This past Sunday, more than 250 kids and their parents took the Marin area by storm, giving back to their community. Four schools, participants of the Go Inspire Go Community Heroes program, embarked on the second annual Day of Giving, with 12 unique service projects including:

-Cooking an elegant meal and preparing shelter kits for Homeward Bound of Marin
-Gardening at the Canal Community Garden in San Rafael
-Cleaning up with the Downtown Streets Team San Rafael
-Weeding and trash pick-up at Marin Civic Center
-Planting 150 plants and clearing non-native plants at Terra Linda/Sleepy Hollow Open Space Preserve
-Making superhero capes and blankets to benefit patients at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital and Rooms that Rock 4 Chemo
-Multiple bake sales to help pay for expenses

That’s an incredible amount of good to come from one morning! The joy and excitement was palpable before and after the event. People were glowing… and happy! Why? I truly believe there’s a hunger in this community to try and keep grounded amid our picture-perfect scenery and weather, our gadget obsessions and the super-charged environment fueling the latest tech boom. Disparities are widening and the growing masses of homeless are being shuffled around. You see them out and about more — as local parks shut their gates, and as it gets even tougher to find affordable housing with rents and home prices through the roof. All these Community Heroes CHOSE to spend their Sunday getting their hands and hearts busy to help others. Our secret sauce? We make it FUN and aim to INSPIRE with our videos and our ENTHUSIASM, which I’ve been told is rather contagious.

Top heartwarming quotes from kids who took part in the Day of Giving:
-“The people we cleaned the streets with don’t look homeless. They’re just like us.”
-“I can’t wait to see the smiles on the faces of the people we cooked for!”
-“The Day of Giving was the best day of my life.”

Whoa, how’s that for compassion in action. Magic indeed!

The ask….

As Sun Valley School’s program has been going strong, word has got out and we’ve recruited three new local schools to join us this year: Kent Middle School, Dixie Elementary and Mary Silveira Elementary. More are lining up — and at this point, we need your help. Despite what it may seem from all we’ve accomplished, this program is 100% volunteer-run. Aside from a few grants, including a coveted LinkedIn Innovation Grant, we’ve come to the point where to keep this program growing and sustainable, we need to secure funding. This requires support for a full-time coordinator and Go Inspire Go infrastructure to create videos to grow the curriculum, operate our website and help run an organization.

The Community Heroes program has been teaching kids about compassion and action for close to three years, and we’ve been proving that what we’re doing WORKS! We’ve been getting kids and adults EXCITED and ENGAGED and have gone out there and done A LOT — collection drives, fundraisers and service projects to support local charities. The most exciting aspect of our impact is how kids have felt empowered by the program; they understand how they have the power to make a difference. Who knows how these young philanthropists and social activists will exercise their powers throughout their lives?

I believe there’s no greater gift we can give our kids than to grow their sense of compassion and responsibility to help make the world a better place. Don’t you agree?

Three ways you can help:

1. If you think this program is valuable, and can support us with a contribution, please donate here. Funds would help develop a toolkit, expand to new schools, train facilitators and coordinate among partners and the non-profit network.
2. If monetary contributions are a stretch, we could always use more volunteers and connections to those who might be willing to help. Just drop us a line with your ideas!
3. Spread the word about Go Inspire Go’s mission — to inspire people to find their power to help others! Please forward and share this blog. Use #ComHeroes and tag us @goinspirego. You can also email Kala Shah.

Kala Shah is Go Inspire Go’s Chief Innovation Officer and Program Director of Community Heroes, a service-learning program that is now in four Marin County schools.

The post A Day of Giving — And the Magic of Collective Giving appeared first on Go Inspire Go.

“Nervous” + “Excited” = “Nervouscited” nerves of yours. That’s how my sister Lynn Billett says my adorably sassy niece Serena describes this feeling as she started her first day of kindergarten this week.

As you wipe your tears and drop off your kids, I ask you one question. It’s a challenge and invitation. It seems this question is ubiquitous among my mommy and daddy friends: How do I raise GOOD, value-oriented kids? I’m sure you’re busy and bustling, but isn’t this the goal of all parentals?

That’s why Kala Shah, Marin Super Momma of three, and I created the Go Inspire Go Community Heroes program. Here’s a lovely blog she wrote about her experience as we embark on the third year of Community Heroes and a video about how one of the lessons on generosity blossomed!

⁠— Toan Lam, Chief Inspirator

By Kala Shah

On Mondays when I host the Community Heroes lunch club at Sun Valley School in San Rafael, California, I usually get a tad nervous. As I open the library door and await the lunch bell, I hold my breath. Will anyone show up? If they do, can I continue to keep these kids interested? Am I indeed sowing the seeds of compassion or is this all just going in one ear and out the other?

