Stories Matching 'Youth' Tag (62)Environment Research New Ideas Public Transportation Children Inspiration Teachers Seniors OnThe Road Grocery Store Money Workplace Animals At Home Anonymous Friendship Kindness Kindness of Strangers Courage Small Acts of Kindness Health and Wellness Generosity Sharing Family Respect Neighbors Reconciliation Smile Cards Advice Good Samaritan Giving Money Giving Ability School Church Youth Collective Arts Creative Kindness Random Act of Kindness Homeless Travel/Vacation College/University Holidays Internet Birthday Sharing Food Emergency/Disaster Community Relationships Paying-It-Forward Coffee Shop/Restaurants $100 Kindness Idea Smile Decks Thank You Serendipity Simple Surprise For Sister--posted by Jen Davies, on Feb 20, 2006 I plan to put one in each of my sisters lunches with a special surprise snack and note of love. I will then give them 4 more cards to encouarge them to take part in their own acts of kindness, while I use the remaining cards with random acts when I see a need. I hope encouranging my sisters when they are young will help them and their friends discover a joy of helping others that they will carry on throughout there lives. comments (5) | email this | print | permalink A Christmas Gift For A Six Year Old--posted by Brendan Moran, on Nov 29, 2007 When I was 21 yrs old, I was dating a girl whose parent's friends were going through a divorce. They had a 6 year old daughter and unfortunately their separation was just before Christmas and we both knew how upset the little girl was. Her dad was not living in the house and wasn't planning on spending Christmas with them. So my girlfriend and I wrote little notes like, "On the first day of Christmas, my secret Santa gave to me...." and put a gift each night on their porch for the little girl. We started this about 2 weeks ... comments (14) | email this | print | permalink Christmas With My Son--posted by Anon, on May 5, 2006
comments (11) | email this | print | permalink Family Kindness Journal--posted by Yvonne, on May 10, 2006
Last month I started a family kindness journal. Every day each member in the family must write down the good deed that they did that day. It is amazing to see how far my children's deeds have come. comments (6) | email this | print | permalink Roses and Newspapers--posted by Tamara, on May 19, 2006
Hi I'm 12 years old and I recently saw a movie called 'Pay It Foreward'. It was all about doing random acts of kindness. comments (4) | email this | print | permalink My Most Prized Possession--posted by Anon, on May 22, 2006
comments (4) | email this | print | permalink Sandals at New Year's Eve--posted by MS, on Oct 4, 2006
comments (13) | email this | print | permalink 1,000 Crisp Mohandases--posted by Mark, on Dec 4, 2006 It was late one night when I got an email from the states. It was my friend John who, as usual, had an idea. This one was about the power of connectedness. John was taken with the notion that he could, by sitting at his computer, with only a few small movements of his fingers, could affect change on the other side of the world. “In ten seconds,” he wrote, “I sent an email to my friend in Boston, asking him to go down to the street and give a watermelon to the first person he saw. And he did.” John, ... comments (4) | email this | print | permalink All it Takes is Chalk--posted by pinkie, on Mar 20, 2007
Today, my friends and I had an early release day at school and got out at about 11:30. comments (19) | email this | print | permalink My First Experience With Smile Cards--posted by Hope4lisa, on Mar 25, 2007 Well.....I just couldnt WAIT to try out my smile cards. Last week I set out on my nightly outing -- to a meeting, and then to spend some time with my best friend. I told him I wanted to use my smile cards. First stop, the Dollar Store. I bought 2 nice candle jars with thoughtful things written on them. Next up, 7 Eleven. We parked and looked for someone to give a candle and card to. A woman had just gotten gas and was walking into the store. I hurriedly got ... comments (19) | email this | print | permalink Befriending a Bully With Kindness--posted by sparticus, on Apr 16, 2007 During the first week of of my second semester sophmore year, the first thing I happen to hear is that there's a new kid at school. From what was being spread around, this student was being portrayed as a big mean bully, someone that was expelled for getting in a fight at a school nearby. In my mind, though, I could only think how awful and how uncomfortable I would feel as a new student with a reputation already set out for me. So the next thing I did was I searched for the new student. I ran all over ... comments (22) | email this | print | permalink Seeing A Handful Of Pennies--posted by Jeniffer, on May 2, 2007
comments (20) | email this | print | permalink My Second Chance To Be a Parent--posted by tonigirl, on May 30, 2007
comments (12) | email this | print | permalink He Played His Best--posted by warmth, on Jun 4, 2007
comments (19) | email this | print | permalink A Forgotten Young Man--posted by manzi, on Jun 21, 2007 Some years back when I was growing up, we had a young couple who were our neighbours. They had five children and were a fairly established couple, with a car and other amenities. Since we were neighbours, their children were like my brothers and sisters. I must say they lived a good life; their parents took them to better schools than us. In 1988, though, their father passed away. Two years later, their mother died too. All of a sudden, the children became orphans. Some greedy relatives husttled the car and other valuables and the children became destitutes. They moved out ... comments (22) | email this | print | permalink Bringing Some Love to New York City--posted by sadhvi, on Jul 24, 2007
