Random Act of Kid-ness: 18 Year Old Leaves Inspiring Legacy
This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from a teen who showed the world the importance of embracing happiness, even in the wake of darkness. 18 year old Zach Sobiech passed away early this week after a 4 year battle with osteosarcoma. But before he passed away, Zach decided to write a song as a goodbye to his friends and family, which touched the lives of millions of people when it went viral on YouTube. Zach inspired and continues to inspire children and adults to always maintain a positive outlook. His girlfriend Amy said:
“He’s shown me it’s not all about the grades you get, or how cool you are in high school. It’s about doing what makes you happy and no matter when you’re going go to, live life to the fullest every day.”
You can watch an emotional documentary on Zach’s journey here. His family started the Zach Sobiech Osteosarcoma Fund to support research into Zach’s rare form of cancer, so click the link to find out how you can lend your support. We are sending love to Zach’s family and friends. We are inspired by his message and think he epitomizes a Random Act of Kid-ness.
Random Act of Kid-ness: There’s a Monkey in My Chair
This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Cincinnati, OH, where a group of kids from Piner Elementary School started a program to raise money for children with cancer. Since many of the kids know people who have cancer or who have lost their lives to cancer, they wanted to help out. They started with a program called Change Wars, where the students brought in change to raise money, and then they started selling hair bows. That fundraiser earned over $300 for children living with cancer.
There’s a Monkey in My Chair is a program that the students developed. Stuffed monkeys sit in their classrooms to represent kids who are in the hospital. “It reminds you that friend with cancer needs support, in school or outside it. ‘Having the monkey there, the kids can interact with the monkey, they can write letters to the monkey, and take pictures of the monkey doing silly stuff, in the room or where the children normally would be in. It makes the children think they are still there and that they care about them.’”
Some of the students at Piner Elementary have said:
“I feel really proud. I love helping people and I couldn’t find a way to until Koryn did, and that’s why I really wanted to do it.”
”I think if they pictured themselves and they wouldn’t want someone to not help them.”
”I feel proud that we helped them.” The teachers and staff here do too.
What a thoughtful program! We love this idea. To read more about There’s a Monkey in My Chair, click here.
Random Act of Kid-ness: Mourning with Boston
(Credit: Facebook/America Loves Iraq)
This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us all the way from Iraq, where 2 young boys posed for a picture with a sign that says “We Mourn with Boston.” The two boys understand what it is like to experience the aftermath of a terror attack and they sympathize with the pain Americans are going through after the Boston Marathon attacks earlier this week. On the same day as the Boston tragedy alone, at least 33 people were killed and more than 160 were injured after bombings struck various Iraqi cities. Blogger Kevin Gosztola says:
”We are all citizens of the world, and our pain can bring us together.”
We are inspired by the kindness of these 2 young boys, and our sympathy goes out to everyone affected by the tragedies in Boston and throughout the world this week and always.
Random Act of Kid-ness: Kindness Balloons
Maija Hoggett photo
This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Ontario, Canada, where students from Baxter Central Public School performed random acts of kindness by releasing balloons into the air. Students attached a note to each balloon with a suggested random act of kindness for whoever finds the balloon to carry out. Some examples of random acts that students wrote down were: holding doors for people, saying hi to strangers to brighten their day, and leaving $20 at a coffee shop register so people can have free coffee until it runs out. Grade 8 student Felicity Darcy said:
“The guerilla kindness really worked for us and left a good impact on the school.”
We think this is an exciting way to spread kindness! Check out the rest of this article to read more great quotes from the students.
Random Act of Kid-ness: Helping Homeless on Way to Chemotherapy
This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Philadelphia, PA where first grader Ella Wilson brings food and blankets to the homeless people in her city every Thursday on her way to chemotherapy. Ella is getting treatment for neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on the nerves. But to take her mind off her year-long treatment, she has decided to focus on making other people happy.
You can watch an inspiring video about Ella’s story and learn how you can help her raise money for neurofibromatosis research on her Facebook page here.
As always, we ask for your suggestions for our next RAK. Do you know someone who is doing random acts of kindness? Let us know!
Random Act of Kid-ness: SPPRAK
This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Terre Haute, IN, where students at Dixie Bee Elementary School participated in a new program yesterday by SPPRAK. SPPRAK is short for Special People Performing Random Acts of Kindness and is a nonprofit that helps improve its community by supporting groups that need extra funding.
