Restaurateur Teaches Teens How to Give Back

27th May, 2010

By Shelly Banjo

Stephen Hanson, the restaurateur behind New York's Dos Caminos and Blue Water Grill, thinks the best way to turn his and other children into lifelong philanthropists is to start them young.

With a $300,000 donation to the Upper East Side's Marymount School, where his two daughters go to school, he's bringing a Canada-based philanthropy program to the U.S. to encourage high school students to learn how to effectively give back.

"I want to teach my children how to help people who aren't as fortunate as many of the kids in this city and starting at a young age is critical," says Mr. Hanson, who recently helped his children set up a hot cocoa stand at one of his restaurants to benefit Haiti earthquake relief efforts.

Students at Marymount will have the capability to change the world in the future and we have an opportunity to help shape the way they use that capability, says Mr. Hanson, a native New Yorker who grew up in Westchester and sits on the boards of NYC & Co., New York's tourism organization and Public Color, an art and education charity.

Mr. Hanson's gift will fund an endowment to create the first U.S. chapter of Youth and Philanthropy Initiative, a school-based semester-long contest that introduces ninth- and 10th-graders to social issues and how charities are addressing them.

Here's how it works: Small teams of students identify a social issue affecting New York City, such as teen homelessness or domestic violence, determining its root causes and imagining possible solutions. Students then single out and highlight the work, vision, and mission of one charity addressing that social issue. Through volunteer work, on-site visits, interviews with charity employees and people they serve, students research how the organization operates with regard to finances, ethics, and accountability. Students present a funding request to a judging panel and the kids who make the best case for why donors should support their cause receive $5,000 for the charity.

"Philanthropy is something you can't just teach, you have to show the value," Mr. Hanson says, referring to the program's emphasis on immersing students in the charities' work.

In the program's inaugural year, which ended this month, judges included First Deputy Mayor Patricia Harris and Serafin Mariel, former CEO of New York National Bank. The judges awarded the $5,000 prize to Inwood House, a teen pregnancy center, to fund a program that educates teen fathers on how to be responsible parents.

The ability to present their projects to influential members of the community and actually award a significant sum of money to a charity makes the kids feel their voices are actually heard, says Sabra McKenzie-Hamilton, a religious studies teacher at Marymount and coordinator of the program.

"They're not just talking about making a difference but actually doing so on an economic level," she says. "Of all the lessons in philanthropy, this knowledge—that any individual can have a powerful impact on the surrounding community with their time, talent, and treasure—is the most important."

Write to Shelly Banjo at shelly.banjo@wsj.com

Wall Street Journal