On today’s show, hosts Adrian Paul and Ethan Dettenmaier welcomed actor/author Tom Malloy to talk about his favorite charities and the messages of confidence and initiative he’s shared with over 100,000 students as a motivational speaker.

Later in the show, I pop in to talk about three amazing kids:

Alexandra Scott raised more than $1 million for pediatric cancer causes before the disease finally claimed her life in 2004, when she was just 8 years old. Since her passing, her family has raised an additional $60 million for pediatric cancer research.

When Aaron Maresky was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease at age 7, he was heartbroken to learn that many families can’t afford the thousands upon thousands of dollars of monthly medical costs associated with the chronic diseases that affect their children. So he founded Aaron’s Apple and has so far raised more than $350,000 to help them cover their staggering medical bills.

And that brings us to this week’s Hero of the Week, 13-year-old Rachel Wheeler, who climbed on a chair at age 9 and declared her commitment to the children of Haiti. Her initial barrage of fundraising collected $250,000 that rebuilt a school destroyed by the 2010 earthquake and created a village that now houses 27 families who had to be taught how to use doorknobs and locks because they’d only ever lived in cardboard boxes held together by mud. She’s now well on her way to reaching her next goal of an additional $260,000 to build even more homes for families in need.