Northern Kentucky teen wins national 'Nobel Prize' for his work in Kenya

On a family vacation to Africa when he was just 12 years old, Michael Best knew he had to do something as he watched a group of Kenyan children play soccer with a ball made of garbage and cloth.

“I saw those kids, and I played soccer back home and I knew then I wanted to come back with soccer balls,’’ says Best, now a 17-year-old who will be a senior at St. Henry District High School next year.  “I told my mom and my aunt that I wanted to get uniforms and balls for the kids.”

And that’s exactly what he did.   

In the last three years, Best has filled suitcases with hundreds of soccer and volleyball jerseys and dozens of soccer and volley balls and delivered them to the children of Samburu, Kenya, about five hours north of Nairobi. He has also helped build two classrooms for children and a chicken coop for impoverished women in Bisil, Kenya.

Back home in Erlanger, he has worked with his school and his friends to raise more than $4,000 to provide for food, shelter and clothing for the women and children. He also sells beaded work made by Kenyan women to students in the schools. St. Henry and other area schools have donated the jerseys. Nike, where Best’s father works, has donated the balls.

Best’s work, as well as his ability to rally his classmates around his cause, won him a national Jefferson Service Leadership Award. He and his mother, Mikey Best, will travel to Washington, DC, June 18 to accept the award, which is considered be the Nobel Prize for Public Service.

Best says he was humbled and shocked to learn he had won the contest sponsored locally by Children, Inc.’s Mayerson Service Learning Initiative.

Mary Kay Connolly, Director of Children Inc. Mayerson Service Learning Initiative, says she and the judges were inspired by Michael’s work in Africa, but also his ability to engage other teens and his school to support his mission and to help fundraise.  Any high school freshman, sophomore or junior can be nominated for the recognition. The award is highly competitive and seeks to showcase a teen’s service work – not just in hours worked – but in passion, commitment and involvement.

“Michael represents an extraordinary group of young people,’’ Connolly says. “They are innovative and very hopeful. They believe in themselves and in the future.”  

The non-profit awarded Best an all-expense paid trip to the three-day award ceremony and celebration, which will include meeting with politicians, policymakers and  public figures as well as other volunteers. He will also attend the Jefferson Awards National Ceremony where former Vice President Dick Cheney is slated to provide the keynote to the winners. Last year, she says, youth also were assigned a one-day service project to work on while in Washington.

That sounds great to Best.

“I’m really excited to. I hope to get to meet people who are doing similar work,’’ Best says. “I’m eager to hear what they are doing, too.”

After hearing about his work, one of Best’s teachers at St. Henry introduced him and his mother to Ed Colina, a former Northern Kentucky teacher and administrator who now runs  Journey: The Ed Colina Foundation. The Foundation, founded in 2009, focuses on improving the lives of poor women and children in sub-Saharan Africa. The group works to provide food, shelter and education.

Best says he admires and respects the work that the Foundation does and working with them has allowed him to do more than he likely would have been able to do on his own.

“I love it. It’s amazing how everyone there are so proud of what they have, even though they don’t have much. They are just proud and thankful,’’ the soft-spoken Best says.  “People smile and say ‘thank you, thank you, thank you’ for what we’ve done.”

Best had planned to make a fourth trip to Africa this summer, but recent terrorist attacks make the trip too unpredictable, he says. He hopes the extra time allows him to fundraise and gather materials to take when he can go back.  

“I didn’t know how big of an emotional attachment I would have to the people and the country,’’ he says. “But I do.”

Do Good:

•    Follow the work being done by Journey: The Ed Colina Foundation on their blog.

•    Watch The Jefferson Awards for Public Service Youth Service Initiative video.

•    Read about the work Children, Inc.’s Mayerson Service Learning Initiative is doing with more than 23,000 local school children to better our community.

Chris Graves is the Assistant Vice President of Digital and Social Media at the Powers Agency. You can follow her on Twitter.