Oh, what a life and force. How is it that someone I’ve never met feels like a sister-mother-auntie-friend who helped raised me? Growing up on welfare in South Sacramento, I tuned in at 4 p.m. every Monday through Friday like a ritual to watch “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” hoping to learn life lessons and peek into the lives of people I didn’t know existed — as though it was a window to my best and highest self.

Oprah’s gift of lifting people and her impeccable communication skills were mesmerizing. I couldn’t decipher whether she was reading the prompter or going off the cuff — it felt like she was speaking directly to you.

I watched every episode, enamored by her ability to relate soul-to-soul, no matter whom she was speaking with — be it Beyoncé, George W. Bush or a bra whisperer.

Speaking of, why would a Chinese-American tween boy watch a show about a bra whisperer? (I have never wanted to wear a brassiere — nothing wrong if you’re a boy reading this and desire to wear one.) Oprah could connect the dots between you and me and a once-struggling entrepreneur who became the billionaire of spanks, while sharing the wisdom of how to choose the right bra, no matter how big or small your “girls” are.

Whatever the show topic, the queen of talk was able to lift my spirits and shift my perspective on the challenges I was going through.

There is a truth and vulnerability that shines through her own jagged story that has resonated with me and millions of viewers around the world. As an ode to Oprah on her special day today, I revisited a blog I wrote a couple of years ago.

In the post, I recounted Oprah’s awe-inspiring speech during the 2018 Golden Globes after receiving the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. I still get goose bumps listening to her words and energy, full force, calling for a “new day on the horizon,” and inspiring us all to speak our truth, which she preached “is our most powerful tool.”

There hasn’t been a speech that moved me like that until Amanda Gorman spoke at the 2021 Inauguration last week.

Oprah has inspired me to fully live and be my truth, which, to be real, is still a work in progress. I’m not completely sure of all the ways in which she’s impacted and illuminated my life, but I know she has helped me and many other brothers, sisters, moms, dads, cousins and grandparents be more aware of the biggest gift of life, which is giving the gift of yourself. I’ve learned that sharing your natural gifts is truly our most powerful tool.

I also took a look back at another post I wrote about how Oprah helped me and other high school and college graduates design a life that is true to all of us.

How has Oprah inspired your best self? I want to know. Tag me @toanlamtv and @Oprah while you’re at it.

Happy birthday and cheers to many more years of talking my fellow Mama, Auntie, Sister, Friend and Aquarius!

The post Celebrating the Inspiring Gift of Oprah on Her Birthday appeared first on ToanLamTV.com.

Social media went bananas over the rising 22-year-old wordsmith (after her speech, I immediately followed her on Instagram @amandascgorman, which has skyrocketed from one million to 2.7 million followers). My beloved circle of friends and family couldn’t stop chattering about how eloquent, captivating, inspiring and impressed they were with her 2021 Presidential Inauguration speech, “The Hill We Climb.”

There are too many reasons to list why the world fell in love with her words and her story. Here are some thoughts as I had tea and did a little writing and reflecting in my reading nook today:

Amanda, thanks for your courage and vulnerability to share a piece of your heart, soul and wisdom with us.

I believe the citizens of the world and I echo the same sentiments as Oprah (an Amanda supporter who gifted her the earrings she wore at the inauguration and caged bird ring — an ode to the late poet Maya Angelou):

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Oprah (@oprah)

Meanwhile, your future looks bright as you are the one illuminating it! I can’t wait to see where you’re going next.

The post Why the World Fell in Love with Rising Star Amanda Gorman appeared first on ToanLamTV.com.

Dear Jon and Kevin,

I am so utterly shocked and disappointed… that it has taken this long for groundbreaking movie like this to make it to the big screen.

The day has come!

Today, Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2018, is a momentous and emotional day for me because “Crazy Rich Asians” opens nationally. I woke up at 4 a.m. and had to write this.

Jon Chu, you, as the film’s director and Kevin Kwan, as the story writer, must be so proud of the film’s pre-open buzz as a “watershed moment.”

Freaking finally there are Asian faces on the big screen conveying universal themes. Has it really been 25 years since the last all-Asian cast in a Hollywood studio movie, “The Joy Luck Club?”

