One of the most critical skills for our children to learn is conscious creative confidence — a combination of ethics, innovation and leadership that will prepare them to address the most pressing problems of our times while building a world that works for all of us.
Join me in celebrating 11 -year-old Kylie who already embodies this ideal. I invite you to support her journey as an emerging social innovator. At a young age she is inventing a way to dramatically improve the lives of children in hospitals by giving them much-needed mobility and independence at a time when their lives feel profoundly constrained. An IV in a backpack? Brilliant!
Kylie is also using visual storytelling to help us see what she sees clearly and fund her project along the way, an important skill for any social innovator.
My appreciation for Kylie’s invention comes from my time as a volunteer at the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford. I had just graduated and was looking for a way to stay close to campus. It was one of the best jobs I have ever had. I carried babies and looked after little ones when their parents weren’t around because they lived far away, had to work or care for siblings, or simply needed a break.
I took many laps around the hospital floors with the children, many of whom had been in and out of hospitals for months. I carried babies in arms, pulled toddlers in bright red wagons, pushed older children in wheelchairs. Within the circumstances, those were generally happy afternoons and it was a joy to spend it with them.
However, a mundane piece of equipment invariably got in the way – the IV. The tall, precariously balanced metal pole, with a cryptic monitor and wires you could easily trip over, brought with it an element of alarm along with the obvious mobility constraint. Not only was it very inconvenient to transport (picture baby/wagon/wheelchair in one hand and IV in the other) but it was generally quite scary for child and non-medical caregiver alike.
Enter Kylie’s ingenious solution.