Hi, I’m Monte, a 6th grader living on the East End of Long Island. From the time I was very little I’ve always liked to help people and make others happy. I admit that it makes me very upset when anyone else is sad or hurt - to the point where I feel like crying. So, I guess I would say that I want to help make a difference in people’s lives. When I wrote my election speech for school President, I committed to try to do more for our community -- not just for our school. I think that if others see people doing good things, it can be contagious. 

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To be honest, I did not have anything specific in mind as to what I would do to help the community. But, then my mom’s friend (and my dentist, Dr. Mindy Homer) asked if I wanted to run a half marathon with her and I said, “sure, it will be a good goal to set and it will be fun”. So later, I thought to myself: I want to do good for our community, and I am about to start training for a half marathon. I knew that this was a big goal that I was setting for myself, so why not raise money for a cause at the same time. This way I would be able to do just what I wanted to do all along: help our community!

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Well, unfortunately, when I was deep into my training for the Big Apple Half Marathon, my mom heard that I may not be old enough. So, I went to register and saw that I had to be 15 years or older to run it. But, I was committed to running a half marathon at that point, so my running partner and I decided to run it closer to home. That’s how we came up with the NoFo Half Marathon. Even though there aren’t going to be a thousand people running with lots of cheering and music playing, I made a goal for myself, and I am going to stick to it. I decided to keep training.

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I am choosing to run for the Butterfly Effect Project to help make a difference in children’s lives. I was introduced to this organization in 3rd grade when they came to my school to meet with the girls in my class. I didn’t know much about what the “butterflies” did, other than hearing the girls in my class say that they had fun and learned a lot. But, now they also have the “dragonflies” for boys!

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I thought that I could connect with them and what they stand for. I made a commitment, and even though problems arose, and even though training was hard, I stuck with it and I was determined. 

Just like the butterflies and dragonflies, I demonstrated to myself the values of:

• Integrity

• Accountability 

• Community

Which is all a big part of what the Butterfly Effect Project stands for.

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