Prior to attending a pre-release screening last week, I worried this rom-com would be campy, fluffy and silly. I prayed to baby Jesus that this would be good. If it sucked, I would never get back my two hours and one minute. To my delight, I was flooded with a wealth of emotions. This film’s story transcends race, culture and “all things” Asian and I want to share what this film means for me.

I LOL’d in a packed theater surrounded by friends, shed a tear and empathized with all the characters AND I saw myself, image, likeness and “craziness” on the big screen as many parts of me played out through the story.

The heart of CRA is about family, love, self-worth and joy. It’s about being seen, heard and felt. Ultimately, it is about following your truth — personally and professionally — even (and especially) when the going gets tough.

I saw myself in Rachel Chu, who faced Nick Young’s mom believing “she was not enough” of a match for her son, the heir to the family fortune.

I saw myself in Peik Lin Goh, whose complex urban character embraced her unabashed inner badass.

I saw myself in Astrid Teo, who dimmed her own light in the name of love.

I even saw myself in Eleanor Young, Nick’s mother, who was scarred by her past and faced disapproval because of the social class into which she was born.

I could go on about how much the fabulous gay, fashion-loving cousin, Oliver T’sien, resonated with me. Okurrr.

I believe that the soul of all of us, as human beings, is that we want to be seen, heard and felt. We want to know that we matter — Asian or not.

With the release of CRA, it’s about damn m*****f****** time that Asians of all types have the opportunity to play complicated roles that lift, shift, gift and reflect the richness of our culture, be it Asian American, Asian Australian, Asian Malaysian… or “CRAYsian” (that’s all of us).

To me, this is about representation, about telling our stories and giving our future a beacon of hope. Why is representation important? As a poor, immigrant Chinese kid from Vietnam, I never thought my story mattered. I didn’t think my penchant for reading everything from children’s books to shampoo bottles in the shower — “rinse, lather, repeat, methylparaben” — could amount to richness in my personal, professional or spiritual life, much less my bank account. It wasn’t until I joined the Asian American Journalists Association and won scholarships that I felt I could chase my dreams of being a TV reporter and TV show host. When Forbes wrote not one, but two articles about my passion projects and immigrant story, I felt validated.

Until this momentous CRA film release, Hollywood has limited our on-screen identities. For females it’s been as the China doll, tiger mom or dragon lady. For men the big screen stereotypes have been emasculating and insulting. (Thanks, Kevin, for writing in all the shirtless, buff, half-naked scenes.) We either don’t exist, have been portrayed by non-Asian actors and/or as stereotyped characters including kung fu fighters, the cringe-worthy exchange student Long Duk Dong or bucktoothed Mickey Rooney character Mr. Yunioshi in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

We each have a unique identity and one of the many beauties of CRA is that even with the ground-breaking all-Asian cast, the film’s story highlights the various cultural differences even within the same Asian ethnicity.

I’m a Vietnamese immigrant born to Chinese parents who worked their asses off to gain financial wealth in the construction industry. We emigrated from Vietnam after the fall of Saigon to South Sacramento, Calif. a.k.a. SOUTH SAC! My “crazy” parents gave up everything, including financial stability, to give us a true chance at freedom and the American dream of creating better lives in the U.S.

Their hope for me and my four siblings was for us to experience freedom, education and greater life possibilities. As “boat people,” we stayed at a refugee camp in Indonesia for two years so our paperwork could be processed. My family arrived in the U.S. with four dollars in our pockets. We couldn’t speak a word of English. The 10 of us called a trailer in a “ghetto” trailer park in Sacramento our first home.

My family in front of the California State Capitol in Sacramento. I’m wearing the “12.”

With our parents’ sacrifices and challenging voyage came a lot of expectations. The weight of filial piety and my wanting to make my family proud is real, y’all. I struggled with whether that meant I should follow my mother’s dream for us to become a “docta, lawya, engineea.”

However, I came to the realization that my American dream isn’t my parents’ American dream. I discovered I had to make ME proud before I could ultimately authentically make them proud.

