Photo of the Week #57: “Pandesal”
“A piece of pandesal (salt bread) a popular breakfast in the Philippines is given by a woman to a beggar.” McLoyd Jumpay
This image was submitted to Our World is Kind Photography Contest.
Photo of the Week #28: “Read and Share”
Photo and Text by Emman Foronda
“These less-fortunate children who live near the Cemetery Angono Rizal, Philippines show their eagerness to learn despite all the challenges in their daily lives.”
This image was submitted to Envision’s 2018 Our World is Kind Photography Contest.
Photo of the Week #25: “Looking For Human Warmth”
Photo and Text by Marianna Smolina
“A boy has met a cat, who so needed love and tenderness. Russia.”
This image was submitted to our 2018 Our World is Kind Photography Contest.
Photo of the Week #21: “Made for Each Other”
Photo and Text by Sudipto Das
“A little girl helps an elderly ill person cross a canal at a remote village in West Bengal, India.”
This image was submitted to our 2017 Our World is Kind Photography Contest.
Photo of the Week #17: “New Life”
Photo by Yuan Peng
“Honey is sweet, but a little baby is even sweeter”
This image was submitted to our 2017 Our World is Kind Photography Contest.
#NiceWork! Post 15 Tuft and Needle is a national mattress company on a mission to spread compassionate comfort. The company is an innovator in both premium mattress production and providing those in need with a great night’s sleep. By donating mattresses and profits to local charities and causes, Tuft and Needle is strengthening communities and engaging customers at the same time.
Valuing transparency and teamwork, Tuft and Needle founders, Daehee Park and JT Marino, have assembled a team of entrepreneurs dedicated to making a positive impact. Melanie LaDue, a member of the Tuft and Needle team, told Envision that Tuft and Needle, “has been intentional in making social mission and the community the heartbeat of our company.” In order to engage customers and donate mattresses, Tuft and Needle has pioneered a unique return policy. If a customer chooses to return a mattress, the mattress isn’t returned to headquarters. Instead, the company works with individual customers in order to donate the mattress to local charities and nonprofit organizations such as St. Vincent de Paul Society in Phoenix, AZ. Of course, Tuft and Needle still redeems the customer for the cost of the mattress.
In addition to return donations, Tufts and Needle supports communities by partnering with a variety of nonprofits and charitable organizations such as, UMOM, Chrysalis, Ronald McDonald House Phoenix Charities, firehouses, and schools nationwide. Through Tuft and Needle Gives Back program, partner schools are able to absorb 25% of profits from mattresses ordered by anyone affiliated with the school, from parents to teachers. Recently, Tuft and Needle even made a large-scale donation to help Hurricane Harvey relief efforts in Houston.
The social mission of Tuft and Needle is embedded within all of the staff acting from the belief that, “values aren’t what you want to be, it’s who you are…we’re going to take the spirit of [Tuft and Needle] and find more problems worth fixing…we’re just getting started,” founders Daehee Park and JT Marino say in their “Our Story” video on the Tuft and Needle’s website.
If you are in need of a better night’s sleep, check out Tuft and Needle’s mattresses: https://www.tuftandneedle.com/. Think of innovative ways to spread kindness and continue to positively impact your community!
#NiceWork! Woven into the fabric of Yosemite National Park’s western border is Evergreen Lodge, a social enterprise whose residence welcomes travelers from all walks of life and offers the greatest form of hospitality: compassion.
Throughout your stay at Evergreen you will be greeted by young men and women, ages 18 to 24, who have been given the opportunity to realize their full potential through Evergreen’s Youth Program. The Youth Program at Evergreen welcomes at-risk young people in the Bay Area to act as interns of the program, assisting with housekeeping, maintenance, kitchen utility, and customer service throughout the resort. Co-owners, Brian Anderluh, Dan Braun, and Lee Zimmerman have developed a business model that aims to have a long-term positive impact on at risk youth. Interns are “setup to be on the path of their next step, that could be either college admissions, getting a full-time job, living on their own, or just being independent,” said Assistant Intern Program Manager Crystal Macias in their Youth Employment and Personal Growth Video.
