Change Becomes Change

How Can I Change The World?

On a recent lazy weekend, my kids were creating masterpieces for an upcoming art show they’re planning. This will be their second big art show – their debut was during our Thanksgiving visit with family down in California. They charged an admittance fee (with a nice discount for early birds), and sold their art to high bidders. They decided that 100% of the proceeds would go to our local Oregon Food Bank, a collection they’ve been working on for a few months now.

While working on her creations, my four year old daughter wanted to know why people help other people, so I tried explaining to her why it’s good to give of our time or other means to people who need it more than we do. This wasn’t the easiest conversation I’ve had with her, but I think some of it came across.

Then I mentioned that, even at four years old, she could make the world a better place.

And her face just lit up. She looked at me with curious excitement in her eyes and asked, “really mommy…what can I do to make the world better?”

I’ve not spent much time here at Change Becomes Change since I’ve followed my personal passions to launch Feed Our Families, but this exchange with my daughter has inspired me to return. It’s easy for all of us – young and old, rich and poor – to forget, or not realize that, yes, we can all make the world a better place.

She’s busy making art for a show when her grandparents visit next month, and is looking forward to the spring beach clean up with SOLV. And I couldn’t be more proud of my little change agent.

The Ways Kids Amaze Us

My youngest is adorable, sweet and makes us laugh with her clever ways of expressing herself, but tonight she really surprised me.

Here in Portland, there's a little boy who lives not far from us that has been missing for over ten days. He's just seven years old and in many ways reminds me of my own son, which may be part of the reason that his disappearance has really hit me hard. I learned about Kyron Horman on a Friday night during the 10pm news and, although I was cozy in bed, his story brought tears to my eyes and this strong desire to get dressed and head out to the west hills to help find him. My husband quickly reminded me that I'm not really equipped to do such a thing so we've found other ways to help. It just never feels like enough.

But we haven't talked much about the situation in front of our children since we really weren't sure how much they'd understand and what might really frighten them. We've been talking about safety topics and my son has been praying at school for Kyron but that's been the extent of things with them.

Both our children have journals that they've just started using in different ways. Being only four years old, my daughter likes to draw pictures in her journal that tell a story for her. Some days I can't really translate what she's drawn but there's typically an elaborate story she'll tell.

Tonight I asked her to work in her room alone while I spent time sorting through some tough emotions with my son in his journal. About 20 minutes later she came in and asked to share her story with me. But I had to go in her room. She wanted my full attention.

Wow. I don't know where this came from. The picture  below, she tells us, is Kyron and a man finding him. She also drew a leaf for the "forest where he's been hiding". 

They say that children sometimes have a six sense. Tonight, I choose to believe that. We all hope Kyron comes home soon.

 

Kyron was last seen wearing a black "CSI" shirt and dark cargo pants. If you have any information on Kyron's disappearance, please call the Multnomah County Sheriff's Office tip line at 503-261-2847.

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Changes in 2010

As most people do this time of year, we've all been thinking and talking about our hopes, wishes and goals for 2010. The children are wishing for a safe, happy year for our family, Patrick is hoping to make more friendships at school, and Marci just wants more nice days (and since we live in Oregon, rainy days are just as nice as sunny ones to little people who don't know any better).

For me, of course I  want a healthy, happy year for us all. That's a big one right there and if only that new year wish came true, we'd be in really great shape.

But there's a few other things I'm adding to our list.

• Strengthen our relationships with "family" - especially those who we don't get to see often, but also those friends who we love just as dearly.

• Find new ways as a family to give back, help others and make a difference in our communities.

• Discover new ways to be gentle to our planet. I'm not sure what this will mean in 2010 but there's likely composting, more canning and other new green adventures.

• Continue our hard work of teaching our children strong values - through how we spend our time and money, how and what we eat, and how we respond to each other and others.

This is the first year that we've sat down to make family goals and it's been a great exercise for each of us in different ways. Have you made resolutions as a family? How was that for you?

Amazing kid moment - Finn Case helps improve water poverty

This Amazing Kid Moment is brought to us by Kids Are Heroes- the place where all kids are encouraged to make a difference.

Finn Case, from Alberta, Canada, learned about water poverty and its impacts in the developing world at a very young age. He was so touched by the hardships faced by others, that a kindergarten project in 2006 on ‘wheels, pulleys and levers’ set his mind in motion. Deciding to construct a kinetic well, Finn realized that if placed in the classroom, he could ask for coin donations to be placed in the well’s bucket before being lowered to make a wish. The proceeds would then go toward a real well somewhere there was a need.

By exposing Finn to people in real need as a young child, his parents have helped support his youthful spirit to change the world...one bucket of water at a time. It all ads up!

Go to the site and give Finn a SHOUT OUT to let him know how you feel about his efforts. Have your own Amazing Kid Moment to share with us? Send us a note and we'd love to share your great stories.

Amazing kid moment - JT Robertson really made a difference

This Amazing Kid Moment is brought to us by Kids Are Heroes - the place where all kids can make a difference.

JT Robertson collects cans and returnables. He then uses the deposit money from those returnables to buy tickets for less fortunate children on the Arcade and Attica Railroad for a trip on Make A Difference Day every October. When JT first started, there was a problem with boarding the train for children with disabilities - especially wheelchairs. So JT continued to collect returnables to fund the trips but also started to raise awareness of the problem. He made a video and asked for letters of support for an Extreme Train Makeover.

JT's mom sent the video and the request to ABC's Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. During the time the tape was sent and JT waited to hear, an article about the Make A Difference Day Express appeared in Trains magazine. This article caught the eye of a producer at ABC.