Following my passion of communicating and inspiring people to be better for themselves and for others is what brings me joy. It’s been a struggle to “keep it real” with myself and my parents. Mom still doesn’t know that one of my stories about a kindergartner in San Francisco led to more than 200,000 meals for the hungry because of her efforts, or that another of my stories about an LGBT psychiatrist has helped thwart teenage suicides and inspire humans of all ages to celebrate their truth.

Mom still asks, “How do you make money? You have job yet?”

Don’t get me wrong, I tried to follow the path my parents wanted for me. I took honors chemistry in high school, only to nearly fail (thank God I have good communication skills and talked my way into passing the class with a C-). I pretended to love the bitter melon soup my Mom made and forced us to eat. I even tried to date girls. #FAIL

Following your dreams is hard, especially because we, whether we admit it or not, really want to make our parents proud. We hide our gifts and talents and that “thing” that excites us to follow more traditional paths or marrying an Asian girl or boy because marrying any other race would mean disgracing our families.

I’m 40-years-old, I’ve suffered from many years of staying in the box, in the closet and being insecure in hopes of making my parents happy. While I know not all stories come with a Hollywood ending, there is a sense of freedom and joy that comes with spreading your wings.

Even with the possible “consequences,” I’m proud of the fact that I followed my compass, my truth and became a TV reporter in a Top 10 market, co-hosted a show on PBS (I really wanted to run scripts to LeVar Burton, the only non-Caucasian TV show host I saw growing up) and taught at the university level (at that time nobody in my family had a college degree).

Somebody recently asked me, “Are your parents proud?” I explained my Dad died of cancer 18 years ago, and when I left my dream job as a TV reporter to take care of him (Dad was diagnosed while I was at my first TV market in Wausau, Wisc.), the first thing he asked when he saw me was, “When will you be a docta?” I was devastated.

Interestingly, as I have followed my truth and through my work to inspire people to discover and live their truth, I proudly have an answer for my Dad. I have become a doctor — a soul doctor.

As for my Mom, she still doesn’t know what the internet is and recently wondered, “Email, how the word get on computa?” She still annoys me with questions about how to use her flip phone, but she is happy I am happy — which is why we risked our lives for the American dream.

My hope is that CRA will illuminate multi-generational Asians and non-Asians, gays and non-gays, the rich and the poor and the underrepresented to follow your truth. Or as Awkwafina, who plays Peik Lin Goh, shared in the latest issue of ModCloth, “Advice to my younger self: ‘It’s gonna be OK and you may feel like you’re super weird right now, but later it’ll pay off… whatever dreams or boundaries you set upon yourself — real life can be so much bigger than that.”

Can we get a #WednesdayWisdom shout out up in hea for that?

Chase your dreams. Love on your parents and family who don’t understand and support you. Love on you.

Bravo to you, Jon and Kevin, and your CRA colleagues for validating Hollywood performances. Yes, the film is more than a story — it’s a message for all of us.

Call me mushy, loony or long-winded — I am thankful and grateful for all of the trailblazers who skillfully, persistently brought “our” story, “Crazy Rich Asians” to the big screen.

Only you know your truth and there is your power. If you follow that, it leads to spiritual freedom and joy. Joy is spiritual wealth.

Thank you for giving me and all the younger generations hope for being part of moving the needle. I’ve already started to dig up some old projects that I thought would never again see the light of day. To the younger generation: “You do you, boo. Your future looks bright, as you are the one illuminating it.”

谢谢 (xiexie), 多谢 (duo xie) and thank you,
Toan

P.S. I’ve been encouraging everyone — friends, family, gym rat friends, the Lyft driver and barista — to watch this film. I’m taking my boo out on a date to watch this and buying a ticket to support the numbers. I know Asians have spending power — our dollars created the Sriracha and Litchi Jelly dynasties. Now, let’s blow out the box office records!

P.P.S. I hope your Asian parents come around if they got mad at you for not taking the million dollar billz for the unknown and deciding to take this baby to the box office.

P.P.P.S. While I am a “Crazy Not-Rich Asian” and hope for the film’s success, I have no financial connection, unless Jon Chu or Kevin Kwan both decide differently (wink, wink).

#notsponsored #notanadvertisement

The post The ‘Crazy, Rich’ Truth About Following Your Dream appeared first on ToanLamTV.com.

