Watertown Boy Who Survived Cancer Creates Day Of Kindness
WATERTOWN (CBS) - Shining the light of kindness on a dark anniversary. That's the goal of a six year old from Watertown. On November 3, three years ago, Gabriel was diagnosed with cancer, but today his hope and enthusiasm have spread around the world.
"Today is Gabriel's Day of Kindness," says 1st grader Gabriel Aljalian. He's healthy and happy now but that wasn't the case in 2012. "Leukemia," he says. He endured two and a half years of sometimes painful treatments. "Today, I'm perfect," he says.
To change this anniversary date of his diagnosis into something good, he invented Gabriel's' Day of Kindness. "It means people have to do good stuff," Gabriel says. Gabriel and his family and friends are taking gifts to kids at Children's Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Center, and they've used social media to ask others to do join in. "There's acts of kindness in every state in the United States and so many countries around the world, and we're just overwhelmed," says Natasha Aljalian, Gabriel's mother.
One group of family friends made care bags for homeless people and gave them out in Harvard Square Tuesday. "They contain gift cards and socks and warm items and food," says Maria Derderian, one of the people helping out. One of the people they met was so touched that after she received her package she took an old envelope and wrote Gabriel a thank you note. "I said that I hope he recovers and thank you for caring. And I said you have an angel's name," the homeless woman told us.
"Today we're just counting our blessings and we really want to share that with the world," Gabriel's mom says. And for Gabriel, this is just the start. "It's always nice just to do happy things," he says.
To find out what people are doing or what you can do: www.facebook.com/gabrielsdayofkindness
