I am Somebody

Shazzaneiy Nalir is somebody that the youth in Regent Park look up to and somebody to watch as he finishes his Ryerson degree and starts his career. But impressive as he is, Shazz does not strive for recognition. Instead, his sense of being somebody comes from this quote:  

I said, "Somebody should do something about that."

Then I realized I am Somebody.             Lily Tomlin*

Touched by the plight of Syria's war-battered children, Shazz realized that he was Somebody – and stepped up to do something. In 2013, while still a high school senior, he gathered up six of his Regent Park friends, and together, they started Youth2Give. Their goal was to engage Regent Park youth in fundraising events to support suffering children worldwide.

As I started my interview with Shazz, I asked what motivated him. In response, he describes the ethos of generosity that pervaded both his immigrant family and the Regent Park Muslim community in which he grew up. Shazz also tells me about Mohsin Khan, a friend of his older brothers and the co-founder of Lead2Peace, an earlier youth-led program in Regent Park. So when Shazz started Youth2Give, Mohsin became a helpful mentor.

Over the next five years, Youth2Give would take on numerous causes: kids caught in the Syrian war, the Nepalese earthquakes and the Fort McMurray forest fires, vulnerable youth on indigenous reserves, newborns in Rohingya refugee camps, and youngsters in a Somali orphanage. Such causes gave Regent Park youth an awareness of the wider world and encouraged them to respond with generosity.

I love the creativity of Shazz and his team as they dreamed up fundraising events: Bake2Give, Shakes2Give, which sold delicious mango drinks, Shovel2Give after a heavy snowstorm, and even Chill2Give, where kids paid $3 to join a neighbourhood scavenger hunt or watch a Raptors' game together. Eventually, three favourites stood out – Hoops2Give, Wash2Give, and Henna2Give – and the team refined these annual events over the next four years.

Hoops2Give was a basketball tournament with T-shirts identifying each team, and a magnificent trophy and prize ribbons. For this event, Youth2Give recruited participants from the neighbourhood's basketball courts, the local elementary schools, and Jarvis Collegiate, the high school that all of the leaders attended.

I drove my car to one of the Wash2Give events, where for $20, a group of 30 youth with soap buckets and hoses gave my car its most thorough wash ever. I was impressed by their hard work, for these kids had already been on the job for several hours. In fact, by total count, they washed more than 70 cars that day. I also chuckled at their drenched Wash2Give T-shirts, knowing they had sloshed more than just cars. After all, a youth event must always have that crucial ingredient called fun.

At Henna2Give, there was festive music as I entered a large community room. At a long row of tables, about 15 henna artists decorated their clients' hands in preparation for Eid celebrations. Elsewhere in the room, young women and mothers greeted neighbours and supervised children at the craft table. When my turn came, I received, for a small contribution, a beautiful henna design on both arms. Then as I left the hall, a grade 4 girl asked to interview me while another youth filmed a segment to use later in a YouTube montage. Knowing how awkward I had been at her age, I couldn't believe the poise of my young interviewer.

By the end of five years, Shazz's Youth2Give had raised $10,300, which they donated to UNICEF and other charities serving youth. They also obtained some $16,000 in grants from donors such as Toronto Community Housing Corporation, Daniels Corporation, and local businesses. Their grant money was well spent, for Youth2Give was far more than just a fundraising group. It served as a vibrant youth group that empowered an entire cohort of Regent Park youth to develop strong leadership and organizational skills, effective communication and computer skills, and the creativity and grit to succeed.   

As for Shazz, he plans to graduate this year and launch his career in community public health – a career choice with obvious roots in his Youth2Give neighbourhood endeavour. And in this next phase of his life, I have no doubt that the skills he developed in leading Youth2Give will prove to be invaluable.

But youth-led groups do not last forever. In 2013, when Mohsin Khan was awarded the Ontario Medal for Young Volunteers, he said that since he would soon graduate, he needed to hand on the baton to somebody with new ideas. Shazz Nalir became that Somebody. Now Shazz is graduating and must pass on the stick. Who will step up? Who will be next to realize I am Somebody?

* https://quotepark.com/quotes/701183-lily-tomlin-i-said-somebody-should-do-something-about-that/