I would say, “Don’t worry child. Worry is waste. Make yourself useful and serve others and your heart’s desire. Your story will lead you to the highest, truest, best self.”

When doing motivational speaking, I always tell my audiences, my students, mentees and all the youth in my life: “Don’t worry.” But I’m human. While I’ve become a lot better at not worrying, I sometimes stray. When it happens now, instead of beating myself up for it, I acknowledge it and say bye-bye. Then, like the sunset, it vanishes into darkness. Before I know it, the sun, which beckons hope in my spirit, moves me on to the next moment.

I’ll admit, I’ve been acting too much like a grown-up lately. Darn it. Why is it when we were kids, we were so in the flow? We were more open, accepting and loving. Then as we grew older, we thought we needed to have more <insert title, job, money, etc.>, be more and compete with others? As if there isn’t enough in the world to share with everybody?

I’d be remiss not to acknowledge there is a lot of darkness and worry swirling around after this crazy presidential race. I let worry about the outcome get the best of me and couldn’t sleep well when the election results were announced. I also let my growing to-do list and thoughts about the things and circumstances that would make me happier stir up feelings of anxiety.

I needed a reality check.

I always tell people, “Be careful what you think — your thoughts become your words. Be careful what you say, because it becomes your reality.” To combat the negative emotions, I’ve been telling myself I need to wind down, let go and be a kid again. You know, do the things I love more like sing, dance (in public), be in nature, spend time with loved ones and experience the world through kids’ eyes.

As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Just this week, like clockwork, these little ones are showing me the way:

1. The first is a twofer: My nephew Drew and his dog Riley saying, “I love you.” #ADORABLE much? No matter what language you speak, this is sure to lift your spirits — LOVE!

2. I spent the morning with my best friend Keely celebrating our nephew Avery’s 8th birthday by dancing in the street, singing Lion King songs and laughing out loud a lot, especially as we asked Siri, “Do fish fart?” (In case you’re wondering, apparently, they do!) Here’s a peek at our morning dance to celebrate life:

3. My goddaughter Caris is never afraid of dancing like nobody is watching, even at a Safeway bakery. Work those hips, baby boo.

Some of my favorite beings to be around are children, elders and animals. They seem closer to the spirit world — so pure, innocent, joyful. As a result, my main resolution in 2017 is to spend more time with these beings who remind me just to be… and of course, to dance, sing randomly and let my inner child out to play more.

Leave it to kids to bring out the kid inside me and remind me, DON’T WORRY. It’s going to be OK.

::Engage::
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Onward,
Toan

The post Life Lessons We Should All Learn from Kids appeared first on ToanLamTV.com.

This Shot of Inspiration is dedicated to everyone who is ready to march to the beat of their own drum.

Dr. Ron Holt is an out and proud gay psychiatrist in San Francisco, but it wasn’t always that way.

He said his dad tormented and bullied Ron for being gay. However, he knew this adversity would someday become an asset for others from which to learn and grow.

As a doctor, Ron did a literature review on the biology of sexuality and now takes this research with him on the road, talking about how it’s OK to be authentically who you are. This message is inspiring compassion, love and acceptance to tens of thousands of youth across America.

Grown men and women have reached out to Ron after hearing him speak to let him know they were inspired to come out to their husbands, wives and kids.

One young woman at Wayne Student College wrote to Ron:

“I’m not always the best with spoken words so I figured I’d try written. I’m so grateful that I was forced to go to your talk four autumns ago. I went reluctantly only for the grade. I sat there in fear because I knew I’d have to face myself. I really look at that day as the day I started living. I had spent most of the time before that day trying to destroy myself. For the first time I realized I was OK and that I didn’t need to be numb.

“Even though I know a lot of the things you said during your sessions this week, it felt so weird not being there. I spent some time thinking of all the people you were getting the facts out to. I know that most people get something meaningful out of your talks and that lasts a lifetime. I wish everyone was lucky enough to hear you speak because I know it saves people. I know from reading comments on your website and from personal experience. I wish I could pay you back somehow. I hope you know how much you mean to WSC, LGBT people, audiences, and I.”

This is just one of the many people who were inspired by Ron’s message and discovered their own truth and OWNED it.