To this point — keeping fingers crossed this will continue — my fears have been laid to rest when I see waves of adorable little people tearing across the school yard, clutching their lunch boxes, clamoring for the best seat in the room. Their smiles and enthusiasm melt my anxieties, give me courage and boost my energy. The 45 minutes seem to fly by.

Imagine having 25-45 kids sit on the floor in a crowded room, eat lunch, ask questions and have meaningful discussions and activities about serious community issues (and yes, while the parent facilitator concurrently helps open yogurts and tight Tupperware lids, directs crumb and spill clean-up, grants permission to go to the bathroom and breaks up little skirmishes over who gets to sit on the coveted Panda pillow/chair.)

One of my challenges is that the kids are so eager to DO something. Like right then and there. Around Valentine’s Day last year, I decided we needed to take some immediate real action during club hours, rather than just ponder the problems of the world and what we COULD (and plan to) do. The theme I chose? Small, random acts of kindness.

I had planned to pick up a couple of flower bouquets to demonstrate how little gestures can make a difference. When I stopped by Trader Joe’s, it occurred to me that they may be willing to help out a little. The store manager Sheila told me they normally donate their flowers to another organization, but that day she decided to help our cause. She came out of the back storeroom with a huge bag full of more than 30 beautiful bouquets. Ask and ye shall receive. I was completely overwhelmed by her generosity and utterly excited to show the kids this mountain of gorgeous and fragrant flowers!

And here’s how our kindness experiment went…love the reactions of the unsuspecting recipients!

We found that small, random acts of kindness can completely shift someone’s day. Doing something unexpected and nice for someone else is a simple gift we could all give. The kids discovered they felt so much joy in return and it’s something they begged to do again for Valentine’s Day this year. We should all try to do a little something kind and spontaneous more often! It’s so easy and you never know what you may inspire in others.

Take Action

1. Share this blog & video with your community/kids.

2. Do one kind thing for someone today and use #goinspirego to let us know what you did.

3. Start your own Community Heroes Club at comheroes.org

Follow us: YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram.

Join our movement & Go Inspire Go…

The post First Day of School Inspiration: Blossoming Community Heroes appeared first on Go Inspire Go.

I feel so fortunate to have the Go Inspire Go Community Heroes club to remind me to be present and keep focused on the important stuff — gratitude for family, friends and taking care of those who need a hand. I started the club at Sun Valley Elementary School in San Rafael, Calif., back in the fall of 2012 along with Toan Lam of Go Inspire Go to provide a platform for kids in my community to foster compassion and act to give back locally. Oh my, what a wonderful ride it’s been ever since!

For our holiday initiative, we teamed up with Adopt a Family of Marin, a great local organization that helps stabilize struggling families in Marin County, Calif., going through difficult circumstances. AAF provides essential safety-net services to these families — short-term financial assistance for housing, food vouchers, counseling. Around the holidays, they match families with those in the community who want to help ease their burden.

The Community Heroes kids were so excited to adopt two families: the Abundants and the Angelics (names changed). Dulce Abundant wears many hats. As a hard-working mom of a 3-year-old daughter, Bella Danielle, she holds down a full-time job AND is a full-time student. Needless to say, the Abundants live on a very tight budget. Dulce is making her way toward a brighter future, waiting for the day she graduates and is able to provide a better life for her daughter.

Abrenna Angelic, mom to energetic twin 2-year old boys (bless her heart, I remember those days!), recently lost her job and is waiting for unemployment benefits to kick in. She had no idea how she was going to pay her rent, much less get winter coats for herself or her sons. Being accepted into AAF’s holiday program has given Abrenna hope that she’ll make it through this rough period in her life and even have a merry Christmas with her boys.

The Community Heroes kids really want to know these families’ stories and understand what they’re experiencing. They care so much! We’ve talked about how these are real people, living in our very own town, and how we can all go through tough times and need a hand. My heart swelled when one of the kids said with conviction, “That could be ME. It could be any of us.” Yes, this forum is working! It’s not about us and them. We’re ALL human beings who need to look out for each other — especially when times are tough.

I shared the Abundants’ and Angelics’ wish lists with the school community and WOW!!! What an overwhelming response! Every time I checked the collection bin, it was filled to the brim with everything from household essentials like detergent, lotion and pots and pans to warm and fuzzy coats, hats and mittens, new clothes for the moms and some great toys for the three little toddlers. Way to open your hearts and your wallets, Sun Valley families! You have shown once again what an amazingly generous and kind-hearted community in which I am blessed to live.