comments (18) | email this | print | permalink Message In A Wallet--posted by Moonshadow, on Aug 1, 2007
comments (95) | email this | print | permalink Pizza Hut Smiles--posted by Aurelia, on Sep 5, 2007 Yesterday I wasn't going to be home for dinner, so I decided to get a small pizza for my daughter. When I called to order the pizza, the phone rang at least 10 times before answered and then I was put on hold for about 2-3minutes before I could order. Instead of getting mad I placed my order and jumped in the car to go pick up the Pizza. As I was driving I thought about how busy it must be at Pizza Hut because the phone rang so much and I had to wait so long to order. I started feeling ... comments (36) | email this | print | permalink How My Father Taught Me Non-Violence--posted by Arun Gandhi, on Sep 18, 2007
comments (88) | email this | print | permalink Pass The Buck!--posted by earthling, on Oct 21, 2007
comments (24) | email this | print | permalink Can't Buy At McDonald's!--posted by JuneBug, on Nov 18, 2007
This week-end my husband and I are leaving on vacation to North Carolina ... As you well know, planning is essential including cleaning out the refrigerator of food that will go bad. comments (13) | email this | print | permalink Instant Pay It Forward!--posted by earthling, on Dec 15, 2007 We drove over to a friend's place to load up our car with boxes full of books. After driving a short distance, my husband realized that our rear tire was flat! After some labor to set up the tire change, I went over to the garage sale next door for some entertainment -- a teenager was doing tricks on a short bike in their yard. He was really good. While watching him, something caught my eye -- a beautiful blue painting with lots of fish and dolphins. "My little son would love that," I thought, considering that he had just seen ... comments (22) | email this | print | permalink The Girl Who Gave Me Apples--posted by twocents, on Aug 11, 2008
comments (32) | email this | print | permalink Small Town Hockey Hero with a Big Heart--posted by speedi, on Sep 2, 2008
comments (56) | email this | print | permalink Children Watch and Learn From Us--posted by wayfarer, on Mar 1, 2009
comments (25) | email this | print | permalink Remembering My Father's Vest--posted by behappyrightnow, on May 28, 2009 As a child, I had a lot of pent-up anger and was not good at communicating constructively. Once, as I was getting ready for school, my mother accidentally handed me my father's vest instead of mine. This was around the time that I was getting to be larger in size than my father, and so as I put the vest, I felt like I was being choked in it! I realized that it was a small oversight on my mother's part, but somehow the feeling of being choked overwhelmed me and filled me with anger. Without thinking much, I took ... comments (11) | email this | print | permalink Lifetime of Gratitude for a Biology Teacher--posted by cabbage, on Jul 8, 2009 It is wonderful to be in the moment and thank those around us for helping. Sometimes, it is nice to reflect on those who have been in our lives a long time ago and whose actions or words shaped us and influenced who we are today. One such person for me was my 7th grade biology teacher. His class was "the one" that sparked my interest in cell biology and literally determined the course of my career from the tender age of 12. I will never forget him. Well, fast-forward many years later (about 20 actually), and I was at a crossroads ... comments (8) | email this | print | permalink A Valuable Lesson Served at a Soup Kitchen--posted by kathrynmarie, on Aug 27, 2009
comments (15) | email this | print | permalink A Message That Arrived 4 Years Later, Right On Time--posted by BedBug, on Sep 28, 2009 My teenage daughter has always taken special delight in receiving anything in the mail. She squeals with glee and rips open every envelope and package the moment she takes it in her hands. A few nights ago, when we were sorting through a basket of cards and stationery, she discovered an unopened, brightly colored envelope addressed to her, bearing a postage date of over four years ago. "What is this?" she asked, incredulous. "How did I miss this? How did it get here?" I had idea and was just as curious to see what it could have been. She opened it up and inside was a beautiful greeting card and hand-written ... comments (15) | email this | print | permalink Sterling Performance For Your Eyes Only--posted by sethi, on Oct 28, 2009 There was once a skinny young boy who loved football. Practice after practice, he eagerly gave everything he had. But being half the size of the other boys, all his heart and effort couldn't make up for his physical shortcomings. At every game, this hopeful athlete sat on the bench and hardly ever got to play. However, the determined young man decided to hang in there. He hoped that maybe his body would grow to match his heart and dedication. All through high school, he never missed a practice nor game, but he remined a bench a bench warmer all four ... comments (12) | email this | print | permalink
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I have a five year old son and two 18 month old twins and especially at Christmas time I wanted them to truely understand what the act of giving was all about. So I made a list of people that were less likely to recieve gifts or love and let my five year old chose who we would give gifts to. 
