Amelia Burbank is a 9-year-old with big ideas and a big heart.
Since January, Amelia, a third grade student at Schilling Elementary School in Homer Glen, has worked with her family and school leadership on ways they can make the school’s playground more inclusive to students with disabilities.
Amelia said students who are in wheelchairs at her school can’t fully participate at the playground like other students. She drew her inspiration from a YouTube video she saw during winter break about a playground where students with disabilities enjoy accessible equipment.
But her philanthropic ideas didn’t stop there.
Amelia, of Homer Glen, said she also wanted to help children in hospitals and give them toys to play with, because they may not be able to enjoy a trip to the playground.
For about five months, Amelia and her family worked to implement her ideas.
“This is her thing; this is her passion, and we help foster it,” Amelia’s mom, Kim Burbank, said.
Amelia and her family hosted Amelia’s Act of Kindness Yard Sale on Saturday at Homer Glen’s Heritage Park, where the community could donate new toys for area hospitals and purchase used toys with proceeds helping fund playground equipment geared for students of all abilities.
“I made it very clear to her in the beginning: I love your ideas, and I love your enthusiasm, but I need you to understand everything that is involved in something like this,” Kim Burbank said. “She has been involved in every step.”
Once Amelia got the idea in her head, she began recruiting classmates to donate their old toys to sell at the yard sale and to give new toys that would benefit children in hospitals.
“She is all heart,” her dad, Brian Burbank, said. “She’s super empathic. She cares big.”
Homer Glen parents Kim and Brian Burbank and daughters Amelia, 9, and Lily, 7, work at Amelia's Act of Kindness Yard Sale. The family sold used items, and the proceeds will help provide more inclusive playground equipment at Schilling Elementary School. (Michelle Mullins/for the Daily Southtown)
Amelia met with her principal, Candis Gasa, the buildings and grounds crew at Schilling Elementary and the school’s student leadership team. She looked through catalogs for playground equipment that would provide a more accessible experience for students with disabilities.
Amelia created a presentation in February for Homer Glen’s Ability Awareness Committee, which advocates for differently-abled residents. The committee wholeheartedly agreed to help out and offered Heritage Park as a site for the sale.
“I was very nervous,” Amelia said. “I’ve never done this before.”
Amelia, who loves art, then created Kindness Monsters, cardboard boxes decorated as friendly colorful monsters where people could “feed” either gently used or brand new toys.
The collection monsters were each given a name and personality and were set up at Schilling Elementary School, Goodings Grove Elementary School, the Homer Glen Village Hall, Thrivent Financial in Lockport and Rush Pediatric Therapy in Orland Park.
Amelia also made flyers.
Amelia said that even when the project was hard, she thought about her goals.
Amelia and her family said they hope to raise $10,000 for the Schilling Elementary School’s Parent-Teacher Organization to purchase the playground equipment.
The band Schtillrokken, which will perform at HomerFest this summer, is auctioning off a performance at a private event or party, said Amelia’s grandfather Rick Madal, a member of the band. The band is promoting the auction, which will last through July 6, on its Facebook page. The opening bid is $500, and proceeds will benefit Amelia’s Act of Kindness.
“I like helping people a lot,” said Amelia, who wants to be a teacher.
The timing of the event came together nicely.
Schilling School recently received a grant to replace mulch with a turf base for its playground, and the school’s PTO was raising money for playground equipment.
The money from the yard sale will support the installation of the Bankshot basketball system, described as “mini golf, but with a basketball.” The company website says players of all ages and abilities can try to make baskets off angled and brightly colored backboards.
The company says its system provides for an inclusive playground environment where every child and adult can participate.
“Bankshot Playcourts are a welcoming space that promote social interaction, imagination, and fun for people of all abilities,” the company website said.
Gasa said she is proud of Amelia’s efforts to try and make a difference.
“As a principal, we want to see our students create and foster change,” Gasa said. “She’s super inspiring. That’s what our goal is: teach the kids how to be good citizens and good community members. I’m super proud of her for taking the initiative to speak up and speak out and be willing to organize something on behalf of our school.”
Amelia hopes to write a book about her experience to inspire other children.
Michelle Mullins is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
