Today President-elect Obama is calling for a national day of service, and I would like to request that you join us in a project that is very near and dear to my heart “I Spot Compassion.” I Spot is a campaign being developed for a terrific non-profit, Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition. CHPCC is honoring their children by seeding compassion. They believe that by identifying acts of compassion we begin to imprint and seed more in others, and by using the tools social media now provides us, we can all begin to remind each other to create a more compassionate society.
You’re probably hearing about things like Twitter, Facebook and Flickr in the mainstream media. I don’t know how many of you are using it, but social media is growing exponentially, and it’s a tool we can use to encourage compassion.
Last week my friend Iris tweeted (for those of you who aren’t familiar, that’s Twitter-speak for wrote) “slickiris Intends to make at least one random act of kindness today” I happened to see her statement and it reminded me to do an act of kindness myself that day, which I did. I really believe that’s all it takes, a gentle reminder, so that’s what I’m doing here. Reminding you to do an act of compassion, and today, when you do it I want you to think about a boy named Nick Snow who testified in Washington and Sacramento, even though he was gravely ill, to get legislation passed to help families of children dealing with life-threatening illnesses. You can read Nick’s touching story on the CHPCC website.
And finally, I also encourage you to go to iSpotcompassion and donate a 5spot to CHPCC in Nick’s honor. That’s all we’re asking (although, of course, giving more is just fine too!). Remember how Obama raised so much money asking for a little from a lot of us? It adds up quick when a lot of us donate. And there’s no finer organization then Children’s Hospice and Palliative Care Coalition, I’ve witnessed firsthand how effective this organization is.
Whatever you do, think about compassion: spot it, do it, live it. We can change the world with our little acts of kindness and compassion.