Creative Agents of Change

Kids Helping Kids

One Saturday morning back in January, I was sitting in Candy's, the local coffee hangout in Westcliffe, with a group of friends.  We stuffed our faces with Bill's famous beignets, planned a trip to the hot springs and a small dinner party later that evening, and discussed the general state of affairs in the world.  Our conversation probably mirrored those going on in coffee houses in about every corner of the world that morning.

Willow, the high school-age barrista, joined us during a slow moment and asked if she could run an idea by us.  She told us that many of the local Westcliffe kids have an interest in the performing arts, and that the Wet Mountain Valley is populated by aspiring singers, dancers, and musicians under the age of 18.  She wanted to put together a talent show, but she wanted to donate the money to charity, preferably a charity that helps kids.  She knew she could donate the money to tsunami relief, but it seemed like money from around the world was pouring in to those organizations, and she wanted to do something different.

My friend Donna spoke up immediately.  As the universe would have it, we had been discussing that issue the afternoon before as we drove to Westcliffe.  We were talking about our friend Margaret who runs The What If? Foundation, a small organization that feeds hungry children in Haiti, and wondering if she would see her donations drop because so much money was going to the other side of the world.  When Willow asked for suggestions, it seemed like The What If? Foundation was a perfect fit.  The group of us started brainstorming  and offered Willow our help and ideas.

Willow took the ideas that worked for her, came up with many of her own, and used them to create a talent show without much adult help or intervention.  She handled the advertising, negotiated a deal for the space, sold the tickets and produced the show. Two months later, on  March 10, the curtain rose at the local theater, and the sold-out house enjoyed performances by the talented kids of Westcliffe. 

In a town of just a few hundred people, Willow and her band of volunteers raised about $500 for the foundation.  The money provided 1000 hot meals to children in the Petit Place Cazeau neighborhood in Port Au Prince, a place of economic desolation and crushing poverty, but also a place rich with human spirit, the same human spirit personified by Willow and her friends.

Creative Kids in Action

One of my favorite people is Dan Pallotta, a visionary fundraiser who created the AIDSRidesUSA and the Breast Cancer 3Days.  Those events raised about $300 million dollars for AIDS and breast cancer research, and changed the lives of thousands of the participants, my own included.  I reached a level of transformational awareness during the first Colorado 3Day, when I realized that people who were pushed to their physical and mental limits could still share a bond of caring, compassion, and humanity to a depth that most of us had never experienced before.

I check in with Dan's blog almost every day, because I find inspiration and new ideas there.  Today, he talks about his experience visiting a high school class in Florida, and the senior project that the students were assigned by their teacher, Chris Markl.  WIth Dan's permission, here's an excerpt and the link to his post:

Drums and the Moon and Little Acts of Kindness

Today's post is dedicated to Chris Markl, a teacher at Olympia High School in Orlando who had me go down there to speak to several hundred students. He asked me what was on my list of the ten things I still want to do in life and I said, not knowing what he was up to, that one of them was to learn to play the drums, so he got me a drum lesson right there in Orlando before my flight and it was a blast. Really, we must remember to spend time doing the things we dream of doing. The he asked me who were the five people I'd most like to meet and I said one of them was Neil Armstrong, so he sends me an e-mail telling me that Neil Armstrong is speaking at the USC graduation today - so, I am probably at the USC graduation as you read this sitting in the boiling sun waiting to hear the first man who ever walked on the moon speak.

Yesterday he wrote to tell me that he challenged his seniors to do something to change the world by engaging in activities they enjoy - not just random community service to get a good grade. His words were, "Because we all know forcing people to help isn't going to work, but only by people doing what they love, will people give 120%, and through this we can create a new world filled with possibilities."

Here's what he said his kids chose to do:

Read more here:   www.danpallotta.com

So we begin...

No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. - Aesop

My great joy in writing is being able to meet amazing people who are doing good things in the world.  Some of those things are grand gestures, like inventing a new way to travel in space, or raising millions of dollars for AIDS research, but many are small, day-to-day acts of kindness and compassion.  Every one of them, no matter how seemingly insignificant, creates a positive change in the world.

 

While I've achieved a fair amount of success getting these kinds of stories published, it seems like there are many more stories than there are magazine pages to print them all.  I believe  more good exists in the world than bad, more love than hate, more kindness than injustice.  I also believe the world is hungry for good news and inspiring stories.  This small forum is my way to spread the word, and if you believe the same way I do, then I hope you'll join me in creating a network of like-minded people to share those stories.

Don't get me wrong -- I'm not some wide-eyed idealist who believes if we could all just link arms and sing "Kumbaya" that all of the world's ills would magically disappear.  I am, after all, a recovering cynic.  But in the past five years I've experienced a profound transformation in the way I experience the world, and that's because of one simple thing:  I changed my focus.  I look for the positive, the uplifting, the inspiring, and that's what I find.  And my life is happier, healthier, and relatively stress-free because of it.

So please join me on the journey if you're so-inclined, and if you're not, check back in once in a while anyway.  You just never know when a story might grab your heart.  And change your life.