Danay Ferguson, 8-year-old CEO of Reading Heart, is Fresno, California’s youngest business owner. The motivation behind Ferguson’s organization is to provide reading materials for children in hospital and areas with limited access to books.
In 2014, after proving her dedication to make her dream come true, Reading Heart was born and fully operational by Ferguson and the help of her support system. Her father told PEOPLE, the county attempted to deny the young entrepreneur’s request due to her age, but the capital said if she seemed capable of running the business, she should not be deterred.
Once given the green-light, Ferguson has worked non-stop to promote the message of her non-profit all while keeping up with her honor roll classes in school. What makes her motive so unique is instead of simply giving another child a book, she encourages them to read the books and then pass them on to another child in need. Due to her tremendous success, she has been invited to give talks at school assemblies, meet with city officials and host official board meetings.
A photo posted by Reading Heart (@reading.heart) on
So far Reading Heart has collected over 90,000 donated books and passed out more than 20,000. Also, publishing powerhouse Scholastic has teamed up with her organization as a partner. With every $5 donated to Reading Heart, Scholastic sends four new books to the distributed to those in need.
But even with all she has been accomplished so far, Ferguson is not slowing down! Between March 18th and 19th she hopes to break the Guinness World Record for most books collected in a 24-hour period. The current record is 274,325 but she plans to surpass that by gaining 500,000 donated books.
And the power of the 8-year-old does not end here!
Khloe Thompson made her television debut Tuesday when she appeared on “The Real” to talk about her Khloe Kares project #KareBags.
Hailing from Irvine, California where the homeless population is immense, Thompson felt an urge to help the homeless women she would pass on the streets as she walked to school daily; thus began #KareBag. With help from her grandmother, Thompson personally creates the bags that she fills with necessities such as, soap, lotion, toothbrushes and toothpaste, feminine products, socks etc. She says it would be just as easy to put these items in a plastic bag for the recipients, but Thompson believes every woman is entitled to a stylish, functional bag.
A photo posted by Khloe (@khloekares) on
Overall, Thompson wants to be able to genuinely give to women in need and provide them a listening ear. While on “The Real” Khole told the hosts she would always ask her mom what she could do to help the women she would see daily and now her local operation is gaining national attention.
With young #BlackGirlMagic stars like Danay Ferguson and Khloe Thompson, the future is looking pretty bright! You go girls!
