Upon a visit to Santa’s Workshop at Childrens Hospital Los
Angeles in 2008, founders Bosilika An and Nathalia Ramos,
discovered that there was a huge gap between the funding
allocated for children and the funding allocated for teens.
While young children were given a vast array of gift choices
that literally ran from floor to ceiling, teens got old
soaps and mp3 players from a box lined with a garbage bag.
As every kid lined up to receive their “dream gift” from
Santa we were the ones who were forced to break the teens’
hearts by telling them their board game, Xbox, basketball
or card deck was not there. In contrast, young children
left in squealing delight filled. However, it wasn't until
I met a cystic fibrosis patient, Walter, that their mind
was set to support the hospital patients. Bosilika and Nathalia
were able to deduce that his reaction was a combination
of his fear of going through the troubling situation alone,
with no way to frequently see his family and friends, and
a lack of things to do in the room to keep his spirit alive.
In seeing this, they decided to devote their time to correcting
the situation and bringing awareness to the great divide
through a special fundraiser that named our organization,
"The BASH." Philanthropy has always been an integral
part in the lives of both founders and after their visit
to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, the girls wanted to spread
their story about what they saw to other elite teens with
a great capacity to help others.
The BASH is an all teen-ran and teen-founded organization
based on the simple but inspiring notion of, "Teens
Helping Teens... One Event At A Time." We, the teen
board and members of the organization, met each other and
became friends with the only common link being our desire
to help. Today, we are the best of friends and we have found
that friends and the right influences have the power to
move you to do things you never thought possible to really
make a difference in the world. Our mission is to empower
teens and youth outside of our group to become compassionate,
socially conscious, and responsible leaders while helping
help teens in isolation, dialysis and teen impact programs
at Childrens Hospitals keep their spirits strong during
treatment by demonstrating how fun and easily philanthropy
can be integrated into one's everyday life. Through special
events such as teen dances, fundraisers or hands-on retreats,
The BASH promises to connect patients with teens and tweens
in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Orange Country and around
the country, to break the notion that philanthropy is "for
boring, old people" and demonstrate the great need
that is in their backyards.
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