Teen stops brother's bullies, wins $36k, meets Shakira
PHOENIX — If they hadn't always been so close, Matthew Kaplan might not have noticed the small changes in his little brother.
Josh was quieter. He smiled less. And he spent more time alone.
At the time, Matthew was 13 and Josh was 10. Josh always had been the more outspoken of the two brothers.
But this time, it was Matthew who had to speak up. It took some prodding, but Josh finally confided in his big brother. He was having problems with kids he thought were his friends.
Each day, when Josh checked his Facebook or his phone he had another mean message.
"You suck." "That was so stupid of you." "What's wrong with you?"
"Watching him come home in tears just broke my heart," Matthew said.
That was 2011. Matthew is 18 now.
Most of the anti-bullying education back then was aimed at kids in high school, he said. Josh was in fifth grade.
"He was always very confident, self-assured," Matthew said. "This really rattled him to his core, and he became very withdrawn."
The steps Matthew took next would put him on a path to helping thousands of children in schools across four states, meeting a pop star and winning more than $36,000.
But first, he helped his little brother.
Matthew and Josh were students at the Arizona School for the Arts.
Matthew decided his school needed to teach young children about bullying, so he met with a teacher who told him he could pitch his idea at a faculty meeting.
Matthew remembers standing in front of a crowd of teachers.
He told them he wanted to launch a one-day anti-bullying program. For the program to work, he said older kids who could influence the younger kids needed to run it.
"I couldn't believe it when they said OK," he says.
Matthew spent that summer studying anti-bullying programs and put together a curriculum for what he called the "One Day" program.
He remembers standing in the cafeteria in front of 50 preteens. His little brother was in the audience.
For the first part of the program, he focused on fun. Once the kids got to know one another better, he asked them to stand together. He told them he was going to ask questions and if they answered yes, they should walk to the other side of the room.
"Have you ever looked in the mirror and not liked what you see?" he asked.
Nearly every kid walked across the room. Question by question, kids found common ground.
"The goal is really to see that everyone has the same struggles and fears and doubts," he said. "It's about really celebrating our similarities rather than tearing each other apart because of our differences."
At the end of the session, Matthew watched the kids who had sent cruel messages walk up to his brother.
"They apologized," he said.
In the four years since that first workshop, Matthew has been invited to other schools. He changed the name of the program to the Be One Project.
Last year, Matthew won a "Disney Hero for Change" award.
"Shakira presented it to me," he said. "That was awesome."
He starred in an anti-bullying public-service announcement for the Disney Channel. He won a $25,000 Peace First prize. So far, he's hosted workshops with about 4,000 kids in Arizona, California, Indiana and Virginia.
In the fall, Matthew is going to Duke University. So he expected to put the workshops on hold.
But in June, he found out he was among 15 Jewish teenagers who won a Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award. He earned $36,000 for the Be One Project.
"It's possible that I cried a little bit," he said, laughing.
The money will keep the program going while he is at college. He says the recognition means he's on the right path.
"In the Jewish community, Tikkun Olam translates directly to repairing the world," he said. "I sort of grew up with this idea of Tikkun Olam — meaning it's all of our jobs to make our part of the world a better place."
One volunteer has been there since the beginning: Josh is 16 now.
Matthew said middle school wasn't perfect for his little brother, but after the workshop, he noticed a change in Josh that stuck.
"He got his confidence back," he said.
