Kindness Champion

Orion Jean, 13, has one goal in life: to spread kindness and encourage other people to be kind too. At age nine, he won a competition to write a speech about kindness. He used the prize money to donate toys to a children’s hospital. Then went on to fundraise for 100,000 meals for the hungry and 500,000 books for children. Now he wants people to to perform a million acts of kindness.

The young Texan found his vocation when his teacher suggested he enter the speech contest organised by the charity Think Kindness. This is Orion’s winning speech from 2020, in the middle of the COVID pandemic.

When his heartfelt speech won the competition, he was inspired to use his $500 prize money to provide toys for his local children’s hospital. But Orion didn’t just send a cheque. He researched popular but budget-priced toys, put a wishlist on a website and put donation boxes at his school and local community centre. And was able to donate more than 600 toys.

That spurred him on to a new challenge: the Race to 100,000 Meals. He and his helpers managed to provide food to families that were struggling financially during the pandemic. Then he launched a challenge to donate 500,000 books to families who don’t have good access to them.

Time Magazine named him 2021 Kid of the Year in recognition of his actions. Accepting the award, he was anxious to thank all the people who helped him, “I did not do this by myself, it took a whole team behind me: my parents, my family, all of the generous corporate donors and organizations that we partnered with and strangers that I’ve never even met. They are all donating because they feel compelled to help those in their community.”

Do Something Kind Today
Orion’s latest campaign is to encourage people all over the world to carry out small acts of kindness building up to 1 million acts. They don’t have to be expensive, difficult or time consuming. The website suggests:

“Did you tell someone you are grateful for them? Help someone cross the street? Volunteer your time for a non-profit? Start a donation drive to help others in your community? Send a nice note to someone? Smile at a stranger?”

Orion believes that each small act participates in a ripple effect, inspiring more and more kindness. As he concluded in this speech to the Rotary Club, “Start with everyday personal interactions and while that person may not witness the end result they will have contributed to the kindness ripple effect changing the world as we know it. And that's the power of kindness.”