business Smallowners

It’s

Story by Rachel Stone Photos by Can Türkyilmaz & Benjamin Hager

typical kids spend untold summer hours watching television, networking on Facebook, playing video games and hanging at the mall, happily oblivious to the pressures of turning a buck.

Gabriel Hochberg helped start a nonprofit aimed at reducing greenhouse gasses. Find him at treesforhumanity.org, and read Gabriel’s story>>

But a few young people possess a beyond-their-years business savvy coupled with the rare desire to launch an early career or do their part to better the world.

Meet the neighborhood’s most enterprising youths — trust us, they are people you might want to know in the future.

Eating Greenhouse Gasses

NAME: Gabriel Hochberg

AGE: 9

BIZ: Trees for Humanity

When Gabriel Hochberg was 4 years old, he came home one day and said, “Dad, do you know about global warming?”

He proceeded to explain the concept to his father, Jonathan Hochberg, in a way that was simple and accurate. He explained that trees “eat the pollution.”

“He said, ‘Dad, what are we going to do about it?’ ” Jonathan Hochberg recalls.

So they went out and bought a tree and planted it.

“I just realized that if everybody planted a tree, it would be a lot of trees,” Gabriel says.

So father and son started a nonprofit, Trees for Humanity, which gives saplings away to anyone who is willing to plant them. So far, they’ve given away 10,150 trees.

“It’s really about teaching kids what trees mean for our future,” Jonathan Hochberg says.

Gabriel, who now is 9, approached a manager at a Whole Foods store and asked whether he could give away trees there. Now Trees for Humanity regularly stages events at Whole Foods locations throughout the Dallas area.

To raise money to buy the little trees fromtreefarms,theysellTreesfor Humanity T-shirts for $20.