The day of our end-of-semester party, the kids burst into the multi-purpose room, so ready to wrap presents and make cards for these families!. Many didn’t even want to eat lunch (I made them do so, anyway). The Ho-Ho-Ho paper and bows were soon flying — such a happy buzz in the air! Our awesome principal Julie Harris walked in, took a deep breath and summed it up. “WOW, this is amazing!” she said.

More kids than ever before showed up — at least 70 kids gave up their lunchtime to be a part of this happy celebration. We talked again about these families and how lucky we are to be able to help and how we will continue to help others throughout the year. Thanks to the great parents who showed up to pitch in as well as our beloved physical education coach Chad, we had all these presents wrapped and ready to deliver in our Santa minivan!

The Community Heroes club has been going gangbusters for a year and a half now. We’re getting bigger and gaining traction as more kids participate and more parents help out. I’m thrilled and honored to report that we’ve just received a LinkedIn for Good Social Innovation grant to replicate and scale the Community Heroes program! Watch out world, very soon our Community Heroes are gonna be making the world a much better place near YOU!

This stuff is contagious, I tell ya! It’s clear there’s a hunger these young kids have to give back. Just imagine the impact these kids will be making by the time they’re in high school. I’m so proud to be able to shepherd these wonderful students and to grow along with them. I can’t wait for all the great things to come in the new year. Happy Holidays and many blessings to you and yours!

Interested in starting your own Community Heroes club? –Stay tuned for a curriculum and tool kit to get one started in your school! Thanks again, LinkedIn for Social Good!

–Check out these videos for inspiration about the power kids have to start movements in their communities: Matthew Kaplan and the Be O.N.E Anti-Bullying Project and 5-year-old Phoebe Russell’s super-sized canned food drive.

The post Community Heroes Adopt a Family Holiday Initiative appeared first on Go Inspire Go.

On Mondays when I host the Community Heroes lunch club, I usually get a tad nervous. As I open the library door and await the lunch bell, I hold my breath. Will anyone actually show up? If they do, can I really continue to keep these kids interested? Am I indeed sowing the seeds of compassion or is this all just going in one ear and out the other? Toan and I produced a year end video that encapsulates all the hard work and life lessons learned in this club. It’s funny how sometimes while you’re trudging along your journey you don’t realize the impact until the end of the journey. This video will inspire you to hope, dream and take action:

To this point — keeping fingers crossed this will continue — my fears have been laid to rest when I see waves of adorable little people tearing across the school yard, clutching their lunch boxes, clamoring for the best seat in the room. Their smiles and enthusiasm melt my anxieties, give me courage and boost my energy. And the 45 minutes seem to fly by. Imagine having 25-45 kids sit on the floor in a crowded room, eat lunch, ask questions and have meaningful discussions and activities about serious community issues (and yes, while the parent facilitator concurrently helps open yogurt and tight Tupperware lids, directs crumb and spill clean-up, grants permission to go to the bathroom and breaks up little skirmishes over who gets to sit on the coveted Panda pillow/chair.)

We met every one to two weeks for the entire school year. Here are some of the things we did:

1. Organized a fall coat drive for a local non-profit named Canal Alliance, which serves more than 3,000 immigrants annually, collecting more than 80 coats for San Rafael residents in need.

2. Built our skills, such as how to make an elevator pitch to a millionaire and making video presentations to inspire others to act

3. Had a lot of fun doing skits, making posters, writing notes to military personnel and an inspiring sick kid, performing random acts of kindness and dreaming big (like writing to Ellen DeGeneres).

4. Held a family Community Heroes event in the park to raise awareness about childhood hunger. The kids organized a bake sale and lemonade stand and performed a skit, raising more than $260 to benefit Canal Alliance to benefit their weekly food distribution pantry.

We discuss big issues, but we also talk about small acts that can make an impact. One of my favorite sessions was themed “Random Acts of Kindness.” We talked about small ways in which we can help others that don’t take much effort, but go a long way in making others and ourselves feel good and appreciated. I stopped by our local Trader Joe’s and talked to the manager about what I was planning to do and was surprised when she offered to donate more than 30 bouquets to help my experiment. The kids were delighted to walk into the library to a huge mound of fragrant blooms, and we discussed how doing something unexpected and nice for someone else is a simple gift we could all give. The kids then raced around the school yard handing flowers to unsuspecting teachers and students. They experienced the joy in giving and of course felt so much joy in return. We should all try to do a little something kind and spontaneous more often! It’s so easy and you never know what you may inspire in others.

