{"id":20400,"date":"2013-04-01T15:37:07","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T19:37:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=20400"},"modified":"2013-04-01T15:39:04","modified_gmt":"2013-04-01T19:39:04","slug":"entrepreneur-10-given-community-service-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/?p=20400","title":{"rendered":"Entre- preneur, 10, Given Commu- nity Service Medal"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sentinel City Editor<\/strong><\/p>\n

N\u2019Jhari Jackson<\/strong> is anything but a typical ten-year-old. While others his age may be concentrating on sports, his full attention is dedicated to other children. In fact, the back of his business cards reads, \u201cDo not neglect to do good and to share what you have\u2026\u201d <\/em><\/strong>taken from Hebrews 13:16.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, the youngster realized that his effort to brighten the lives of ill children has not gone unnoticed. He was presented a bronze medal as a Distinguished Finalist by the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards.<\/p>\n

N\u2019Jhari<\/strong> founded the \u201cPajama Buddy Voyage\u201d<\/em><\/strong> five years ago and has given more than 1,800 new stuffed \u201cBuddies\u201d to children in hospitals facing surgery. Some bags have been shipped as far away as China.<\/p>\n

His mother, Ms. LaShina Lewis Jackson, <\/strong>said of her only child that his community service began five years ago. \u201cHe sends bags to children, when he hears about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, other people inform him, including doctors and nurses. N\u2019Jhari <\/strong>now visits four hospitals, Shriner\u2019s Hospital, Arnold Palmer\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital, St. Joseph\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital, and Tampa General Hospital.<\/p>\n

Ms. Lewis Jackson<\/strong> moved to Tampa to accept a job in 2007. Shortly thereafter, N\u2019Jhari<\/strong> was hospitalized for surgery. \u201cI couldn\u2019t go into the operating room with him and someone gave him a large stuffed toy. One kid who was on his way to surgery asked N\u2019Jhari <\/strong>where he had gotten it from, and he gave it to the kid,\u201d his mother recalls.<\/p>\n

That was the beginning of \u201cPajama Buddy Voyage.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> When hospitals began closing the playrooms because of the risk of infections, N\u2019Jhari<\/strong> created \u201cPajama Drab Bags.\u201d<\/em><\/strong> The custom-made bags contain all types of donated gifts ranging from books to Kindle readers.<\/p>\n

His mother said that whenever her son meets a child who needs assistance, he steps up. In January, N\u2019Jhari<\/strong> met five-year-old Hailey Bankhead,<\/strong> who has been diagnosed with Stage 4 Cancer.<\/p>\n

Ms. Lewis Jackson<\/strong> recalls him saying, \u201cMommy, I wish we could just take it to her.\u201d So, on a Friday afternoon, the two drove to Atlanta to deliver the items he had for her. At the time, Hailey <\/strong>had just undergone surgery to have a kidney removed and the gifts made her smile.<\/p>\n

On April 6th<\/sup>, the mother and son team will travel to Atlanta so that N\u2019Jhari <\/strong>can participate in a 5K Walk to benefit the Hailey Bankhead Foundation. He has already raised $1,200 for the foundation, his mother said.<\/p>\n

Ms. Lewis Jackson<\/strong> said her son never ask for anything for himself, even for his birthday or Christmas. \u201cIf someone asks what he wants, he talks about his program. Now, people don\u2019t even knock, they just leave donations on the door.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s grateful for all of the donations. And even though the award was presented to him, it\u2019s really for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

A native of Chicago, N\u2019Jhari<\/strong> is a 5th<\/sup> grade student at Paideia School of Tampa Bay. He enjoys swimming, he plays guitar, and speaks Chinese. The son of Christopher Jackson,<\/strong> of North Carolina, N\u2019Jhari <\/strong>attends Tampa Bay Presbyterian Church, where he participates in the Youth Choir and in the Pioneers Club.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor N\u2019Jhari Jackson is anything but a typical ten-year-old. While others his age may be concentrating on sports, his full attention is dedicated to other children. In fact, the back of his business cards reads, \u201cDo not neglect to do good and to share what you have\u2026\u201d taken from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":210,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","pmpro-has-access"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/210"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20400"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20400\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flsentinel.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}