Dak News and Interviews!

What to share first? 
Isn't that a great position to be in? I'm feeling super blessed with kindness today. I struggled with posting yesterday in honour of World Kindness Day and all, but here at Deliberate Acts of Kindness our default position is that everyday is world kindness day, kindness isn't random it is a conscious choice that inspires human flourishing.  

So to begin, we have a school board, yes an entire school board, from Jacksonville, North Carolina - Onslow County Schools - that have just received their first shipment of customized dakbands!

We cannot wait to see the stories, and travels, of all the dakbands that will connect Onslow County School children and teachers to their community and the world. When you receive a blue dakband be sure to share your story on the website!

  
Another great dakband story deserves some attention and page time. A few months ago I received an order for some bands from an organization called the KarmaKlub. An initiative that a couple of mothers were inspired to launch a few years ago. I thought it would be great to do a little Q & A with Julie, one of the founders. Here it is:
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Can you tell us a little about your organization and how it can to be?

The karma club was formed when myself and Tanya decided to turn our kids weekly "play date" into something more meaningful. We decided that instead of playing, the kids could come up with ideas on how we could give back to our community through acts of kindness. That was 7 years ago and we are still going strong!

How did you come up with the name for your project?

I have always believed in Karma, and thought it was important to teach our kids about it. The name just came to me one day and I liked it...Karma Club, kids for kindness.

How does kindness support your philosophy?
Our motto is "kids for kindness"...so everything we do is based upon how we can spread kindness to others.

How did you learn about the dakbands?
I learned about DAK bands when I received one from my niece in Yellowknife. I immediately realized that it would be a great fit for our club--and so I presented it to them. (did you read that, Yellowknife!!)
Does wearing the dakband contribute to your personal outlook and awareness as far as kindness is concerned?

Wearing the band reminds me to be on the lookout for kindness in action.

Have you given a dakband away yet?

No, I have not given mine away yet--as I still need to register it!

Anything else you would like to add, please do.
We have told the kids that there will be a prize awarded at the end of the year for the person whose band has travelled the farthest. It will be interesting to see what comes up.

Thanks for everything you do. Julie

Julie, thank-you, and everything YOU and KarmaKlub do - you make the difference!                                                                                                     

Drop, Drop......

A couple of weeks ago, the child psychologist that our son Garrett visits once a week (we call her Dr. Pam), introduced a book to him that has changed our lives - really. I was describing the book and transformation to a friend, and between mouthfuls of a delicious lentil curry soup at Kind Food, she simply said, "Sounds like something we should all practice."

The book is titled, Have You Filled a Bucket Today. With beautifully coloured illustrations, and simple text, this heartwarming story explains how each of us has an invisible bucket. Sometimes, when we are feeling happy, confident, special, included, our buckets are full. Other times, when we are feeling sad, lonely, frustrated, angry, our buckets are empty, or low. The authors teach us that we can fill other people's buckets in simple ways, which is signified by a drop, drop, drop.....or we can dip into people's buckets when we ignore them, are rude, or mean, and this is represented by a drip, drip, drip. Most poignantly, is the reality, that by filling up some elses' bucket, we fill up our own. There is a wonderful website with support materials called, The Bucketfillers.

This morning when I set Garrett's breakfast down in front of him, he looked at me and said, "Drop, Drop." This is a five year old. He gets it. I am one proud Mama. Now, whenever we go out about our day, we look at people and discuss whether they are putting drops in buckets, or causing them to drip out. Good practice.

I just have to point out the obvious, and draw the correlation to the dakbands. Talk about bucketfilling! In reality, this concept really sums up the dakband project from another perspective. It reinforces the importance of acknowledging, sharing, encouraging kindness every day, all day long. Become a bucketfiller, dak someone today.

Drop, Drop.......

Secret Agents and Superheroes

Ingenuity has always fascinated me. Kindness, of course, is one of my passions. So, when you combine the two, as they are in Laura Miller, I become almost incoherent with excitement. Seriously, it's what I imagine a fix must be like for addict. I get jittery, my mind races with ideas, I'm overwhelmed by all the potential for good. Right now, I'm in the middle of a fix I've just discovered...so bear with me as I try to channel my thoughts coherently.

