Minnesota girl, 12, wins $10Kprize for her global anti-hate campaign

Natalie Flaherty, a 12-year-old from Minnesota who distributed over 100,000 anti-hate bracelets, is one of this year’s Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes winners. The tween won the $10,000 award for her global initiative, ‘I Stand with Anne’, which aims to transform Holocaust remembrance into daily action. The bracelets she made read, “I Stand With Anne, Put a Stop to Hate.”Flaherty began the campaign when she was a fifth-grade student at Fairmont Elementary School. She first came across Anne Frank’s story in third grade, when she read about the young diarist and watched a documentary about the Holocaust. She was deeply moved by Anne Frank’s life. For the next two Halloweens, Flaherty asked her mother if she could dress up as Frank. Her wish was finally granted in 2023. Over these years, she also researched Anne Frank and learned that it was hate that killed her. So, for Halloween 2023, Flaherty dressed up as Frank and had a purpose beyond trick-or-treating. She wanted to spread kindness. "I was hesitant. I wanted to make sure she fully understood everything about Anne Frank and what happened. But this year she said, 'I'm ready, Mom. I really want to do it. Instead of trick-or-tr...