By LAURA MOYER

At 17, Omri Glaser has already figured out entrepreneurship. Now he’s delving into charitable giving.

As a junior at Colonial Forge High School last fall, he started a business editing video clips into sports-highlight DVDs for classmates seeking to showcase their athletic skills.

He’s since expanded OG Video to cover events as requested by his clients--specific games or players, talent shows, and most recently the Colonial Forge graduation.

The business has been so successful Omri has hired friends to help out.

But Omri wasn’t content simply making a little money to spend and save for college.

He also wanted to do something for others--specifically, for children his age and younger who haven’t had the personal security and education he’s enjoyed.

That’s how he came to develop Om Tee, a T-shirt-selling enterprise that donates 100 percent of its profits to Global Action for Children.

The Washington-based nonprofit group advocates for government policies to help orphans and vulnerable children in countries beset by AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and war.

Omri lives in southern Stafford County and is the son of Lika Hamdi, Byron Glaser and Byron’s partner, Don Chiappinelli.

It was Glaser who first became interested in Global Action, volunteering to create a logo for the organization. He’s an owner of Higashi Glaser Design and Zolo Inc.

Omri learned of Global Action through his father and got the T-shirt idea after he found a couple of his old drawings and realized their relevance to Global Action’s mission.

One is of a figure he calls "Kidult"--a child who doesn’t want to look at the world around him and can’t speak for himself. The other is "Zygote," an embryonic figure that symbolizes hope for the future.

Omri quickly sold the first batch of 40 T-shirts to classmates, friends and family members, just by word of mouth.

To sell the second batch of 400 shirts, he got help from North Carolina Web designer Lisa Ellington, who volunteered to create the site omtee.com. Visitors can order shirts online for $25.

Omri is donating 100 percent of the profits to Global Action, which links to Omri’s site from its main page at globalactionforchil dren.org.

The shirts are "absolutely gorgeous and interesting," said Jennifer Delaney, Global Action’s executive director.

Omri’s creativity also emerges in other areas. He’s in the film program at Colonial Forge, where he has anchored the morning announcements produced by a video class.

Last summer and this one, he’s studied at the New York Film Academy and has written and directed several short works including one that delves into the vengeful imagination of a bullied teenager.

And he’s got eclectic musical tastes, from digital-only compositions to a a collection of vinyl LPs that he plays on an old-fashioned turntable.

He incorporates that music into his filmmaking, which he said is a possible future career in which he could use both his artistic and altruistic leanings.

Films, he said, have the power to move people to action. As an example, he points to the documentary "War Child," the story of Sudanese boy soldier turned rapper and peace activist Emmanuel Jal.

Jal’s story and the plight of other vulnerable children coerced into fighting made Omri realize how easily hungry and emotionally needy youngsters can be manipulated by adults with bad intentions.

"I’ve had so many opportunities they haven’t," Omri said, because of "easily curable diseases like malaria and diarrhea" that have taken away family members who otherwise would protect them.

That’s the population Global Action seeks help for as a matter of government policy.

"I really like what they’re doing," Omri said.

Copyright 2008 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.

Omri is also a Global Action for Children’s featured activist, check it out!