I wanted to share the story of someone in my community who is seriously changing lives and is extremely inspirational to so people across the country. He truly shows what being a truly amazing person is all about. His name is Alex Kovarovic and he lives in Schenectady, NY. He used to live in Gloversville, NY and that's where I know him from. Alex and I have been pretty good friends for years. Alex was raised in a pretty abusive home, and grew up with major depression and anxiety and I know he developed a couple of eating disorders as well because of everything he was going through in his life. I know he struggled with depression a lot and he attempted suicide a couple of times last year. He talks about his story all of the time to help other teens so I know he doesn't mind people talking about it which is why I wanted to send you this email. Alex truly changed his life around to help other people and we are all so grateful for that. Back at the beginning of the year, he began getting better and he created social media accounts designed to help other teens through the struggles of life. In only a month he received literally thousands of followers on each account. Now a year later, he's a trained crisis and suicide prevention counselor and he's becoming a firefighter as well. He receives hundreds of messages weekly from teens across the world asking for his help and for advice and he talks to them all. He literally has ended up stopping many teen suicides and he's talked to hundreds of teens about stopping their self harming addictions. He started writing recently too and in only a month he's already written hundreds of self help blogs. Hes also an author for the National Eating Disorder Association and his work has been seen by dozens of thousands of people across the world. He even created a movement which was titled "one life". This is taken from Alex's website and explains it well: “I want every teenager to feel confident in their own skin, and I want every teen to be aware of suicide, depression, and self harm so teens know how to deal with it when and if it were to come up in their lives. I hope to make this movement into something huge in the future so we can raise money for depression awareness and suicide prevention. We only have "One Life", so we as teens need to live it the best we can, being nice to everyone we meet because we never know what challenges someone is facing on the inside of closed doors. I also plan on speaking to schools in the future to spread my message and my past to help inspire other teens to get help when they need it. A lot of schools don't talk about bullying and suicide so I want to be the person to talk about it because it's something that many teens need help with, but are toke cared to come forward to get help. I've received many messages from parents and teens thanking me for saving their child's life and I love doing it. I love helping people.”
Alex recently started an organization to help give back to homeless teens as well. He has teens from across the world mail him stories of hope, cute pictures, or funny pictures that they drew and he goes around and gives homeless people those things along with food or something. They love receiving drawings and letters because they feel great that someone took time to do that for them. The program has been a huge success as I've received hundreds of pictures and letters of hope from across the country.
Alex also recently wrote a book to inspire teens. He wants other teenagers to see what he’s gone through so they feel inspired to make a change in their lives. The book is titled “From One Teen To Another”. Alex is an extremely inspirational person and I know this book will help teens in similar positions as Alex was in.
Alex's biggest success so far is the creation of the One Life Organization. Alex started this organization to help prevent teen suicide and domestic violence across the country. That made him really happy, but he wanted to be able to help teens directly. That's when he started doing events for people in need. He literally plans full blown community events to raise money for people in need. He did one in July for domestic violence awareness. His last event was in upstate New York. He heard of a story of a teen girl who was involved in a serious car accident. Alex planned a huge event for the girl to raise money for her medical bills. He raised over $800 that day. He had over 70 vendors and so much going on at the event. It was all over local news. Here's a couple of the stories:
http://newyorkstatenews.weebly.com/top-news-stories/festival-held-for-broadalbin-perth-teenager
http://www.leaderherald.com/news/local-news/2017/10/festival-benefits-teen-with-tbi/
The story of him helping this teen girl is everywhere around upstate New York. The event was a huge success and had around 1,500 people come to it. He has I think about 15 events planned from now till next summer. He has all of these events planned to raise money for people in need. His next event is for a two year old that has cancer and another one for a local EMS station facing money troubles. He has events planned for New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and a couple other states. He does all the work by himself, puts all the events together by himself, and he receives no money for it either which is what's amazing. It's all volunteer work and he does it just to help people...people he doesn't even know and has never met. Alex has won three awards for everything he does. He won an inspirational people's award through a local organization, he won the Youth Service America everyday hero award and he won a Canadian Awesome Award. His organization is really taking off because of all the events he has planned for people in need.
He's changing lives and he honestly really deserves this award. You can talk to anyone around here and they'd tell you how amazing Alex is. You can even call the mayor's office. He was at the last event and was extremely impressed with the turnout. With everything going on in the world right now, it's amazing that there's someone out there changing lives and trying his best to change the world. I can't believe how many families he’s impacted and how many more events he has planned. It's so much work just to help people he doesn't know but Alex loves it.
I believe that young stars are not just singers and actors, I believe they are also the youth changing our world. There are not many teens that choose to change the world around, but alex is definitely one of them.
Here's a couple more local news article about Alex and his previous events:
http://newyorkstatenews.weebly.com/top-news-stories/schenectady-county-teen-plans-multiple-events-for-people-in-need
http://www.fultoncountyexpress.com/fall-fest-raises-funds-for-broadalbin-teen-injured-in-car-accident/
Here's his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/alexanderkovarovic1/
You'll see more about all the people he helps there.
His organization page is here: www.facebook.com/onelifeorganization
He even has groups on social media full of teens that help one another through mental illnesses and other things. A couple of them have a few thousands members I believe. He does so much for the community and for teens across the country. He went from being in such a bad state to being the most inspirational person most of us know. Alex is also becoming a writer for social media celebrity, Graham Allen and his website where he will be writing rants for the website.
I’m not only Alex’s friend, but I’m a volunteer for Alex’s organization and I strongly believe he is one of the most inspirational teens out there. He does so much good for so many people and doesn’t get anything in return and that’s why he’s so amazing. I look forward to seeing all the events Alex plans for other people in need. He has like 15 planned as of now across I think four different states.
If given the chance, Alex would make a huge difference and impact on the youth of our country.
Alex's latest accomplishment is the start of the National Youth Internet Safety and Cyberbullying Task Force. Alex creates it to help teens and kids stay safe online while helping to eliminate online bullying and bullying in schools. The task force has already had huge success in the only two weeks it's been formed. It already has dozens of members, its first event next month, and has gotten over 3,500 likes on Facebook in only a week. Alex plans on speaking at schools as well with the task force to help spread its mission of keeping teens and our youth safe and responsible while online and on social media. I know Alex will be doing even more in the coming months. This letter only scratches the surface of all of the things he's done for others and for the community.
His organizations website is here: www.nationalyouthiscbtaskforce.org
You will find a lot more about what Alex does there!
Thank you!
Submitted by Anonymous
We've all had people in our lives who have made a positive impact on us. A parent or grandparent, a sibling who was there for us, or maybe even just a guy who shines shoes for a living? Whoever they are, tell us their story so they can inspire us even more.
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