On September 16th 2008, JT was a guest on Good Morning America. The GMA crew surprised JT with his hero Ty Pennington. Ty announced that with the help of Sears and two of his crew members an Extreme Train Makeover would happen. Paige Hemmis and Micheal Moloney went to Arcade, New York and helped to make two rail cars wheelchair accessible.

This past October was the fourth Make a Difference Day Express. The first year JT bought tickets for 21 total strangers. The following year (2nd) 84 children and 44 adults were able to ride. The next year (3rd) 328 people were able to ride. This past year was the biggest year - 728 tickets were bought due to recycling efforts and donations from complete strangers! Next year - who knows what will happen...

Check out JT on Good Morning America. Want to send a Shout Out to JT and let him know how proud you are? Click here to send your note. Have your own Amazing Kid Moment to share with us? Send us a note and we'd love to share your great stories.

Amazing kid moment - John Sun gives his mom the best gift ever

This Amazing Kid Moment is brought to us by Kids Are Heroes - the place where all kids can make a difference.

John Sun is a happy and healthy 9 year old who loves animals and hopes to a veterinarian one day. John has dedicated a great deal of time and effort to raising money and awareness for premature births. To date, John has collected more than 173 lbs. of aluminum cans from his community in order to purchase 50 Boyds Bears miniature stuffed animals for the NICU unit at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital. He has delivered 143 gift bags to families of preemies at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital and Frederick Memorial Hospital and served as the honorary NICU Santa at Shady Grove Adventist Hospital this past Christmas.

His passion for animals, big and small, led him to Small Angels Rescue, a non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing and finding loving homes for small animals including, chinchillas, degus, gerbils, guinea pigs, hamsters, and mice. To date he has raised $425.00 in donations for this organization.

In addition to toys he donates quilts, blankets and preemie hats that he gets from nursing homes and local businesses.  When he delivered his first set of gift baskets he turned to his mother and said, "Mom, that was the most important thing I have ever done!"  I can't think of a better gift to a mother than hearing that from her child.

Want to send a Shout Out to John Sun and let him know how proud you are? Click here to send your note. Have your own Amazing Kid Moment to share with us? Send us a note and we'd love to share your great stories.

Amazing kid moment

My husband took our son, Patrick, down to San Francisco today to catch a ball game today, as they often do each spring. As we were packing up last night we were talking about the many homeless or hungry people he might see in the city. He wanted to help them so we started talking about simple things he could do. Here's his list:

• He took $5 out of his piggy bank to give someone
• Snack bars and fruit leather for hungry people
• A Giants hat that never fit his dad for someone to keep dry from the rain forecasted for the day
• A Giants jacket that doesn't fit him anymore for his younger cousin

His first idea seemed a bit complex to execute so we explained the challenges to him and he's ok with it. He wanted to get hotel rooms in the city for all the homeless people. We're still working on lessons about money - apparently $200/nt hotel rooms not expensive at all.

The kid's got a huge heart!

Amazing kid moment

Here's a story I stumbled upon about another boy after my own heart. This 16-year-old Minnesota boy found $18,000 in a grocery bag near the side of the road while riding his bike. What he did with the money is an amazing act of generosity and charity not common with teens.

While he could have bought for himself all of the latest and greatest toys like a new Wii,iPhone, or even a new car, this thoughtful boy found others in need and spread the wealth while helping out.

The money was likely from drug deals and the police aren't pursuing charges against this modern-day Robin Hood. I hope they find a way to honor him for doing the right thing.

This kid is going to change the world. One helpful deed at a time.

Amazing kid moment

In honor of St Patrick's day, our family had a traditional dinner of corned beef and the makings. The recipe we used wasn't great (ok, it was bad - too strong of a lager) and we all ended up eating mostly the bread and what we call snack dinner - enough scraps and things from the kitchen to make up a meal. 

What was extraordinary was our prayer, led by Patrick:

Dear God Thank you for all the trees that give us oxygen and paper. And all the people that are our friends and family. And for all the things you've done in the world. Amen.

A great day to clean up

As Patrick and I left the house for our SOLV clean up today he said, "mom, this is the best thing we could do today". I said, "really? picking up trash is the best thing we could do?". "yep".

 We were expecting pretty heavy rain so Marcelena stayed home with Justin while Patrick and I hit the streets in NW Portland. We started at the Food Front Co-op to our designated area which was NW 23rd from Lovejoy back to Thurman.

Walking towards Lovejoy, Patrick was excitedly pointing out all the trash we'd pick up on the way back. The kid has eagle-eye vision for trash!

Our tour took about an hour and I was surprised that his enthusiasm remained high the entire time. The heavier our bag got, the more he  looked forward to finding out if we had collected the most trash. We didn't, but he still felt great.

Along our walk down the busy street, we had some great talks. He wanted to understand why people don't put their trash in the garbage can, why people smoke when they know it's bad for them (yeah, there were a lot of cigarrette butts) and a whole bunch of questions when we walked by a make-shift shelter for a few homeless folks.

When we returned to Food Front Co-op and turned over our bounty, we were rewarded with some baked treats and way-to-go's. Patrick felt really proud of his work that morning and said he wants to do it again - even if there's no treat at the end.

On the way back to the car he informed me that he wants to do this 365 days a year, so we agreed to keep bags in the cars so that we can pick up any trash we might see. Of course, returning to the car tonight after dinner he spied some trash that had to be picked up.

He's a funny kid that sure made this mama proud today.