The program at Dixie Bee lets students leave sticky notes on a large banner in the school’s front hallway that note random acts of kindness that their peers had done. These random acts of kindness have included holding the door for someone, helping draw a picture, and sharing lunches. “In just a few seconds, Dixie Bee students had posted about two-dozen “random acts of kindness” on the banner, which is in the school’s front hallway.”
We think this is a great, visible way to get all students involved in spreading and sharing random acts of kindness!
To read more about this story and SPPRAK, click here.
Random Act of Kid-ness: Legos for Leukemia
This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Louisville, KY where 8 year old Aiden Johnson and his family are in charge of their local chapter of Legos for Leukemia. The organization was started in 2009 by Christian Flanders in Denver, CO to honor the memory of his father, and “as a way to give kids fighting cancer and other life threatening diseases a fun and creative way to deal with not so fun days that include chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants.” Legos take chemotherapy off the minds of children with Leukemia, like Aiden, who calls himself a Lego Master. Aiden’s mom says:
“It has taken his mind off the fact that he has cancer. It really has made a difference in the way treatments go. The long days and the long nights, we come in and we’re prepared. We have Legos and we’re ready to be here for a week.”
Because Aiden loves Legos so much and wants other children with cancer to experience the same joy he does, he and his family decided to head the Legos for Leukemia chapter at Kosair Children’s Hospital. People can donate new unopened Lego sets at drop off locations all over the area. So far, Aiden’s family has collected 50 Lego sets, but they still need many more.
We think this is such a great cause and are inspired by Aiden’s kindness. To read more about this story and to find out how to donate Legos, click here.
Random Act of Kid-ness: Reminding Veterans to Ask for Help
This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Alabama, where 7 year old John Murray, Jr. has tried to convince suicidal veterans to ask for help. When he saw the word “suicide” on a poster in a local Army health center, he asked his mom what the word meant. When he found out what suicide meant, John wanted to work to prevent it. He wrote “Ask for help!!!!!” on post-it notes throughout the Fox Army Health Center so that the veterans would remember that people care about them. John said:
“When they don’t have any broken arms or legs, and no blood. You can’t see the sadness inside them, but they still need help. [...] I wrote a reminder for Army people to ask for help and did five exclamation points because it is real important. My teacher, Ms. Hardiman, said an exclamation point is like yelling a sentence. I put five exclamation points so it would be really loud. Maybe the Army person who is hurt just forgot to ask for help. This will help remind them.”
One veteran commits suicide every 65 minutes, so what John is doing is incredibly important. Great job, John!
To read more about this story and find out how to help or get help, click here.
Random Act of Kid-ness: Archimedes Alliance
What if you could change the world with just 2 bucks?
Photo courtesy Leitner family via Portland Monthly
This week’s Random Act of Kid-ness comes to us from Portland, OR, where 14 year old Julien Leitner created a website called the Archimedes Alliance. Through this website, Julien’s goal was to ask 1 million people for just $2 each, with a goal of raising $2 million for different charities. Since he started over a year ago, every six months the Alliance has reached (and will, for 3 years) out to 1 million different people asking for the $2 donation. At the end of each six month period, all the money raised is donated to an organization selected by the contributors, and then the cycle begins again.
Julien has raised over $20,000 so far! You can read more about Julien and his idea here.
As always, we ask for your suggestions for our next RAK highlight. If you or someone you know is doing great things to change the world, we want to know!
Random Act of Kid-ness: Re-Gifting to Children in Need
In light of the tragedy in Connecticut this morning, we think it is more appropriate than ever for our weekly Random Act of Kid-ness that highlights the kindness of humanity.
This week’s RAK is another from generationOn and Hasbro’s “Be a Joy Maker” campaign. We want to highlight Raymond, who submitted this act of kindness:
“At the age of 4, I was diagnosed with a rare hp disease that left me in a double leg brace for two years. Feeling fortunate that my illness was not life threatening, I decided that I had to do something for the kids that I left behind in the hospital. So I took all my christmas gifts and returned to the hospital I spent time in and to uplift the spirits of the kids that were not coming home for the holidays. After I saw the joy on the faces of the kids, I decided to continue doing this work. I went door to door asking friends, family and neighbors for donations so I can purchase new toys for the sick kids. My efforts became so popular that we had to form a foundation.”
Raymond’s generosity is so inspiring, especially in times of tragedy. How do you show kindness to those in your community?
We also want to congratulate Hasbro and generationOn for topping their 100,000 goal for acts of service and donated toys! With a week to go!
