This is my kid. My oldest son.
He is
6 years old
and in
Kindergarten.
Young kids can make a difference. I am grateful to GenerationOn for taking the time to get to know my son and find out more about him . . . and then GenerationOn shared the stories of the top 15 young people doing good things in their community! Go check out those kids! Go read their stories and share with your children what kids are doing. YES, KIDS!!!!
My Son's Story
He first became involved in service at the age of 4 years old; he started recognizing that he had the power to make others happy. It started with simple acts of giving away his own balloons at restaurants and his own baseball caps at baseball games to other kids that didn’t have one. He never asked for a replacement. Instead, he would inevitably explain that he knew it would make the other child feel “happy.”
One day (at the old age of 5), he had helped
make a donation to the Lion’s Club.
After arriving home from making the donation, he ran through the
house and brought to the dining room table $6.57 in change that he had been saving (hidden in various spots in the house). He announced, “I want to donate this to kids
that don’t have homes.” That started his
first of several donations to Captain Hope’s Kids. A couple of months later, he decided to do a
bigger project to help children that are homeless with his Toy Donation
Project.
Some of his projects:
For the Toy Donation Project for Captain Hope’s Kids (an
organization that supports children that are homeless), he and his brother made
poster boards that showed items that were needed. Then, every evening, he would ask to go to
talk to the neighbors about the service project, going door to door telling
them about Captain Hope’s Kids and asking for help. Pretty soon, other people were hearing about
what he was doing. In the end, a church
congregation, the neighbors, and a local business donated towards Captain
Hope’s Kids. In all, 300 cubic feet of supplies
and toys were collected. Everett wanted
to be at home when the truck came to pick up the supplies that were piled in
the garage. When the truck arrived,
Everett was the fastest volunteer loading the truck and running back and forth
to get the supplies to the on-ramp. The
next day, he went with his mom to the toy sorting center to help with toy and
supply sorting. He was the youngest
volunteer there.
For his 6th birthday, he and his brother
(who is 4) decided to help the Children's Medical Center and a local
rehabilitation program by having a Secret "Service" Agent party. He invited his friends and their
families. In the end, 14 families came
to his secret "service" birthday party. That day, 250 busy books were made for the
medical center, 20 happy cards were made, and 50 residents were visited and
given flowers by Everett and his friends.
A few weeks later, he went back with friends to sing holiday songs at
the rehabilitation center. His
caring and friendly personality makes it extremely easy for him to reach out to
others.
The boys just finished a 4 month long project to clean the creek by the elementary school. At least once a week,
they went (and sometimes with friends) to clean out and recycle the debris and trash
found in the creek. To date, they have collected 48 bags of trash, which they sorted into trash and recycle piles as they collected from the creek.
Everett thinks that a phrase from
“Phineas and Ferb” is accurate since when people first meet him they tell him
he is too young to help:
Random Adult: Aren't you a little young to [insert project here]?
Phineas: Yes. Yes I am.
Everett also likes the following: You’ve been given two hands. One to help yourself, the other to help
others.
He says, “When you serve
others, it makes others want to serve.”
Each day, after school, he is ready to complete a “Penny of Time,” a service act to help someone. His gift of empathy and single-mindedness in helping others has impacted his family and others that come in contact with him and the chronicled acts of service on Pennies of Time. He is a strong force behind getting the word out that young children can serve, be kind, and make a powerful difference in the world.
Service doesn't have to be complicated to be meaningful.
Service doesn't have to take long to make an impact.
Kids can serve.
YOUNG kids can serve.
My son is proof of that.
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