Meet Nyla, our Child of the Month

About Nyla

Age: 11

Attends: Deer Park Middle Magnet in Randallstown, MD.

Grade: 6

Favorite hobby: Dance: hip hop, jazz, modern, African

Nyla Adams serves as a shining example of the adage: “All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.”

After learning about community helpers in kindergarten, Nyla wanted to become one herself. She enlisted the assistance of her mother, who contacted local charitable organizations about volunteer opportunities for young children. They all said the same thing: She’s too young.

Nyla didn’t give up hope. “I thought, ‘I’ll just do it myself,’” Nyla says.

So she did.

Over the past five years, Nyla has spearheaded a number of volunteer efforts. There’s her local holiday pajama drive, aided by her “Super Friends” from different parts of the country—mostly kids of her mother’s friends—who mail her pajamas that they collect. This past year, she collected an all-time high of 325-plus pajamas, which were distributed to local shelters. Nyla has other led other volunteer activities, including organizing sock drives and delivering Rita’s Italian Ice to children who live at shelters.

“It’s sad for me to know that some kids don’t have what I have,” Nyla says.

She urges other young people who feel similarly to act on their impulses. “Just do it,” she says.

Know a child you’d like to nominate for our Baltimore’s Child of the Month contest? Click to enter here.