POSITIVE WORLD NEWS

This month in positive world news...

#Trashtag Challenge

This innovative challenge was reportedly created in 2015 by the company UCO Gear as part of a campaign to protect wilderness areas. The challenge has recently resurfaced through social media, directed towards teens, giving a new and more significant meaning the list of challenges that have been circulating. The online challenge encourages people to get up, get out and clean up green spaces and neighborhood areas, and has seen tens of thousands of people doing just that. The Trashtag Challenge encourages people to choose a place that is littered and/or vandalized, work hard to clean up the area, and to post before and after pictures. The challenge not only helps to clean up local public spaces, but it also helps to raise awareness of the amount of litter we produce. We challenge you, Gardenview students, to take on the trashbag challenge! Send us your pics!

#trashtag #trashtagchallenge #trashchallenge.

Youngster Shares the Love!

Written by: Maya Benarroch, Alexia Elias and Max Garish

Amanda Cox, an elementary teacher at Beaumont, Texas, was running low on pencil for her class supply bucket. She asked all of her students to pull out any pencils that they had left in their desks, so that she could collect them and put them together to be shared with those who didn’t have. One student asked her if he could keep his own pencils that his mom had given him for school. Of course, she said yes.

The boy then said, “Actually, I guess I’ll give you some of my special pencils. Then, my classmates can have them, and be inspired too.” The teacher thought nothing of this comment, and took the pencils that he handed to her.

While she was sharpening them, she noticed writing with Sharpie along the sides of the pencils. She then realized that the student’s mother had taken the time to write special sayings on each one of his pencils. They were positive, uplifting and inspiring sayings, sure to bring happiness to anyone who used the pencils. She then understood her student’s comment, and was proud of him for wanting to share such positivity, given to him by his mother. She asked him if he would mind showing her the rest of his inspiring pencils. What she read truly touched her heart, as did his simple act of kindness.

This small act had probably taken his mom a few minutes to do, but it lit up the child’s whole day. He wasn’t embarrassed that his mom wrote on his pencils; he was proud of it! Thanks to his mom, he was always reminded of his self-worth, and to believe in himself. He wanted to share the same feeling with his classmates.

Imagine the look on a child’s face when they are reminded that they are important, talented, loved, knowledgeable, and so much more! The boy and his mom helped others know that someone believed in them, and was proud of them in everything they did. Remember, a simple, kind saying may be the only positive thing someone reads that day. Can you think of a way to brighten someone’s day?