In our last wrap-up session of the year, the kids enthusiastically planned for how they would look for ways to help others over the summer. To my surprise, many of them said they are very excited to keep Community Heroes going next year and I honestly can’t wait to see my Heroes again in the fall. Some even wanted to take this idea to their next journey in education, to junior high school! Observing these kids’ sincerity and watching their big hearts grow even bigger this year has been the greatest gift for me. Please take this blog and video as a gift and pass it along to someone in your life that needs a little inspiration. It doesn’t have to be a kid, it could be a grown up who wants to reconnect with their inner child who wants to dream again.

Ideas for your own Community Heroes club? Here are some great resources:

1. Calling all parents/guardians/schools groups: Start your own Community Heroes Club! Contact us: info@goinspirego.com

2. Make a GIG Spark Lesson on Compassion

3. Get connected to Generation On and Kids Care Clubs

The post An Inspired Year of Community Heroes appeared first on Go Inspire Go.

Imagine that multiplied 500 times — that’s what I’m feeling now. I was recently invited to present Go Inspire Go’s GIG SPARK (Lesson on Compassion) to 500 kids (kindergarten to fifth grade) at Sun Valley Elementary School in San Rafael, Calif. What an honor!

The theme: Community Heroes. I’ve been invited to speak in front of prestigious crowds of adults, but never this many children. I’m proficient in public speaking, but worried if the presentation Kala Shah, a mother of a Sun Valley student, and I put together would hold the attention of 500 little people for 30 minutes. Would they pay attention? Would they get our message? Would they take action?

Words can’t describe the tingles, endorphins and excitement — the chills — that I felt during that presentation — inspiring the children to “Use their POWER to help others.”

It is one of my most memorable experiences as a journalist, public speaker and inspirator

We created a video to share the experience in hopes of inspiring you to share this blog with at least one young person in your life and perhaps spark your own GIG Spark:

During the presentation, I showed them two video examples. The first video we showcased was a GIG original feature (of regular everyday heroes). This video exemplifies GIG’s goal: to inspire viewers to discover, see and share inspiring stories, then to use their power to help others. Naturally, we shared Part 3 of then kindergartener, Phoebe Russell’s story of how she inspired her community to enable the San Francisco Food Bank to dole out more than 150,000 meals. It all started with five-year-old Phoebe’s letter writing campaign to collect aluminum cans to help feed the hungry in her community:

The second video featured a GIG Spark example. Mini Rasekhy, 14, wanted to inspire smiles, so she and her mother took to the streets and used her voice to spread cheer:

I’m impressed with Julie Harris, Sun Valley’s principal, parents like Kala Shah and the faculty and staff at this special school that goes beyond teaching the basics of arithmetic, science, literature, etc. They inspire good citizens with the three Rs: Respect, Responsibility and Ready to Learn.

I still wonder how this presentation will resonate within them in the future. As my university lit professor, Carolyn Weber would say, “I am shooting arrows out into the world, I wonder where they will land.”

This experience taught me a lot about children. I learned never to underestimate the potential and capacity of a young mind to grasp concepts of compassion and action. I learned that if you have a positive message that inspires goodness, you can captivate the audience of any age.

I am honored and amazed that we captured their attention for 30 minutes!

I can’t wait to see how this presentation will resonate with them through their GIG SPARKS and actions of compassion that they’re learning through this experience.

Many parents tell me they want their child to get civically engaged, but don’t know how. Likewise, many of my students tell me they want to do better for their community, but don’t know how. Well, GIG SPARK is your answer. Join us in making a video on this LESSON ON COMPASSION.

I believe kids are naturally in tune with kindness, giving and service. Wouldn’t it be great if we adults paused right this minute and channel our inner child and do one kind thing for another person?

As Maya Angelou said, “If you know better, you do better.” Now you know, please help our youth do better.

What can YOU do?!

Take Action:
1. Many adults tell me they want to inspire the spirit of service in their children, but don’t know how. Here is the answer. Show our presentation to at least one young person in your life and send us your GIG SPARK: info@goinspirego.com

2. This presentation inspired Kala Shah to create a new “Community Heroes Club” to brainstorm service projects. She will share the GIG SPARKS that are ignited from the club via GIG. Make it your gig to start a Community Heroes club and let us know about it.

3. Be kind to one another. Let us know what kind things you’re experiencing via our social networks: Twitter & Facebook

The post Sparking Compassion and Inspiring Service in Our Youth appeared first on Go Inspire Go.