COEUR d'ALENE - Who knew?

Certainly not Katie Kladar, who thought her kids would raise a few hundred dollars and that would be that.

"This is getting so big," the Hayden mother said. "Who would have thought it ever would have turned into this?"

This being national recognition, perhaps a visit with the president of the United Sates and, most importantly, saved lives.

"It was just so beyond us," she said of imagining the charity her daughters Sarah and Emily started in 2008, Kids Helping Kids Fix Broken Hearts, would have raised $75,000 by 2012, and helped fund heart transplants for dozens of children from Kootenai County to Mexico to North Carolina.

But that's exactly how it has grown.

And the latest national recognition came this week when 12-year-old Emily was named one of Idaho's two Prudential Spirit of Community Award winners for her work.

"I was really happy, I was really overjoyed," Emily said of her reaction to the news, which she learned after she was called into the principal's office at Canfield Middle School, the school that nominated her. "I never knew it was going to be this big. I thought we would maybe make $10, maybe less."

Much more, it turned out.

The idea for the charity started in 2008 when the Kladar kids visited their grandparents on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and stopped at a clinic where they noticed pictures of children needing heart operations lining the wall.

The clinic called it the Wall of Hearts.

"We felt if we didn't help them, no one else would," Emily said.

She suggested selling dish towels and designed a logo to print on them, reading "Kids Helping Kids Fix Broken Hearts." In six months, the Kladar sisters, along with younger brother Thomas, raised $15,000 from their towel sales, which provided 13 children at the clinic in Mexico with life-saving cardiac surgeries.

Still, it wasn't enough. They wanted to help kids in the U.S., too.

They increased their towel sales. They recruited help from teachers and friends, and forged alliances with large hospitals in Texas, Missouri and Sacred Heart in Spokane to identify financially-burdened families who have children needing heart operations away from their hometowns.

"We have a lot of help from friends," said Emily, who likes art and playing softball and the violin in her free time. "It's a great experience being able to do this in such a loving community that's helped get me this far."

In a 2008 Press story on the kids, they were trying to earn enough money to help a third child. Now, they've sold 6,000 dish towels and helped more than two dozen families in Oklahoma, North Carolina, Texas, Missouri, Illinois, Idaho, Washington, Montana and Nebraska, as well as Mexico. They want to reach all 50 states.

The awards keep coming.

Last summer, Sarah was a national winner for a $10,000 scholarship from Kohl's Department Store, which donates to the program with volunteer hours and funds. The charity was also a finalist for the 2011 Small Charity of the Year Award.

As a Prudential Spirit of Community Awards winner, Emily will receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion, and an all-expense-paid trip in early May to Washington, D.C. There, she'll join honorees from other states and the District of Columbia for several days of national recognition, and take part in a book drive for inner city schools. She also has a chance to be named one of the 10 America's Top Youth Volunteers for 2012.

Ariane Drake, 18, of Pocatello, who founded a nonprofit organization called 'Hands4Uganda' won the award as anIdaho high school student.

Emily also qualified for President's Volunteer Service Award, which could earn her a meeting with President Barack Obama.

Not bad, for expectations that started around the $10 mark.

"I thought that was going to be it, but it's been the opposite," Emily said. "It's just been really cool."

Emily Carroll honored for efforts

Emily Carroll, a junior at Post Falls High School, was also recognized by The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards as a distinguished finalist for creating the nonprofit North Idaho Clothing Exchange in 2009.

The program provides new and gently used clothing to children who are needy, homeless, or in foster care. Emily has secured more than $30,000 of new clothing, working with local donors around organizations.

"I never thought it would get this far," the 16-year-old said. "I didn't even think I would be running it for two years."

Carroll said the experience has taught her to be thankful for what she has, as well as opened her eyes to the amount of people in need.

"It's an honor, but it's not really about me, it's about the people in need," she said.

The nonprofit is housed at Project Safe Place, 201 Harrison Ave., but is looking for a new space to expand.

Info: email northidahoclothingexchange@yahoo.com or call 818-2890.