Sunday, May 06, 2012

The Kindness Chronicles

the kindness chronicles
april 27 2012
I volunteered to teach 30 4th graders how to make
symmetrical butterflies from construction paper
.

It's easy for me to teach art to kids. I bet that you have a passion that you could share. Why not volunteer in a classroom, just for an hour or two, and teach the kids something fun. Their smiles will reward you tenfold.

some more kindness:

  • My husband's mother lives in a residential senior facility in Seattle. Every month, elementary school children come to the residence and read to the seniors.
  • A Mundo Lindo mom brought juice packs for all the kids one day.

    • See the scarf I'm wearing in this picture? I tye-dyed it myself. I realized that my adorable, young, yoga teacher would look great in it, so I gave it to her as a little gift.






My husband, Don Strom (left) and  our friend, Tom Blinn at the golf tourney
Rick Keating and Jim Kelly, Don's college fraternity brothers.
Rick and Jim started the Don Strom Scholarship Fund for Don to select and help brain injury survivors with financial assistance. Rick also volunteers as  MC of the golf tourney dinner. These guys fly down from Seattle each year for the tourney.
 
My husband, Don, and Steven, one of the brain injury survivors that the Don Strom Scholarship Fund paid for to play in the
San Diego Brain Injury Foundation charity golf tourney.

Teenagers being and seeing kindness:

My last Kindness Chronicle post, I showed you the form Susan Avery Clark made for her high school students, here.  Remember, these are teenagers. Here are a few:


Susie's question: In complete sentences write what you did to be kind.
  • "I told Mrs. Clark that I enjoy her teaching just now."
  • "Every time someone needs me to listen to them and give them advice, I'm always there."
  • "My aunt had moved into an apartment. I found out she was sleeping on the floor, and hurting her back, so I gave my bed to her. She was really happy."
  • "I helped a random kid carry his bike down a slippery hill last weekend."
  • "One act of kindness I did was when my mom was bringing in the groceries all by herself, and I just started to help her without her telling me to."
  • "I participated in a soup kitchen for the homeless. It's every Monday."

She also had the kids write about seeing someone else being kind.
  • " I saw a policeman and an intoxicated homeless man. The homeless man reached out to grab the officer, and instead of taking him to jail, the policeman put out his hand and said 'let's get you something to eat."
  • "When someone waits and holds open the door at a store. It's little stuff like that that makes me feel good."
  • "Two weeks ago my brother got deported so me, and the rest of my family went to go see him. As we were walking to cross back (over the Mexico/US border) two guys dropped their passports and this little boy selling charms saw the passports on the ground, grabbed them and ran to catch up to them and give them their passports."
kindness
cupcakes

I made cupcakes, using flower images from my sketchbook. I served them to our San Diego Sketchcrawl group.
cupcakes  cupcakes
You can read my other Kindness Chronicles posts here and here. I post The Kindness Chronicles on the first Sunday of every month. Join me.

Please share, in the comments, what kindnesses you did this past month...It will inspire  others, I promise.

9 comments:

  1. Jessica Porterfield5/06/2012 5:53 AM

    I LOVE when you post these acts! It just warms my heart especially the one about the policeman. thank you for the time that you donate and for posting it. Jessica

    ReplyDelete
  2. Une merveilleuse publication remplie de bonheur et de sourires...
    gros bisous

    ReplyDelete
  3. I did a very kind thing today. I like to take walks with my neighbor when she walks her dog. Today I gave her a box of 50 doggy bags I got for a great deal at CVS.
    Seriously, I was so thrilled at what the students wrote in their papers, I plan on having them write again this week.
    Another thing I will be doing is offering a Mother's Day gift making activity on Tuesday after school. I have been drying and preparing Lavender from our bush and will show the kids how to make a lavender sachet for the Mom in their life. All materials will be free for them.
    Last week we had a very large percentage of our student body and staff donate blood for a drive at our school. I'm sure it was scary for them, but they did it!
    Also we are selling student art work as a fund raiser for Make-A-Wish foundation and so far staff members at our school have donated $280 in exchange for portraits the students painted of them. So much kindness is everywhere. Thanks for helping us keep it in the forefront of our consciousness.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I worked at the local food bank drive for 4 hours on Saturday! What a great thing we gave here in our community! So many people helping out!
    I let a stressed Mom of 3 go in front if me in line at the grocery store
    I took A bunch of magazines to the lobby of the nursing home where my Dad lives
    I gathered donations for the children of a friend who passed away last month
    All simple things.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I prefer to be anonymous in my kind acts whenever possible. "Laying up treasure in heaven" is one phrase for it. Still, I love to read what people do for others because it is so encouraging. So I'll share a little one this time.

    I 'grandmother' other people's children. I love both giving the parents a break and the chance to play with and teach the children. My newest borrowed 'grandkids' and I played mancala, drew pictures, painted, and talked all Sunday. This grandparent makes time for the kids. I can knit later.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Jane, I want to add how kind it is for you to share your art in so many ways-helps me more than you will ever know. Since I am on medical leave right now, I have been helping my elderly neighbors. One is paraplegic and I sat with her the other day so her husband could run errands. I also took art supplies over for her visiting granddaughter so she could "create" masterpieces!

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  7. I just love this Jane. It seems that a lot of our world is so involved in serving themselves...it's great to read the kindness that is being served up (esp. the younger generation!).

    ReplyDelete
  8. The thing about kindness is that it makes one feel even better than the one helped. I teach women in Africa to make crafts so they can earn a living. but I am privileged to be able to "download" my brain from a life time of learning crafts into someone for whom it will make a difference. It's much more fun than teaching for money :) www.workofourhands.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete

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