Chicago teen inspired Mackenzie Scott’s $4.2 billion donation spree

Alycia Kamil, who recently turned 20, was discovered by Scott in an NBC article detailing her work in the community

Dec 18, 2020

A then-19-year-old activist from Chicago influenced MacKenzie Scott, the former wife of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, to donate nearly $4.2 billion to hundreds of organizations across the country.

Alycia Kamil, who is now 20 years old, is the inspiration for Scott’s donation spree, most of which have been gifts to institutions that support diverse institutions as the coronavirus outbreak continues to take a toll on the citizens and the economy.

As stated in Scott’s Medium post, “In March, a 19-year-old girl in Chicago sent a group text to her friends suggesting they buy supplies for people in their neighborhood who had lost their jobs.” Scott saw an NBC News article detailing Kamil’s service in the community, taking note that the young activist created two Google forms for those who needed help and those willing to help.

The article, published in March at the onset of the pandemic, states that Kamil raised thousands of dollars, which she and the volunteers used to buy groceries for dozens of families.

“I wanted to do a more hands-on thing to be considerate of the people who, even if they get the money, they have to take the bus and then bring all these groceries on the bus,” Kamil said, as reported by USA Today. “It’s about the importance of understanding communal living. We should all be able to resource and depend on each other.”

With the $7,000 raised, Kamil said she and the volunteers were able to give 30 families $200 to $300 worth of groceries.

According to USA Today, Kamil, who has been an activist since the age of 14, was surprised that the billionaire, one of the richest women in the world, was inspired by her actions.

“I was like, oh, that’s me. I had no clue that she even donated that amount of money, or that she saw an article from somewhere about the work that I did that inspired her. It was pretty cool,” Kamil said.

The Chicago activist has been supporting noble causes like Feed the Block through the group GoodKids MadCity, a group that combats violence in Chicago and demands social justice in local communities.

Kamil also plans to host a similarly named event called Resource the Block to distribute personal protection equipment, water, packaged food and other essential supplies.

As theGrio previously reported, out of the $4.2 billion Scott gave out, $1.7 billion, went HBCUs.

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