Light One Little Candle - Help Someone Through The "Simple" Act Of Donating A Book

A woman, doctor and former breast cancer patient started an organization with a wish that other parents and grandparents with cancer would find the same comfort and joy she experienced with her daughter through the simple act of reading together.

A Little Cooking Can Go A Long Way - Try It

There are so many ways to help out the needy. I don't cook that much but this large lasagna (1 box of lasagna, 3 lbs of ricotta, 4 lbs of ground beef, and some mozzarella can last several nights for some needy families and give them a nice home cooked meal that helps to let them know others care. There are many many families who are struggling to get by with next to nothing. You can try something simple like lasagna or try your favorite recipe and the home cooked meal will be incredibly appreciated. You can contact local soup kitchens or organizations for the needy for where to bring your food to.

Going The Extra Miles For Those In Need - A Hero

One of the great joys and honors for me is to be able to meet people that selflessly do great and wonderful things for others. Annemarie Elmore is such a person. I have had the privilege of getting to know her over the last several months and in a short time I see the powerful and "heroic" things she does for the needy families she serves every day. Annemarie is a social worker, working closelessy with families in need. Families that sometimes have little more than the clothes on their backs including their children. Dedicating yourself to this population is often admirable enough, but that's not where it stops with Annemarie. It's pretty hard to find and free or extra time in her life since she and her husband have 6 adopted children. Nonetheless, Annemarie knows that too many times what can be provided by the city, state, or federal government isn't nearly enough for the needy and homeless families that she serves; and that many times the families (and children including infants) don't have the time to wait for applications to be processed before money or food stamps are given to help these people. And thus she does whatever is necessary to get them additional help including sometimes money and supplies out of her pocket; as well as delivering supplies and items she has located for them well outside of the normal business hours of her job. Here she is literally while the state of Massachussetts was on "hurricane alert" for Earl, after driving 35miles from her house to mine to pick up items to deliver later that evening to the families she serves.

Thank you Annemarie for helping improve the lives of those you serve.

Fill A Backpack For A Kid In Need

This weekend, my son and I shopped and packed backpacks for families in need of a little assistance. It's such a relatively easy and wonderful way to help make a difference in a kid and family's life. For roughly $10 you can purchase a backpack like one of these and then another $5-10 at Walmart or Staples you could fill it with necessary supplies with some/all of the items (listed below). If you are able to do this, there are lots of organizations that would accept and help find families in need such as Cradles to Crayons. You can also feel free to email me if you are in Mass as I have several organizations and contacts that are in touch with families with kids who need help.

Suggestions for items to fill a backpack with:

Subject note books, binders, filler paper, pencils, erasers, pens, glue sticks, rulers, protractor, pocket dictionary, scissors, highlighters, colored markers, colored pencils, etc.

Do You Know A "Hero"

One of the goals and most enjoyable parts of the class and the site is to try and point out the amazingly inspiring things that other people of all ages are doing to help others. Early on in the class we met Talia Leman, a teenager, who founded her own organization called RandomKid to help other kids help others. Talia is a great example of a hero. People like Talia or the creators of organizations like Cradles to Crayons that give out donated items to families in need or the founders of Citizen Schools are examples of everyday "heroes" that are doing wonderful things to help others in need. A "hero" could be a teacher or principal that you know that over and over again has done extraordinary things for you and other kids while perhaps facing large challenges or obstacles.

This section is dedicated to identifying these everyday heroes (just like CNN now does each year). There are hundreds, tens of thousands of these people all over the world and it's incredibly heart warming and inspiring to here what they are doing.
http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/

1) Just read an article in the Boston Globe (July 2010) about a 90 year old woman named Grace, who has taken care of (and still does) more than 90 foster children in her life, many of whom have serious disabilities like Cerebral Palsy or Down Syndrome. Thank you Grace.
2) Just met 2 women, Mary Flannery (founder) and Kit Jenkins (partner), who run RAW Art Works, an incredibly wonderful and imaginative non profit organization in Lynn, MA. RAW Art Works is an afterschool program in Lynn, MA for urban youth who are interested and aspiring artists. They have a wonderful headquarters in Lynn which also is their art studio where kids as young as 7 and 8 can go to develop their artistic talents while also getting much needed guidance, mentoring and attention since Lynn is a community where more than 30 gangs exist today to try and recruit young kids into potentially a world of drugs and violence.
http://www.rawart.org/
3) Anne Mahlum, Founder and President, who started Back on My Feet, a non-profit organization that promotes the self-sufficiency of the homeless population by engaging them in running as a means to build confidence, strength and self-esteem. After passing by a homeless shelter every morning on her daily run, Anne started Back on My Feet, which is now in several states including Boston and received national and global recognition as one of the 10 CNN Heroes nominees in 2009.
http://www.backonmyfeet.org/
4) Leigh Anne Touhy. As some of you may have seen in the movie The Blind Side, Ms. Touhy took in and eventually adopted a teenager named Michael Oher because his homelife was extremely challenging as his father was murdered and his mother was a drug addict. Ms. Touhy and her family helped provide Michael with a loving family as well as guidance and assistance in school and on the football field which helped lead him to go to college as well as get drafted to play in the NFL where he currently plays today.
http://www.theblindsidemovie.com/dvd/index.html#/Videos
5) Mackenzie Bearup. A 16year old shows us how "simple" becoming a hero by founding "Sheltering Books" an organization that donates books to abused and homeless kids in 6 states.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2010/04/08/cnnheroes.bearup.profile.cnn

Paying It Forward - the "Ripple" effects

I am forwarding a message I received from Stacey Gilbert who works in media at Citizen Schools....the message speaks for itself in that nearly 5 months after the South Station Kindness Bag handout, a woman was positively moved by the kids' kindness during our South Station Kindness bag giveway.

Hello Jeff......I just heard through the grapevine that Citizen Schools received a call recently that I thought you'd like to hear about. A woman left a message on our voicemail as a random act of kindness shouting out the Rogers Middle School students who handed out goodie bags at South Station last October as part of your Random Acts of Kindness apprenticeship. She went on to say what a blessing it was for students to learn about giving back and was so thankful for the Citizen Schools program and our volunteers like you! What a wonderful message, and it was all due to you and your fantastic work with the kids. Your work is having a ripple effect!

Cheers,
Stacey

On Line Class In Kindness (In Seattle Washington)

A friend of mine recently sent me an article (see below) about an on line class on kindness in Seattle.

Way to go Andy Smallman! Andy is the co-founder of Puget Sound Community School in Seattle, and he teaches an on-line class on kindness. As their website and articles about his class show, similar to our class on "paying it forward", Andy and his students (over 250), complete assignments based on "random acts of kindness" such as writing anonymous compliments to co-workers (sound familar students of the Rogers Middle School apprenticeship on kindness....you did something similar for your fellow students), left homegrown pears out for passers-by, cleaned street storm drains, picked up trash and slipped a $20 bill inside the next empty cup that a barista would pick up.

What a terrific class....Keep up the great work Andy and your students!
http://onlinekindnessclass.wordpress.com/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2010604939_kindnessclass27m.html