Alma Escalante, who lived in a youth shelter before her internship, describes the program in Fortune Small Business as a “lifesaver” that has given her the opportunity to save money for college. The management team is anchored in Evergreen’s belief in self-realization through a kind community. “We have been able to attract fantastic staff whose priorities are aligned with ours and who have the kind of compassionate personality that is a good fit for our industry,” says co-owner Zimmerman.
There are four components to Evergreen’s approach to youth development:
1) Gaining real work experience at the lodge through employment,
2) Expanding the possibilities of life by participating in Yosemite outdoor recreation,
3) Individualized one-on-one assistance to help interns conquer obstacles hindering them from achieving their goals, and
4) The opportunity to live in a healthy a supportive community.
Unlike other Youth Programs, Evergreen lodge emphasizes the importance of comprehendible action steps. Youth participating in the program leave the high paced urban setting and slow down to self-reflect and develop. The goal is to walk them through the steps of being a good employee. Joe Juszkiewicz, Evergreen’s General Manager, says the program shows interns how to show up to work on time, present themselves, interact with others, and deal with conflict on the job.
If you would like to spend your next compassionate camping trip at Yosemite National Park learn more about Evergreen Lodge on their website: http://www.evergreenlodge.com. Each of us is on a journey to realize our full potential. Use your passion to inspire others and embrace your capacity to make a positive impact.
In this video, Anne Marie Gefell, an adult burn survivor, recaps what it was like going through the physical and mental trauma of a burn injury without a support system. Now Anne Marie is the director of youth services with the Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association which puts on a yearly summer camp, called Camp Courage, for young burn survivors. Anne Marie’s kindness and dedication to these young survivors makes it so that they will have a support group throughout their recovery and for the rest of their lives.
Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association is a non-profit organization whose mission is to insure that anyone affected by a burn-related injury receives the resources for their road to recovery. They also seek to raise fire and burn prevention awareness. occasionally beyond, regardless of social or economic status.
This film, by Jessica Plance, a student at RIT shows us how Camp Courage can transform not only children impacted by burns, but adults that experienced a burn-related injury earlier in life.
Gefell states, “You have to deal with trauma, or trauma will deal with you.”
For more information on Camp Courage, or to learn more about the impact burn-related injuries can have on a person, visit Finger Lakes Regional Burn Association or the American Burn Association.
Catholic Charities of West Tennessee teamed up with Bishop Martin Holley for their event, Gifts for God’s Children”. Catholic Charities is right on the front lines helping the needy in one of the poorest big cities in our country – Memphis.
For many families the holiday season presents even more of a struggle for families to provide food, gifts, and the very basics of living to their children and family members. Gifts for God’s Children is a wonderful example of how local organizations are coming together to support families who are in need of assistance this holiday season. Bishop Martin Holley and Catholic Charities of West Tennessee gave to those in need by providing toys and food to needy children and families outside Catholic Charities in Memphis.
Memphis is one of the poorest big cities in our nation and Catholic Charities is right on the front lines helping the needy. Families sign up for food and toys prior to the event and drive up and they are given a box of food, including a turkey, and the toys for the age children they requested. Many children are also given the chance to take a photo with Santa for the first time ever.
Bishop Holley, shown wearing black ear muffs, was once one of many children who grew up in a very poor home.
Photojournalist Karen Pulfer Focht remembers Bishop Holley telling a crowd that he could remember waking up on Christmas and knowing that “other people”, strangers as a matter of fact, gave his family toys for Christmas. Even as a little boy, he understood how special this was.
The beauty behind this wonderful gesture does not go unnoticed. There are too many children who wake up on Christmas day without gifts from Santa. If you or anyone you know finds it hard to give a gift during the holiday season, there are many organizations which can make child and/or family’s wish come true.
For more information on similar programs that help others give gifts during the holiday season can be found at Toys for Tots or Compassion International. You can also look for local organizations or churches in your own neighborhood.