When I was on CBS's Survivor - Africa all I had with me were the clothes on my back and my one luxury item of choice: a hackey sack.
My hackey sack was my most prized possession, the one item that took me temporarily away from the Survivor game and home to the familiar... and I gave it away. It may sound silly, but it was a tough decision - a real moment of personal truth.
I was with a group of other Survivor contestants distributing HIV/AIDS testing kits to a small village in Kenya when I met Milton. Milton didn't ... 
Many people spend their New Year’s Eve, getting dressed up and dancing their way to midnight. We decided to do things a bit differently.
We filled a backpack with clothes, shoes and other goodies and headed out to the railway station. The first person we spotted was a 15-16 year old boy picking up discarded plastic bottles on the platform. We called him over and started up a conversation. We had a discrete look at his hands and noticed he had long fingernail. We explained that it was important to keep short nails (studies have shown that disease occurrence in the poor can be ... 
While getting a couple of things at a local gas station, I noticed a girl walk in and pay for her gas. She caught my attention with her very very green hair. I remembered 10 years ago when I dyed my hair purple ... and loved it!!
She apologized for the cashier having to count her change as she put down a handful of pennies and a couple of nickels. She said "Believe it or not, this is suppost to get me home" At that time I was getting my change back from my purchase ($2.00) and not having anything else ... 
On April 28 2001, my youngest sister was killed in a random drive by shooting. Her 3 youngest sons went to live with my surviving sister but were never happy there; I wanted to gain the gaurdianship options from my sister but didn't want to risk fracturing our family even more.
A couple of weekends ago, though, my sister called and said the boys (17 yrs & 15 yrs) could no longer live with her and that their only options was either foster care or living with me. There is no way I was going to miss this chance. Still, my ... 
This is the story of Robby. He was a young boy who lived with his elderly mother. His mother wanted him to learn how to play the piano because she longed to hear her son play for her. She sent her son to a piano teacher who took Robby in under her guidance. However, there was one small problem because Robby was not musically inclined and therefore was very slow in learning. The teacher did not have much faith in the boy because of his weakness. The mother was very enthusiastic and every week she would send Robby to ... 
Another glorious Saturday afternoon in Central Park found six members of our Lemonade Brigade ready to collect more smiles and give out some just-because lemonade! Week one of our experiment in kindness went so well that we decided to set up our gift-economy lemonade stand at the exact same spot as we did last week.
As usual, our blown-up smile card poster started drawing in the crowds before the lemonade was ready to be served. Pavitra has become a seasoned professional in the art of lemonade-making after just one week, and worked tirelessly to make sure the ... 
Many years ago, when I was in high school and working weekends to pay for the extras that my folks couldn't really afford (like a school ring, class trip, etc.), I lost my wallet.
My old car required putting gas in the back (remember that?). I had prepaid and then put my wallet on the bumper, and drove off. I hadn't even had time to miss it when our phone rang and a man asked me if I had lost my wallet. I checked my purse and to my horror, I had. He asked me to tell him how much ... 
Few months ago, a friend of mine handed me an envelope. Intrigued, I opened it and found a dollar bill.. A dollar? For what?
My friend launched into an animated articulation of how he received a gift of $20 and he decided to split it up and give a dollar to 20 of his friends to do random acts of kindness. Multiply all the goodness that comes with an offering twenty-fold!
Last week I was walking in a nearby downtown to keep a baby entertained while the rest of the family watched a movie. The downtown is really small so we ended ... 
Our son is my newest "Hockey Hero." He plays goalie on his small hometown ice hockey team.
One weekend on matchday, we arrived a bit late and quickly found our seats and settled in. As I looked around, I noticed we were sitting with a family who had a mentally and physically handicapped child. We could hear the exciement in his voice when he said, "Mom, look the goalie is going to get the puck now!" Shamelessly, I listened to him and the excitment and joy in his voice as praised the goalie time and time again.
During the break, we went and told our son what was ... 
Teenagers! What can I say? My daughter is 12. Sometimes she is a crazy bundle of fun and sometimes she seems to have the weight of the world on her shoulders. This was one of her down days.
She was bored and sad (and making a meal out of it!). Every time she complained about being bored I would suggest something she could do, but there were always bucketloads of reasons why she couldn't do any of them. The suggestion that she might enjoy tidying her bedroom just provoked a look that reminded me of thunderclouds -- she's been good at that look ... | Home | About Us | Our Friends | Get Involved | Contact us |  |  |  |