Kindness is free and you should give it out as often as you can. That’s the mantra of a North Texas 9-year-old who is inspired to do something really good for kids in the hospital.
A nine-year-old, North Texas fifth grader is on a mission to spread kindness.
When Orion Jean is not working hard at school in the Eagle Mountain Saginaw ISD (virtually for now), he is spending his free time on other people.
“You can go out and do something kind for somebody today for free,” Jean said. “It doesn’t cost any money and it’s probably going to make someone’s life a whole lot easier and a whole lot better. Why not go and do it right now?”
Jean is doing that with his Race to Kindness campaign. On Sept. 13, Jean donated more than 600 toys to Children’s Health in Dallas. He said it was made possible through a team effort and a grand prize he won for once again, being kind.
"A couple of months ago, my parents entered me into a national kindness speech contest hosted by Mr. Brian Williams, the founder of Think Kindness. I just entered it thinking, nothing is going to come of it. I'm just going to enter it just because and it turns out that I made it into the top 20," Jean said.
His journey to a win for not just himself, but also for his community, was just getting started.
"I was paired with a speech coach and he would help me improve my speech and that speech was good enough and I won. People all over America helped vote. Everybody saw this message and voted for me,” Jean said. "I was gifted with a cash prize to do my very own kindness project and I decided that there are so many people around the world who could be helped by this project so I decided to start a series of events called the Race to Kindness."
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His winnings bought a lot of the toys and then he received other donations to come up with 619 toys for children in the hospital.
He said his Race to Kindness campaign is far from over. You can follow his journey through his website and social media to see what he does next.
His message to anyone who will listen?
“A little act of kindness and a little seed can go a long way,” Jean said.
