Stories of Kindness from Around the World

I was very fortunate to be selected by Kindspring to receive $100 for the monthly kindness contest and it has helped to make a beautiful difference in people's lives. This past October I received a grant to build a large installation I called The Inspiration Tree.

The concept is simple. I took a lot of fallen branches that I had been gathering on walks and out at my parents land and hung them from the ceiling with the help of volunteers and friends. Then we hung strings with clothespins attached to them from the branches. I got a whole lot of art supplies and as people came in for the art exhibit, they were encouraged to create a piece of art or a positive message to hang from the tree.

The tree transformed into this really fun way of exchanging positive messages. If you were to hang a message up, you had to take a message down for you to keep. The experience was really amazing. People of all ages and from all walks of life were sharing art and inspiration through the tree.

With the $100 I received from Kindspring, I made more Inspiration Trees. I took one to a school where I am student teaching in a 6th grade special education classroom. They have already been using the tree on a daily basis. It encourages them to write and learn to spell, but most importantly they want to spread kindness by leaving positive messages for other students to have. The beautiful thing is that the messages they take can have a huge impact. On a tough day, they can pull out the messages and be reminded of kindness. It can encourage and inspire them.

I made a total of seven more trees. I am putting them all over our community. One will go to a youth shelter for homeless teens and one will be put right in the middle of town on our public square. They will have paper and art supplies at the base for people to use in creating a message or piece of art. For the classroom I was able to provide them with new colored pencils, markers, some sketchbooks and folders, which they all loved. The idea is to create interactions that are positive and can impact people's lives in great ways just by doing a simple act of kindness. The messages people receive can be kept with them forever as a reminder of the good in the world, or they can pass them along to others. The beauty of the concept is that the potential of the messages have unlimited possibilities. Thank you, Kindspring, for helping me spread kindness in the world.