Absolutely. People like to help people a lot more than they like to be asked for help. Think of how many people asked you to write stories about them when you were at the Times, and that little part of you that died inside every time and made you actively NOT want to cover them simply because they asked. Meanwhile, if you heard about someone doing something awesome cough Reddit cough you'd want to go write about what they're up to and spread the word.

It's the same for these kids. Waiting around for someone to make their dreams happen for them won't work. They need to go try to be awesome and then people will help them get better.