Proving the butterfly effect with a single act of kindness
A man with ALS gave two girls $50 each and told them to do something kind; the result ended up halfway around the world
Steve Hartman has been a CBS News correspondent since 1996. Hartman shares moving stories about the extraordinary people he meets in his weekly feature segment "On the Road," which airs Fridays on the "CBS Evening News" and repeats on "CBS News Sunday Morning." "On the Road" is modeled after the long-running series of the same name originally reported by America's greatest TV storyteller, the late Charles Kuralt.
Hartman's stories are also used in thousands of classrooms around the world to teach kindness and character. In addition, with the help of his own children, Meryl and Emmett, Hartman and family host "Kindness 101." These segments air on "CBS Mornings."
In 2020, Hartman cofounded "Taps Across America" - which has become a Memorial Day tradition. Every year at 3 p. m., thousands of buglers and trumpet players stand on their porches and patios to play taps in commemoration of the holiday. Hartman was inspired by a story he did in 2013 on a man who played taps every night on his balcony.
Hartman has won dozens of prestigious broadcast journalism awards for his work. He has received an Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award, four national Emmy awards and 14 RTNDA/Edward R. Murrow awards, including a record 12 citations for best writing.
Previously Hartman was a columnist for "60 Minutes Wednesday" and correspondent for two primetime CBS News magazines, "Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel" (1997-98) and "Coast to Coast" (1996-97). Before that he was a feature reporter at KCBS-TV, the CBS owned station in Los Angeles (1994-98), WABC-TV in New York (1991-94) and KSTP-TV in Minneapolis (1987-91). He began his career in broadcast journalism at WTOL-TV in Toledo, Ohio as a news intern and general assignment reporter (1984-87).
Hartman was graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1985 with a degree in broadcast journalism. He is married with three children and lives in Catskill, New York.
A man with ALS gave two girls $50 each and told them to do something kind; the result ended up halfway around the world
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