SJM: Change happens one person (or many) at a time

I volunteer at my daughter’s school. Sometimes when I’m sharpening pencils or making sock puppets, I wonder if this is really how I’m meant to change the world. Then I picture the mayhem of 30+ Kindergarteners trying to sharpen their pencils at once, and my work feels purposeful, meaningful. Call it the butterfly effect.

Last week, I volunteered on a special day for the whole school. Staff, students and parents said goodbye to their much-adored principal, who’s going to a new school to give it a good start.

The staff used this opportunity to unveil how much money the kids and teachers had collected for a Haiti fundraiser. Remember that dollar for a chore thing? My daughter offered to mop the kitchen floor for a dollar, so she could donate it to the Red Cross. All the kids in her school planned to do chores for cash, and they hoped to raise a few hundred dollars.

They raised more than $1,100. And they donated it in their beloved principal’s name.

The emotional assembly – where the staff revealed the total and said goodbye to someone who’s made a huge impact on so many people – taught me two things. And I hope my daughter absorbed these lessons too.

First: the power of one.

Each student contributed to a video about the principal, and it played at the assembly. His popularity comes from his drive to bring technology to the classroom, connect with every student, and foster a love for learning. When he addressed the students with tears in his eyes, I was overwhelmed by the thought of how many lives he’d touched. Real change often begins with one person’s idea, his or her desire to make the world a better place.

Second: the power of many.

My daughter’s loonie – the one she clutched in her fist and handed to her teacher to pass on to relief efforts in Haiti – was only one of many more. And that’s how you make profound change. Working together is the only way to truly make the world a better place.  

My girl is learning some pretty powerful stuff in Kindergarten.