Today is the first day of spring which means it is time to celebrate kindness in a very big way:

When you talk to nearly 14,000 children in schools, in a small geographical area, you are going to cross paths with many of them when you remain in that area. Today, one of those students, Alec and his mother Andrea stopped by the Kindness Bus. Alec is a student at Calusa Elementary School and in seeing one of my programs a few weeks ago, his mom already knew of my mission. You cannot meet a more polite young man. Thank you for being so kind Alec, your mom probably has a lot to do with that.

Thank you to the Omega Group at Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church on Marco Island, Florida for inviting me to talk to their group. This group is meeting for eight weeks and brainstorming about some of the great things they can do to help comfort others. I was brought in to talk about the “richness” of who they are and the God-given gifts they should put to use.

Today Bogart and I visited Grizzlie Bear’s Preschool. This neighborhood learning center fills a very big need in the community. The school is a very nurturing environment for these young children and you can tell how well they are cared for by their kind behavior and respect during our visit. This is one very special place.

The City of Naples has a wonderful St. Patrick’s Day parade every year. It attracts over 40,000 spectators and hundreds of floats. I wasn’t officially in the parade but enjoyed my time riding past the crowd a few times before the parade started and meeting with many of the participants. Jackson, a student from Calusa Park Elementary school had seen one of my school programs. He chased me down to say hello and for me to say hi to Bogart. He had many kind words to say about our visit to his school.

It is a blessing to talk to so many people as I travel the country. Nearly every person who has approached me over these last seven years have had kind comments and advice some of the others approach me looking for a word or two of comfort.
Julie, are young woman who stopped by was having some challenging times in her life, her request was that I offered some prayers for her. I have and I hope you will take the time to do so as well. Many blessings to you Julie.

Lely Elementary students Brandon and Miekel introduced their mother Barbara to me as I was busy near the Kindness Bus. They were excited to show the bus to their mom, up close and in person, ever since I visited their school a few weeks ago.
It is always so rewarding to me to see when children who have witnessed our programs at their school and their parents already know of us visiting their child’s school. The connection between parent and child teaching them these life lessons of kindness, compassion, respect, comfort of others and gratitude is so very important.