It is a realization that often comes to people only late in their adult lives – that a more just functioning of society depends on a charity of body, resources and spirit.

This realization is at the core of the philanthropy which is fast becoming one of the defining characteristics of our time and place.

And it is an idea that a group of students at Liberty High School have embraced at a young age.

A few months ago the school took part in a “Philanthropy Fair”, where students and teachers from a number of area high schools came together to talk about how they were contributing to their communities, chipping in with programs of social assistance, taking advantage of opportunities to help others.

For the Liberty students, seeing how other teenagers were getting involved in charitable programs was an eye-opener.

“I think it really made us realize that we weren’t doing enough,” said senior Andy Boes, a member of the Associated Student Body (ASB). “As students we have a lot of resources, educational resources, financial resources, friend and family resources. We got together and thought, we need to find a way to get involved, find something in the community that we can contribute to.”

This was toward the end of March, and after beginning their search, the students soon found that April was National Autism Awareness Month.

For this leadership group, autism was something they had some connection to, a number of their friends and classmates at Liberty have autism.

And so, with a cause to rally behind, rally they did, launching a month long campaign that would eventually grow to encompass the many halls and classrooms of the campus, hundreds of its students, transform assemblies and meetings into fundraising events and games, and raise thousands of dollars for Autism Speaks, a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing awareness of autism and raising money to fund autism research.

For Boes, watching his fellow students throw themselves so passionately into better understanding autism, and educating others, took on a special significance.

Boes’ sister, Tori, 16, is one of the Liberty students living with autism.

He and his family understand better than most that, like many diseases and disorders for which we still seek to find treatments, awareness is objective number one.

To this end, Boes and the ASB made giant sized puzzle-pieces, the symbol of Autism Speaks, emblazoned with facts about autism, and pasted them on walls across the school.

“Boys are four times more likely than girls to have autism – One in 150 children is diagnosed with autism – More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes and cancer combined – Autism is the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S.”

Not only did Liberty’s Autism Awareness drive help all the students to better understand a disability that affects people in their immediate community, it also provided much needed help to families, like the Boes family, searching for ways to understand and treat a relative with autism.

“One of the things we are helping to fund is the ‘100 Day Package,'” Boes said. “Research has found that the earlier parents can start doing therapy on young children diagnosed with autism, the better the outlook down the track.”

T-shirts were sold, classes competed against each other to raise money, there was even a paper airplane challenge.

For the month of April, Liberty was transformed into just the kind the school that Boes and his friends envisioned at that first Philanthropy Fair a few months ago.

Their actions are testimony to the enormous reserves of good-will and charity that exist in our young people, and in schools like Liberty High.