J.J. Watt of the NFL’s Houston Texans is best known for sacking quarterbacks and being one of the best defensive players in the league. And while he’s won a lot of awards, including the NFL Defensive Player of the Year (three times, no less!) his ambition is equally impressive off of the gridiron.

Just after Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, Watt set up a YouCaring.com fundraiser, with the goal of raising $200,000 for relief funds from small donors around the country Watt, per usual, exceeded expectations. Individuals, foundations, and corporations eventually raised over $37 million from more than 200,000 donors.

While this staggering amount is just a small portion of what’s needed for hurricane recovery, this gift will assist many of those in need through partnerships with Americares, Feeding America, SBP, and Save the Children. The donation will be distributed in two portions, $31.5 million will be given to these partners to rebuild homes, help restore community centers and childcare, provide food, and address health needs of Houstonians. With a portion of the funds contributed to Feeding America, Houston Food Bank will be able to add four mobile pantries to its fleet, enabling them to take supplies to where they’re needed most. The remaining funds will be distributed in 2018.

Watt’s goal of raising money from the community for the community was just the start and he’s making sure the funding goes to organizations that will have a direct impact on those who need it most.

J.J Watt

Giving Hero of YouCaring.com

Losing one parent, especially when young, is an enormous loss. Losing both can be unthinkable.

After Auston Scancara (15) and Melessa Peck (9) lost their parents Lindsey and Shane to separate incidents earlier this year they spent a lot of time discussing grief, growth, and giving back with their Aunt, and now guardian, Lacy Parker. Auston and Melessa channeled their grief toward helping other children learn to cope with the loss of a parent.

In November, Auston and Melessa donated approximately 150 grief kits to Portneuf Medical Center in Pocatello, Idaho. These kits, designed as part of Sesame Workshop’s “When Families Grieve” initiative, are meant to help families, children, and caregivers express themselves after loss.

After losing their parents, Auston and Melessa received help and support from friends, family, local community centers, and religious organizations. The unbelievable show of support inspired them to help others with their grief while still overcoming their own and giving them a chance to “pay forward some of the support they received,” said their Aunt, Lacy Parker.

At such an early stage in their lives, Auston and Melessa’s dedication to guiding other children, despite their own enormous personal loss, is beyond admirable.

Auston Scancara & Melessa Peck

Giving Hero of Sesame Workshop

You might not have heard of Fiona Mavhinga, a woman from rural Zimbabwe, but she has created a movement.

Fiona grew up in a small village in the Wedza District in rural Zimbabwe—the oldest of five siblings. The nearest primary school was 10 kilometers from home. Secondary school was twice the distance. Her grandmother lived closer, so she stayed with her, and helped sell vegetables to pay school fees. She studied late into the night next to a paraffin lamp.

Fiona was the first in her family to finish high school—her test scores were the highest in the province. With the support of Camfed, an international non-profit that tackles inequality by supporting girls’ education, she was able to continue on to the University of Zimbabwe and a law degree, despite her family’s poverty.

In 1998 she helped to found the CAMA network of women leaders, former Camfed-supported students who came together to multiply the impact of donor funds by offering training, technology, business loans, and mentoring support to young women at the critical time when they leave secondary school.

CAMA began as 400 women in Zimbabwe yearning to lift up their communities. It is now a powerful pan-African network on track to grow to more than 130,000 by 2019—a unique movement of rural philanthropists. At the end of 2014, Camfed and CAMA set themselves the ambitious goal of supporting one million adolescent girls to go to secondary school within just five years. After two years, at the end of 2016, they had passed the halfway mark.

The CAMA network that Fiona has helped build is a powerful force for social change, even systems-level change. “Perhaps in the next 20 years we’ll have a million members in the CAMA network,” said Fiona. “Can you imagine: we will have doctors, teachers, lawyers, political leaders. We might even have a president from within CAMA.”