It started with an article I found about a pre-school teacher at Missoula Community School in Missoula, Montana, who has her students don capes and become 'superheroes of kindness'. WOW. What better superhero could there be? The children perform weekly gestures of kindness in their community, that have inspired adults to become superheroes of kindness as well. (Kindness has that power doesn't it.) Apparently, Krystal Burns, the teacher of the superheroes of kindness, was inspired by Secret Agent L. (aka Laura Miller).

Secret Agent L, from Pittsburgh, anonymously performs acts of kindness throughout her community, and then blogs about them - sound familiar? (except for the anonymous part :) She now has affiliated agents all over the world helping her to perform missions that change the world we live in. She calls them missions, I call them daks. I think there is a great connection here. I think Secret Agent L needs some dakbands. So although we don't have secret agents, we do have dakscouts. And my dakscout is going to send some dakbands to Secret Agent L., and the superheroes of kindness at Missoula Community School.

One thing is becoming clear, as my adrenalin starts to find a normal level, I need to get daks on the twitter bandwagon!!

Stay tuned for updates on our new and improved map, our new dakbands (arriving early next week) and some exciting new projects I'll soon reveal!

So Cool, My Oprah Moment, and "You Can't Buy Happiness"

I'm way behind in my blogging, blame it on the fact that I still do not have any Christmas shopping done - which would make you think that I probably should have been blogging since I wasn't out shopping - but I am spending a good amount of time stressing about it. At any rate, I've got three days worth of stories to share......

So Cool

I was standing in a long line at Starbucks last week (I know that an inordinate number of my blogs begin with that line......it's all free publicity), when I heard a woman sharing with someone else in line that she was spending the entire day running from Christmas concert, to Christmas concert. Three in total, one for each son. She named each son and their concert time. When I heard her mention her second son's name, Kohen, I was shocked. As she walked past to leave, I stopped her. I confessed to overhearing her conversation and explained that I too have a son named Kohen - and it's a name I've never, in 21 years, heard before. She said (and I quote), " Oh I named my son after a former student of mine I had in grade 10. He was such a handsome, smart, cool kid, and I loved his name. Kohen Bauer." I looked at her in disbelief, " Kohen Bauer is my son," I told her. So cool. I gave her some dakbands, and ran out to the car to call Kohen and share the story with him - through my tears! (She spells her son's name: Coen)

My Oprah Moment

I'll confess that one of my dreams is to meet Oprah - I really thought the dakband project might be my ticket, but no luck so far. However, I did have a real life Oprah like moment last week. At the beginning of November I featured a story on our Facebook page about an amazing cheerleading team from Dublin High School in California. Clik on the link and watch the video, it is simply amazing. Well, last week their coach, hosted a Christmas party for all the girls, and surprised them with the dakbands as gifts. I Skyped into the party and was projected onto a big screen in the gymnasium (so Oprah like!) and told the girls how proud I was of them, and explained how to use the bands. Then they all paraded past me and introduced themselves. SO COOL. I even got to meet Rachel (watch the video). I asked her what it was like to be a star, since she has been all over the media since becoming Home Coming Queen. She told me that being a Queen has taken a little getting used to!!

You Can't Buy Happiness

That's what Allen and Violet Large assert. They should know. They recently won 11 million dollars, and gave 98% away to charity. At 78 years of age, and after 36 years of marriage, these two Maritimers, have each other, and their health - at least for the most part (Violet is undergoing cancer treatments). That's all they need. Oh, and maybe a few sets of dakbands that I'm sending them tomorrow. Read about their generosity here.

Teacher Interview

Today we have an interview with Linda Kiefer, a Montessori teacher from Illinois. Although Linda and I have never met face to face, I feel like we know each other very well. We have a 'virtual' friendship kindled by the dakband project but anchored in Linda's complete absence of technical expertise (she contacted me initially to tell me she could not register the bands she had purchased - and she purchased a ton of them!), and my obsessive need to ensure that every band and story is in fact registered! There were a few evenings when I was tempted to jump on a plane and fly down to Illinois to register all the bands myself.

