What would it take for you to be the kindest person on earth?
The answer is quite simple but it is truly your actions which count. We can all be the kindest person in every moment of our lives, it is a choice all of us can make in every situation. It is an action we can adopt in our lives going forward from this very moment.
We can all be tied for 1st place as the kindest person on earth…that’s how we make this world the best place possible.

There are many people involved in helping to find a suitable replacement bus and others who want to lend a kind hand in repairing The Kindness Bus. Joe, my friend from Advance Auto Clinic in Chesterland, Ohio has been a big help in the past and is using his resources to help find a suitable replacement. I have the luxury of time and terrain, having The Kindness Bus on the relative flat west coast of California. The Kindness Bus has no problem doing quick climbs over short hills, it has major engine issues on the long grades and will quit if I try to push it over the Rockies to the east or the ranges to the north.
I do have a contingency plan, to buy a couple months of time to find a new bus or repair The Kindness Bus. I will talk about that next week.

Being in Pepper Pike, Ohio to pay a short visit to counselors at Orange High School, I just had to stop at the Suicide Prevention Education Alliance (SPEA).
Executive Director, Pat Lyden and some of her staff went out of the way to take a break from their work to visit with me on short notice.
SPEA has been educating students in schools about the need to understand the warning signs of suicide in order to help those who are suffering seek help from a mental health professional. This “first line of defense” is one of the best ways to save a life.
SPEA’s programs have spread locally here in Northeast Ohio and are now having an impact across the nation, testimony to the the importance of the work of this fine organization.

What a nice invite, to be able talk to some of the Trustees in Chesterland, Ohio. On the invite from Kay Holland, a local businesswoman, I didn’t have to think too long about accepting this invite. I really like this format, talking for 15 minutes while the lunch was being prepared and then answering questions during lunch. From the amount of questions, it was easy to see the interest in wanting to put an end to Bullying and Adolescent Suicide.
Maureen Mooney of the Chesterland News conducted an interview about my travels and the Trustees luncheon. It will certainly help to spread the word to the community. Thank you to everyone for making this a big day.

On yesterday’s flight from San Francisco to Cleveland, I packed up the  dismantled signs and support from The Kindness Bicycle and squeezed them into my checked bag. I was offered the use of my son Peter’s bicycle for the nearly three weeks that I will be in the east. I was happy to learn how fast the existing signage was able to fit the new ride. I was also very happy to learn how easy it is to ride his bike. It is such an ease to get up to speed without much effort at all. Clearly, The Kindness Bicycle could use a major overhaul, but as long as it has two pedals and two wheels, it is all I need to get my message out to the masses.
Today is Memorial Day, a day to honor those who sacrificed so much to protect our freedoms. Try to take some time each day going forward, to keep their memory in your heart.

I think I am going to have to fire myself as a travel agent. My three leg trip to get from San Francisco to Cleveland took more than 25 hours to get from door to door. With airfare in the $600 – $800 range, flying east would not have been doable. Enter, Bob the travel agent.
Booking a 5:30 AM three leg trip from San Francisco through Denver and Houston to Cleveland was not so much the hard part, but having to park The Kindness Bus and take a shuttle 11 hours before flight time was. It meant having to sleep in the terminal and on planes as I made my way east. Needless to say, I got about an hour of rest. I am going to be catching up on sleep, for having to fly on the cheap, for the next few days. I was however, able to make some great people connections on this $240 bargain basement fare.

Team up to stop bullying is a nationwide campaign started by retailer, Sears, but is run on the local level by groups in towns across the United States. In Petaluma, California, Bill Kizer is very involved in helping to stop bullying. Having a teenage daughter, Bill keeps active by organizing events which gives kids a voice and raises awareness. Tonight he had a dance for 300 kids in the area.
Team Up to Stop Bullying provides much-needed resources to parents, children, educators and communities and will help Americans understand that bullying is a not a normal part of childhood,” said Marie Newman, bullying solutions author and managing director of Team Up to Stop Bullying. “Every seven minutes a child is bullied at school and studies show that schools with an anti-bullying program see a decrease in bullying up to 50 percent. While there isn’t one single fix to every bullying problem, there are proven solutions and services that are implemented.