Fiona Mavhinga

Giving Hero of CAMA

It’s pretty impressive that The Liberty Science Center (LSC) in New Jersey has over 600 volunteers and interns who donate more than 50,000 hours of their time, but one really stands out…

Since March, Sparsh Desai, has donated more than 568 hours and counting. His true passion for learning and, in particular Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) has made him quite the volunteer. In his time at LSC, Sparsh has learned all the exhibits across the 295,000 square foot facility and takes guests of all ages around, sharing his passion and enthusiasm for the science and the Center.

Sparsh just loves his work. He regularly goes on the Science Summer Camp and, on the last one, he even volunteered to be shot across the LSC parking lot in order to demonstrate Newton’s Third Law! Needless to say, LSC is really looking forward to having him return next summer.

In addition to being fun to be around, Sparsh is professional, courteous and really embodies the core values of the Center. Just this year, he was awarded the New Jersey State Governor’s Award in recognition of his work and commitment to LSC and public service.

Sparsh Desai

Giving Hero of Liberty Science Center

Marguerite Barankitse still believes love transcends all obstacles. That’s after fleeing her country following war, massacres, and genocide.

In Burundi, a civil war pitted Marguerite’s people, the Tutsis, against the Hutu population. Marguerite – blind to such artificial barriers and at the height of the war – sheltered a group of Hutus at the Catholic diocese where she worked. Marguerite has since expanded her “family” to include tens of thousands of children whose lives she saved against the most difficult odds, bringing hope to those who need it most.

To-date, Marguerite has come to the aid of more than 30,000 orphans and children in need. She has reunited children who were separated from their families, whether by war or through incarceration and created a new “home” for orphaned children.

Today, Marguerite and her colleagues care for children orphaned by AIDS, rather than war, not just in Burundi, but also in Rwanda where she now lives, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

As the inaugural Laureate for the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity, Marguerite was awarded one million dollars to donate to the causes of her choice.

Marguerite choose three organizations that provide child services and support young refugees in Rwanda, Brazil, D.R. Congo and Ethiopia.

Marguerite Barankitse

Giving Hero of the Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity

Learning an instrument takes time – and money. When Pharez Whitted isn’t playing jazz at some of Chicago’s top venues, he’s busy changing the lives of students around the city through music.

When Pharez joined Jazz At Lincoln Center’s (JALC) Jazz for Young People tour, he’d long been a popular fixture on Chicago’s jazz scene. Through his work as bandleader and primary teaching artist for JALC in Chicago, Pharez reaches thousands children in high-need schools on the city’s south side each year, and provides free private lessons to talented young musicians who could not otherwise afford them.

Pharez aims not only to inspire a love of music in young people around the city, but to foster a love and understanding of American history and culture. “We talked about inclusion, individuality, creativity, fearlessness, freedom. Every component that makes jazz what it is, is what makes this country what it’s supposed to be.” Said Pharez to the Chicago Tribute.

Pharez is a jazz player who gives back to his community and likes to let the music do the talking.

Pharez Whitted

Giving Hero of Jazz at Lincoln Center

In 1964, Virginia suffered something every mother fears. Her daughter, Pam, was born a “blue baby,” born with cyanosis. Fortunately, Virginia had access to the medical care that would save her daughter’s life.

As Mother’s Day approached, Virginia began thinking about all the mothers she knew in her life and how lucky these women – like her – were to have access to health care. How could she celebrate their good fortunes while at the same time help those mothers and babies in need?

Rather than spending money on Mother’s Day cards that would likely end up buried in a drawer, Virginia decided to donate $10 on behalf of each woman she would usually send a card to. Virginia’s thoughtful act enables Project HOPE to provide Kangaroo Mother Care wraps for moms and special health care worker training, which support the critical, lifesaving bonding between mothers and newborns immediately after birth.

To further her impact, she sent a free Project HOPE card to each woman, telling them of the donation that was made in their honor, informing them of the cause, and raising awareness for the #SaveNewbornsNow campaign.

Virginia says she has chosen to become a supporter of Project HOPE “because they can be ‘my hands and feet,’ going where I can’t go to help people that I can’t help.”