Through all this I have been moved by Linda's perseverance and commitment to the project. Despite the difficulties, she had a vision that was bigger than the problems. Here is what she has to share with us:

Interview Questions:

1. Linda can you tell me a little about yourself: what grade you teach, how long you’ve been a teacher, where you teach, children, interests....
I'm one of those people who's always going to be in school. I have a Master's in Speech and Language Pathology, a year of post-grad work (which would only have made it easier to work grant to grant), worked in California for a few years was a long-term sub at Michigan School for the Blind, and then switched totally to Medicine for about 8 years. I worked as a Surgical Physician's Assistant for many years in Baltimore, MD until after the birth of my second child, when I decided to be a full-time Mom.I still dream of another Master's that marries Montessori with Special Ed. As it stands, I'm Montessori certified for grades 1-6 (with non-readers to those at the 10th grade level, and those doing rudimentary addition all the way to algebra).

As life would have it, times changed and I found myself going back to school and being a single Mom. I had one multiply impaired son, and another with ADD; it was time to see what I could do that used my backgrounds, but kept me close to the boys. Thus I found Montessori, and all it entails, including allowing children to do everything that they're able to do, and encouraging a life of peace and conflict resolution.


2. How did you learn about the dakbands, and what was your initial impression?
In my continuous studying, I came across TRIBES, recalled that one of my sons had been in it quite successfully, and I was off and looking for more information. Last Spring, as I was planning for my class for this year, I came across dakbands and the whole concept of changing the way children see their world by changing how they live it. I was psyched and wanted to start it then, but decided to wait until this fall.

3. Who did you buy the bands for and why?
Initially, I decided to use our class (one of two first to third grade classes), and the newly established Middle School (4 kids), along with all Elementary Staff and the Middle School Teacher. I chose to kick it off with a food drive for the local food pantry, rewarding children who brought something in, with their first pair of dakbands. First I had to explain the difference between "random" acts of kindness and sincerely directed "deliberate" acts of kindness. What I thought was going to be a hard and even impossible task, the children took to as though they always knew it deep down, and simply needed to have it brought to the surface. I'm so proud of them! These children, aged 6-9, knew more about kindness than many adults that I know.

4.Can you tell me why you feel the dakbands are an important tool for kids/families?
No longer do I find the "tattling" or looking for differences, but I find the bands have brought us closer together as a team and as classes (it's spilled over to adults and other Elementary classes!), and made teaching so much more pleasant. Sometimes it's been my roughest gems that have the more tender hearts and are willing to share their bands and tell others what they saw. We meet several times during the day, reviewing the schedules, but also reviewing good times and positive behaviors. I'm so very proud of these young people, carrying forward their new-found ways of Being, which is what it's become.


5. How have the children in your class responded to the bands.
They were taught how to register their bands, and a letter went out to parents explaining the concept, but these children actually couldn't *wait* to hand off their bands when they saw good things happening. They knew that they could follow their bands if they registered them, but excitement overcame all and I was amazed at the things they wanted to recognize in another

6. Is there anything else you’d like to add?
I gave a set to my youngest son this weekend as he helped a grocery store stock boy with some runaway carts, not expecting anything in return, just knowing it was the right thing to do. He stood stock still for a moment, then asked quietly,"These are for *me*?". I smiled and hugged him and said they most certainly were--and they were his to pass on to other people that he saw doing genuine acts of kindness, with nothing expected in return. He stared at me, then excitedly returned an "Oh!", as though a light bulb had just gone off. What a grand sight to see.

That's what keeps me going on tough days; I know that we're making a difference in the way these children see their world now, thanks to a few wristbands and kindness from fellow students. I hope that this goes on all year--I'll buy more if I need to! If we can't change the children, how in the world can we change what we want our future to be?

Thanks for helping to get it moving in all of our classes, Elaine. I really think this is going to create a change in our future.

Talk about touching a life by teaching....


Please remember to share a story for our giveaway.

Please see the story attached to band #38738.