Like Virginia, we’re living in an historic, challenging time. For us, it isn’t a war; it’s a virus. COVID-19 has disrupted life in ways we never could have imagined. Your children and your grandchildren will read about the time we’re experiencing right now. They will ask you, What was it like? What did you do? We are making history. And everyone has a chance to play a part. You have a chance to play a part.
I challenge you: Be like Virginia. Look for at least one positive thing you can do to make a difference for your family, school, neighborhood, community, or world. It might be helping your little sister with online learning or making a card for an elderly neighbor who’s isolated from her family. It might be writing letters to government leaders or raising money for families fighting the virus in refugee camps around the world. Your contribution might seem small, but for those you help it will be BIG.
Step one: Brainstorm your POSITIVE THING. Will it be something for your family, school, neighborhood, community, or world? Ideally, it will be something you can keep doing on a regular basis. Write down your idea or ideas. If you have several, decide which one you’ll pursue first.
Step two: Make a list of everything you need, including possible help from a friend or an adult.
Step three: Make an action plan. How will you do this? What steps are involved? When will you begin?
Step four: Dive in! Take the first step in doing your POSITIVE THING.
Step five: Draw a picture or write a paragraph showing your action. If you’d like, you can work with your parent, guardian, or teacher to scan your work and send it to me via my contact form.* I will post some of these on my website.
*When posting work, I will only use first names.
What Are You Doing to Make History?
Kudos to these amazing Win-E-Mac first-graders and their teacher Karol Langemo! They responded to a challenge I posed in our recent virtual school visit—to be “history makers” by finding a way to make a positive difference in this challenging time. They worked together to create this Kindness Cart as a thank-you to their school’s dedicated teachers and staff. They decorated the cart; loaded it with treats (with help from their sponsor, Thrivent, and a generous parent); and worked in teams of three to deliver them. (One student pushed the cart, one knocked on the doors, and one talked!) Hearing about this makes my day!
