10 Year Old On a Mission to Spread Kindness To the World

Orion Jean, a 10 year old from Texas has his sights set on spreading kindness to the world. This idea was created last year when his elementary school teacher suggested that he enter the National Kindness Speech Contest. He entered with no expectation of winning, yet to his surprise, he did! His speech on how kindness could change a nation ended up winning him $500!

He quickly realized he wasn’t going to use all of that money. “I’m a kid,” Orion says, “I have everything that I could ever want. But there are people who don’t.”

Knowing that he wasn't going to spend all that money, he thought of ways in which he could use that money to make a change. This resulted in him coming up with the "Race to Kindness Campaign". Orion describes Race to Kindness as “just an idea where I hoped that I would be able to spread kindness and people would be able to join the race by spreading kindness in their own communities.”

His first target was children in hospitals who could not see their parents frequently due to Covid restrictions. “What better way to take a child’s mind off of something than (with) a toy?” Orion says, adding that he hoped it would “put a smile on someone’s face.” Orion took his winnings from the speech to buy as many toys as he could so that he could give them to these children. He ended up collecting 600 toys that were then donated to the Children's Health Hospital in Dallas in 2020.

The success that he achieved with the toys motivated him to go even farther. He then launched an ambitious "Race to 100,000 Meals" which focused on food-insecure people in his community for Thanksgiving in 2020. This was such a successful campaign because they surpassed their goal of 100,000 meals!

To continue on with the success that he had, Orion then launched another campaign called "Race to 500,000 Books". This was tailored towards families who couldn't afford books. Since Orion is a huge reader, this really hit home for him as he understands the importance of kids developing good reading habits.

While Orion no doubt continues to dream up new ways to help others, he hopes that all of these acts of kindness inspire people to do the same. “It doesn't have to be about toys or food or books as long as someone is being helped,” Orion says. “And as long as you're being kind to someone, that counts as a part of the Race to Kindness.”

Through all of the planning and organizing of these campaigns, Orion still found the time to write a book called, A Kid's Book about Leadership, that is expected to be released in the fall. If you are inspired by Orion's desire to help, keep an eye out for his book!

Full Article Here: 10-year-old who helped donate 100,000 meals is on a mission to spread kindness: 'We are all capable of being kind people' yahoo.com