"Kindness 101": Children send thank you notes to their heroes
Catskill, New York — It wasn't exactly the most polished production. This week, with the help of my God-given teaching assistants, I taught an online class, "Kindness 101", from my office.
But despite the low budget, we had high turnout. Tens of thousands of kids from across the country tuned in.
One thing we talked about was heroism and how heroes today are wearing all different kinds of uniforms. Their assignment for the week was to pick one of these new heroes and thank them in any way they could.
Some kids went straight to the phone to thank the pharmacists and the fire chiefs and the nurses tending to grandparents in memory care. Others used sidewalk chalk to thank their mail carriers, FedEx and UPS drivers.
While kids of all ages broke out markers and crayons to write thank you notes to the people they now look up to most.
"I was thinking, well, who should I give it to? – because there are so many heroes that are here today. I decided on the truck driver," said Tyler Carr, 9.
Tyler taped his note to a loading dock at a Kroger in Arlington, Texas. It read, in part, "I appreciate that you are still going out and driving your truck because all of us are sitting on our butts watching TV and eating Cheetos."
Bailey Kilman of Cooper City, Florida, chose to thank her sanitation worker. She wrote, "You help so many people so their garbage doesn't pile up and smell bad." Then, using good social distancing, she handed her note to Remy Felizor.
"Oh, man, she made my day. I was emotional," Remy said.
Remy said he's not used to people thanking him for his service. "I can't even think about that moment."
It was all A-plus work, which is why my thank you goes to all the students who graduated "Kindness 101."