a great program for elementary to high school students that helps them build their own businesses. You can learn more about his company in this article in the South Florida Business Journal. Watch Alexander rocking out on his own custom guitar in the video below from the upcoming documentary Ten9Eight: Shoot For the Moon, which features several other young entrepreneurs. For more information about NFTE, visit http://nfte.com.

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