Each Friday, the another jennifer blog shares stories of those who incorporate philanthropy into their everyday lives – personally and professionally – in a creative and unique way. If you have a story you’d like to share, please contact Jennifer. You can view past posts from the series here.
The 100th day of school is right around the corner (assuming the polar vortex doesn’t mess with your school schedule too much). While this post from 2012 is particularly popular right now, I wanted to share a Philanthropy Friday post from last year about how my son’s elementary school is celebrating with 400 acts of kindness. I just got the notice that they are doing the same thing this year. This year, G gets to donate to the organization where we’ve been volunteering.
The school does a lot to get the kids involved with giving back and helping others. I share this post with the hope that it will inspire others to initiate similar projects in their schools. You can never start incorporating philanthropy into a child’s life too early.
The following post was originally published on FEBRUARY 1, 2013.
If you have children in school, you are probably aware of the celebrations and projects that pop up around this time of year to commemorate the 100th day of school.
I still don’t quite get why the 100th day is such a big deal, but it seems like most elementary schools around the country do something. I know this from my Facebook newsfeed and the fact that my 100 School Days Project Ideas post from last year is the most popular on the blog right now.
In the past, G has had to collect 100 items and put them on a poster board and in a bag. This year, there’s a philanthropic twist to his 100th day of school, because they are celebrating the 100th day of school with 400 acts of kindness.
This year, G’s school is challenging its 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders to come up with at least 100 donations for a specific local nonprofit. G and his fellow second graders were assigned the Coastal Humane Society, where we adopted Kona 11 years ago. The third graders are collecting items for the Midcoast Hunger Prevention Program. The fourth graders have Tedford Housing, and the fifth graders are taking care of the Brunswick Teen Center.
The school sent home a flyer describing their goal of collecting 100 items from each class for the designated nonprofits.They have students working on charts to keep track of their donations and show how close they are to their goal. The flyer also listed the items each nonprofit was most in need of to make shopping easy.
G had fun picking out dog toys and treats to bring in to school. In fact, he bugged us from the moment he brought the flyer home about making the trip to the pet store. He was the same way when the school was rallying together to collect food items during the holiday season.
Considering some of the kids at school might benefit directly from these donations, I think it’s a wonderful twist on the usual 100 school days projects. It gets kids giving early and excited to do so.
