When Herricks senior Tyler Cohen had his Armour baseball cap snatched by a five-year-old boy at an orphanage in Costa Rica two years ago, he said he got angry.
But after initially chasing after the child, named Fernando, he realized how much the cap meant to him. While he watched Fernando smiling broadly under the brim of the cap, Cohen said he found himself reflecting on the good fortune in his own life, and all the material things he was attached to – including that cap – that he really didn’t need.
The experience indirectly led to Cohen’s recent creation of a charity dubbed Caps Count! with the objective of collecting baseball caps for needy children in South American and other countries where the caps serve multiple functions – including the vital purpose of providing shade from the sun.
“It’s not just an article of clothing to them. They find endless uses for these caps,” Cohen said.
The experience that led to Caps Count! started when Cohen departed Albertson on a month-long visit to Costa Rica in the summer of 2010 through a trip arranged by 360 Degree Student Travel.
“I really wanted to give back to the community a little bit. I’ve rarely been out of the country and wanted to experience a new life style and see the difference between we live here and third world countries,” he recalled.
Apart from two days at an orphanage building desks and bunk beds for the kids, he and a group of other students also helped plant coffee in Costa Rica, helped out in a nature preserve and worked with Habitat for Humanity to renovate public parks.
“It was kind of a shocking experience. I didn’t know quite how to respond. You just keep thinking about it and what little you do draws such gratitude,” Cohen said. “It really opened my eyes to this other aspect of the world.”
The following summer, Cohen went on a similar excursion to Ecuador. This time he packed baseball caps for the trip to give to children at an orphanage where he worked at the outset of that trip.
“It’s a no-cost way to give smiles to these kids and it’s really a country that can use these caps,” Cohen said.
The children use the caps to carry things, among other uses, and to play frisbie-like games with them.
Cohen had been considering a way to continue helping the children he’d encountered at the orphanages and struck on the idea of creating Caps Count! earlier this month.
“The idea had always been there, but it really hit me,” he said. “I’m trying to connect it with organizations in my school to see if we can collect caps.”
A member of the Herricks Deca business club, Cohen said he intends to approach members of the high school Key Club and the Human Relations Club.
He has already begun collecting caps by sending e-mail brochures describing the pro