Wheaton Teen Kendall Ciesemier: Her Fiery Compassion Ignites Love

September 20, 2022 - TribLocal.com

Kendall Ciesemier distinctly remembers meeting one of her role models, Bono from U2, in eighth grade. He visited the Nordstrom store in Chicago to spread awareness about the new ONE Campaign t-shirt and the Edun clothing line.

“Everyone swarmed him, and I thought ‘I’m not going to get to meet him,’” Kendall reminisced as she sipped passion fruit iced tea lemonade at the Starbucks in downtown Wheaton.

But then her mom talked to Bono’s wife, Ali Hewson. She told her about Kendall and her nonprofit organization, Kids Caring 4 Kids, which provides food and education to impoverished kids in Africa. Bono, as the co-founder of PRODUCT(RED), the ONE Campaign, and Edun clothing, also helps Africans and fights the HIV/AIDS crisis.

When Bono’s wife Ali Hewson heard about Kendall’s organization, she grabbed Kendall’s hand and pushed through the crowd to her husband.

“I just started crying, and thinking, ‘I’m going to meet Bono!’” Kendall said. “And he said, ‘Well, Kendall, you’re crying. You know what that means. You get to wear my sunglasses.’ I said, ‘Are you serious?’ And he said, ‘Kendall, I’ll always remember you, because I always remember everyone who wears my sunglasses.’”

Kendall, now a Wheaton North incoming sophomore, came to the Nordstrom store in 2006 as one of her special events for the Make-a-Wish foundation. Her favorite U2 songs are Beautiful Day and One. “It was really cool,” said Kendall. “I think I’ll meet him again though. I have a feeling about that.”

Now, a year and a half later, Kendall has met even more luminaries through her Kids Caring 4 Kids organization. This August, former President Bill Clinton came to Wheaton North and held a school assembly to recognize Kendall and her charity. He then escorted her to “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” Kendall’s appearance aired on September 4, 2007.
“That was within my first two weeks of high school,” Kendall said with a smile, “so I went from scum to noticed.”

Kendall said she wasn’t feeling well the day of the assembly, so she thought she’d just wear sweats to school. She didn’t think anything of it when her mom (who knew about the Oprah plans, but wasn’t allowed to tell her daughter) persuaded her to wear “something cute” instead.

When Kendall saw a filming truck parked outside Wheaton North, she thought it was kind of silly that the school was recording an ordinary assembly.

Of course, Wheaton North was in for a huge surprise. Former President Bill Clinton walked on the stage and spoke about Wheaton North’s example of giving. He then called Kendall to the stage and praised Kids Caring 4 Kids.

However, Kendall was in for an even bigger shock during the filming of “The Oprah Winfrey Show” later that day. During a commercial break, one of former President Clinton’s friends anonymously donated half a million dollars to her organization. To date, Kendall has raised $680,000. Chicago Magazine recognized her as one of top seven Chicagoans of 2007.

Kendall has always felt passionate about relieving suffering, especially for people in Africa, the world’s poorest continent, where starvation is rampant.

As early as fifth grade, she was searching for a sense of purpose for her compassion. “I’ve always had this huge feeling that I need to help people,” Kendall says. “I was waiting, that year, in fifth grade, for it to just hit me, for something to say, ‘This is what you’re supposed to do.’”

That winter, a spark ignited Kendall’s passion when she watched an Oprah Winfrey special about African orphans her age. One girl on the show had to raise her younger sibling in a hut; her parents had died of AIDS. “I was just in awe of how they could handle that at such a young age, dealing with grieving the loss of their parents and being responsible for all that,” Kendall said. “Instead of crying, I went upstairs and searched for a way to help them.”

She fueled the fires of her compassion when she signed up to sponsor a child through World Vision that day. Afterward, she extended her sponsorship to include an entire Zambian village—for $60,000. Her parents were shocked at her ambition, but they knew that Kendall always met her goals. To raise money, Kendall and her friends made dog necklaces and T-shirts, sold lemonade, and asked for donations. As her cause expanded, she inspired many other kids to help Africa too, kindling sparks of selfless love.

The summer before sixth grade, Kendall, who was born with a liver disease, went to the hospital for a liver transplant. She asked her friends and family to donate to her sponsored Zambian village instead of buying her gifts. The first liver transplant failed, so she had to get a second one, spending most of her summer in the hospital.

Even afterward, she came back to the hospital a lot to check on the condition of her liver, or because she had a fever. “If I get sick, it’s a lot harder for me than other kids,” Kendall said. “It’s hard to tell if it’s a kid sickness or a liver sickness.”

But Kendall also expressed that her health struggles helped her relate to kids in Africa, like the AIDS orphans she saw on Winfrey’s show. “I feel like I’ve been through hard things, and they’ve been through hard things,” Kendall said. “I feel empathy for them; I know how they feel and I want to help.”

Throughout her life, Kendall has never stopped dreaming and setting goals. Now she wants to travel to Africa. “My doctors say to wait until I’m older, but that’s not going to happen,” she said with a grin. “I’m going before that.”

Kendall stressed that teens don’t need to travel to Africa or start a charity to change the world; they just need to be passionate. “It can start with people at your school,” she said. “There’s always people in school—even knowing who’s the loner in your science class and asking them to be your partner. You can change their life. High school is a hard time, but that in itself is enough to make a difference.”

When Kendall talks at schools, she always points out that 10 dollars—enough to pay for a school uniform in Africa—makes a genuine difference.

“If they don’t have 10 dollars for a school uniform, they don’t get an education,” she explained. “That’s a tool for their life. They can go on and be something. You can donate 10 dollars to make a difference. It isn’t that hard to change someone’s life; all you have to do is have a passion for it.”

For more information, visit Kendall’s web site at www.kidscaring4kids.org.
 
Catherine Newhouse is a Wheaton Warrenville South High School senior, contributing writer for Ignite Your Faith magazine, and Teen Ink magazine's global issues blogger.

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