H.O.W. : Spread the Word About the 365/365 Challenge
The Man Who Started It All
billybuc Has Another Wonderful Idea - Let's Help It Grow!
A fellow hubber, billybuc, has challenged us all to the H.O.W. To Make A Difference: The 365/365 Challenge. He suggests that we do an act of kindness each day for every day of the year. I recently wrote a hub inspired by Ann Curry from NBC News. She suggested that people do 26 acts of kindness in memory of the victims of the shootings in Connecticut. I wrote about 26 things people could do in support of that challenge. I sat down here tonight to try and suggest 365 things – but then decided that I really didn’t have the energy for that tonight! Instead, this is what I came up with…
I am going to try to find ways to make this idea spread. When the shootings in Connecticut happened I, like everyone else, wanted to do something to make this stop. I don’t have a lot of clout. I don’t know a lot of politicians. I waver on my gun control arguments. I didn’t know what to do. Then Ann Curry began talking about her 26 Acts of Kindness…and then William Holland, aka billybuc, wrote about his 365/365 and I thought – now that is something I can do.
And I can talk about these ideas – I can spread the ideas of others and make sure people hear about these wonderful ideas. I can do my small part and do an act of kindness every day. I can encourage my students and my coworkers to do the same.
When I return to school after the holiday break, I am going to talk about acts of kindness to my students. I am not going to go into the Connecticut shootings, my students are way too young for that. If they bring it up, I will discuss it with them, but I won’t bring it up. But I can talk to them about how to help each other. I can tell them that it makes us feel good to help others. I can tell them things they can do and then we can do some things around the school that would show just what acts of kindness really means. I can do some kindness for each of my students and then ask them to pass that act on to at least one other person.
I can also talk to my coworkers – the teachers, psychologist, nurse, social worker, principal, custodian, lunch aides – and encourage them to do an act of kindness each day. To have their students, their patients, the children they work with in all of the ways they work with children, do an act of kindness each day, as well. We can have students make posters to put up around the school to remind them to do their act of kindness. We can add an act of kindness of the day to the daily announcements to encourage others. We can get the students talking about it and see if it can spread that way.
I can start An Act of Kindness Club that can encourage children and teachers to come up with different ways to spread kindness throughout our community. We can find ways to earn money so that we can buy food, clothing, or other needed items for those in the community who need them. We can let the children come up with the ideas and run with them. By doing that, the children will buy into it and do more than we, as adults, could ever think of. Children have the blessing of not knowing that some things are impossible and therefore will try in anything.
By doing these few things, I can do my small part of helping to spread the word of 365 acts of kindness through my community. Maybe by doing my small part and encouraging others to do their own small part, we can spread kindness – and not fear – throughout our country. This won’t stop all of the violence in our world, but maybe – just maybe – it will give the media something else to talk about. Something else to concentrate on. Something else for all of us to think about. Maybe, just maybe, we can bring back that pride that we once had in our country.