Today, Virginia is mother to three children, grandmother to twelve grandchildren and great-grandmother to six great-grandchildren. And while she may not be able to travel the world to help mothers and babies in need, she came up with her own solution.

Virginia Grove

Giving Hero of Project HOPE

“She worked up until the week she died,” Taylor Thompson, said of his mom, Maureen Thompson. “Her real passion was architecture. When she went to the office, she wasn’t Maureen with breast cancer, she was Maureen the architect.”

As an architecture student, Maureen Thompson, designed a Habitat for Humanity house that would forever change the lives of dozens of families – including her own.

When he was just 17, Taylor — who aspires to become an architect, too — was literally following in his mother’s footsteps. In honor of her memory, Taylor raised an astounding $85,000 to build a Habitat home — right around the corner from the one his mother designed.

Every Saturday, Taylor worked alongside the future homeowner, single-mother Annette Lopez, to build what will be a game-changing two-story home in Austin, Texas for Lopez and her four-year-old daughter, Isabella.

After Taylor finished the Austin home, he expanded his work with Habitat for Humanity, working alongside former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter to build homes in Memphis in 2016 and again in Edmonton earlier this year.

Now he’s raising money to sponsor a second Habitat home in Austin – this one to honor women who, like his mother, have battled breast cancer.

Taylor says “doing one thing, no matter how big or small, has the power to change the world” – we couldn’t agree more.

Taylor Thompson

Giving Hero of Habitat for Humanity

Ifeoma Egwuonwu, a Nigerian nurse, was amazed to discover she was living in the childhood home of the founder of The Atlantic Philanthropies, Charles Feeney, in New Jersey. It inspired her to read a biography written by Irish journalist, Conor O’Clery, about the philanthropist’s life and his motivation to give away the bulk of his personal fortune for the betterment of humanity.

“I read this book, I felt goosebumps,” Egwuonwu wrote in a 2016 letter to Feeney. “Like your mother, I am a registered nurse raising three children, working ‘double shifts,’ and struggling to pay the bills month to month.” She also sought to follow, in her own way, in Feeney’s footsteps.

In 2010 Egwuonwu founded a non-profit organization, Hope Alive Africa Charities (HAAC), an organization that provides health services in Nigeria. This year, Egwuonwu earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT to better serve this nonprofit organization.

To-date HAAC has treated more than 1,500 villagers with chronic and acute health issues in two villages. Incredibly this includes guaranteed ongoing medication management for 424 hypertension and diabetes patients over the next two years. Left untreated, many of these conditions are life-threatening.

Egwuonwu’s story makes one wonder whether the next inhabitant of the house she called home will continue the tradition of giving.

Ifeoma Egwuonwu

Giving Hero of Atlantic Philanthropies

When Mary Caraccioli, Chief Communications Officer at Lincoln Center, asked the Lincoln Center Education team to share their Giving Hero, the decision was unanimous. At Lincoln Center, the word “giver” is nearly synonymous with Jean Taylor.

John Holyoke, the Lead Instructional Specialist at the world-renowned venue’s education division, called Jean “the unspoken leader” of LCE. “She is respected by everyone, at every level, from every angle, and with good reason.”

For decades, Jean, a teaching artist, has been generously sharing her time and talents, helping teachers and students learn more about the arts and creating a pathway to greater fulfillment for teachers and their students in their classrooms and their lives.

“Jean has given her adult life to the pursuit of fostering access to powerful experiences with the arts, both in her artistic life and in her work as a masterful teaching artist and mentor. She has rightfully earned respect and admiration of countless artists, educations, teaching artists, and program designers around the world, due to her passion, brilliance, curiosity, and tireless rigor,” said Melissa Gawlowski Pratt, Assistant Director of School Programs.

Jean’s dedication to the arts shows in her work, but her commitment to the Lincoln Center community shows in the countless lives of teaching artists and students she has brought joy, creativity, and expression to throughout her life.

Jean Taylor

Giving Hero of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts