It was surreal for her, to receive an honorary degree. She was humble and grateful. Four years as a scholar in high school, Maggie Doyne opted out of college and took a gap year to travel to remote areas of the world to find herself. And that she did.
Doyne is a New Jersey native. She called herself average, your "typical high-school, ponytail-wearing girl." Maggie was a well-read student in high school, given several opportunities to continue her education at prestigious colleges of her choice. Months before her departure for college, she quickly changed her path to depart on a gap year. Doyne traveled to Africa and then to South Asia, and then eventually to Nepal, where she now calls home.
Nepal was coming to the end of a 13-year civil war and she found herself right in the middle of the war zone. However, she quickly fell in love with the people, the city, and the struggle. She wanted to help in any way she could. During her speech, she spoke about the day that she remembered changing it all. She was walking from town when she noticed children smashing rocks in a dried up river bed. These children were doing this to make money for their families. And they would be there every day, sun-up to sun-down, smashing rocks.
Doyne met her first child there, Hima, a young girl who was breaking stones as a 6-year-old to help her family. Doyne described her face and her sweet smile, "She was me." That day she decided what her project would be: these kids. Soon there after, Hima was enrolled in school, paid for by Maggie. After she realized the need for education in this area for young children, she made a call home to her parents. Known as the neighborhood go-to babysitter, she asked for the nearly $5,000 she had saved for years to be sent to Nepal so she could help fund education for the children. With the money, she bought a piece of land and began work on what now holds nearly 50 children. Although an orphanage, she hates the word. Doyne knows her kids don't feel like orphans.
They feel loved and they feel at home. The Kopila Valley Children's Home is now full of her adopted children and new hope.
Following the group home and a school filled with 400 students came a women's center and health clinic. She's teaching the people of Nepal to start over, just as she did herself.
10 years later, Maggie is back in the states. A remarkable story isn't it? CNN thought so, too. Maggie Doyne was named CNN's 2015 Hero of the Year. On November 17th, 2015, she was awarded $100,000 for her Blink Foundation which funds her work in Nepal.
In October, I was approached by our university's president about a woman receiving an honorary degree from St. Bonaventure for pedagogy. It was Maggie Doyne. In December, she was on campus receiving the degree, robe and all. I was also asked to speak on behalf of the student body, a true privilege. I spoke about what it meant to be a Bonnie, not that she needed to hear it. She was a Bonnie. Selfless and warm, humble and determined. She fit right in. She inspired me, and the entire room and the entire campus.
Three weeks ago I received a call from the president of the university, again about Maggie. This time, the news was not good. Her youngest child, Ravi, had been killed in a drowning accident.
Ravi was her angel, the last child she took in. Maggie had set a limit of 50 children, no more. And then they found Ravi, extremely malnourished and truly sick. She quickly fell in love and took him in. The pictures above are the progression of the boy from when she first met him. Doyne has been devastated by her loss, she feels as though she really has lost her own child.
Maggie Doyne is a mother, a woman, a innovator, and a hero. But now she can add a couple more things to that list. A college graduate and most importantly, a Bonnie.
"IN THE BLINK OF AN EYE, WE CAN ALL MAKE A DIFFERENCE."
— MAGGIE DOYNE, BLINKNOW FOUNDER
Find out more about the Blink Foundation.
