Havana Layton
After a long week of school, 11-year-old Havana Layton enjoys walking through the aisles of Michael’s craft store. Elastic bands, beads, crocheted flowers, embellishments, and other odds and ends could all be used to make a unique headband…and could go toward a good cause.
For the past year, Layton sets up her stand on Friday afternoons during lunch at Lake Park Elementary School and sells “Havana’s Headbands for Hope”. Students can be seen across campus adorned with her accessories. She says it feels good when girls are wearing the original headbands but nothing compares to how she feels when she donates the money.
Layton says she wanted to make a difference after hearing about the 2015 Nepal earthquake, which killed over 9,000 people and injured more than 23,000. Her relatives had created Project for a Village, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing proper health care and education to people in Nepal. Layton knew this was her way to get involved.
“It broke my heart so I just wanted to help them,” Layton says. “They don’t have much clothes, or water, they don’t even have schools so I would just be very grateful if there was a school there.”
Since she began this charity, Layton has sold over 100 headbands and donated over $1,000.
This isn’t Layton’s first charity though. As principal, Chris Marker remembers a then seven-year-old Havana approaching him in the hallway to request a meeting. When they sat down one-on-one, Marker says she presented him with a t-shirt adorned with handmade graphics saying “Happy America” and featuring smiling animals holding the American flag. She wanted Marker’s permission to market and sell the shirts at school and donate the money raised to support families in New Jersey who had been affected by Hurricane Sandy. For her efforts, she was awarded with the City of Naples, “Do The Right Thing” Award in 2013.
“It’s amazing, it really is that she cares so much about other people,” says Monet Layton, Havana’s mother. “If we could tell her one thing to be in life, it would be to be kind. She’s making us proud.”
To say Layton is accomplished at a young age would be an understatement. Other than her status as a bona fide philanthropist, she serves as one of Lake Park’s news anchors, is a top-ranked swimmer in the country in her age group, and was Lake Park’s only student to receive a perfect score on both the math and reading Florida State Assessment (FSA). She even wrote and recorded the school’s spirit song which is played on a weekly basis during the morning announcements.
“It’s my favorite Homer Simpson quote. He says to his overachieving daughter Lisa, ‘Lisa, you’re my greatest accomplishment and you did it all yourself,’” says Havana’s father, Thomas Layton. “We get the same sense about Havana. She has a unique ability to apply herself toward really any task that comes her way.”