After Ron and I posted a YouTube video about his community service for the LGBT community, he received the following email an hour after its release:

“Good evening. I am a young gay male (17). I have not been at any of your conferences, but I did see your video on YouTube and would like to personally thank you! I wish someone like you came and told me that being gay is okay a lot sooner than I found out. I told my mother I was gay at 15 and I have been living alone since then, working full time, all because I was gay. Something so small can really change the way people view you! So thank you very much for helping and educating others on this problem of gay hate. I really do appreciate it!”

It may sound selfish, but when you give, you get so much back. The riches come in the experience and discovery of your passion and purpose.

When you have the courage to tell others your truth, it may be hard at first, but it is freeing in so many ways. When you are your authentic self, the people who really always loved you will still love you.

Ron has given more than 200 talks and has reached more than 10,000 people across the country.

Big love to Ron as he continues to spread compassion, authenticity and love!

How can you use your power to join Ron to build, as he says, “A safer and more embracing place for people of all sexual orientations and gender identities?”

Take Action:
1. Learn more about Ron’s work and use your power to help:
http://audacityofpride.com/about/

2. Send him an email at DrHolt@audacityofpride.com to be placed on his email list for links to free videos and free copies of his electronic books coming out over the coming months.

3. Follow him on twitter at @DrRonHolt to retweet his positive messages for LGBT youth.

4. Reach out to friends and family who may be struggling to let them know you love them as they are.

::Engage::
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Onward,
Toan

The post One Doctor’s Audacious Message of Compassion, Love and Authenticity appeared first on ToanLamTV.com.

But what if you don’t know what your passion is?

This Shot of Inspiration goes out to all of you passion seekers.

Thomas Ponce of Caselberry, Fla., said he found his purpose in life when he was four: To be a voice for voiceless animals.

The inspiration? A chicken nugget.

When he found out nuggets were made from chickens, he wanted nothing to do with any type of meat.

“As soon as I made that two-and-two connection — you know a chicken was killed to make a chicken nugget — I just decided I didn’t want to contribute to that cruelty anymore,” Thomas said.

Instead, he gained a voracious appetite for learning and teaching anyone who would listen about animal rights.

He joined animal rights organizations and when he was 12, created the website LobbyForAnimals.org, using it to teach thousands of people around the world how to lobby for animal rights.

He even inspired Florida State Senator David Simmons to draft a bill that protects sharks in Florida.

Amaaazing.

Here’s a look at my Go Inspire Go visit with Thomas in his hometown:

Starting the journey to finding your passion starts with the question: What is my passion? Then ask yourself, what do I like to do? And what do I not like doing?

A good place to begin is to think about what you naturally liked to do as a kid. I loved to read, write and talk. I even read shampoo bottles aloud in a pretend news anchor’s voice while bathing. This led me to a broadcasting, motivational speaking and teaching career.

What is that thing that excites you out of bed? What puts a sparkle in your eye when you talk about it? If money didn’t matter, what would you do?

Just start doing a little bit of that every week, whether it’s a few minutes or a few hours.

Just start!

For more info on Thomas Ponce and more on my thoughts about igniting your passion, visit Go Inspire Go.
___

Take Action
1. Learn more and support Lobby For Animals (www.lobbyforanimals.org)

2. Be the change. Find legislative issues affecting animals in your state, county, city or local community. Call and write your lawmakers.

3. Do whatever is in your power to take action against animal cruelty, testing and abuse.

::Engage::
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Onward,
Toan

The post Nuggets of Wisdom: Kid Lobbyist Advocates for Animal Rights appeared first on ToanLamTV.com.

This shot of inspiration is dedicated to kids and the kid in you. I hope this inspires you to color outside of the lines!

The “Green Team,” an environmental club at Sun Valley Elementary School in San Rafael, Calif., is literally making its mark on the planet!

When they learned used markers ended up in landfills, they wondered why there wasn’t a recycling program.

“I’ve thrown away about a hundred markers and I just want them to recycle them because it’s creating landfills and it’s getting into our oceans and it’s killing the animals,” Green Team member Nando Castellar, 11, explained with a sad face.

The kids learned that Crayola makes about half a BILLION markers a year but the company has no recycling program, so they wrote to Crayola for answers.

Land Wilson, children’s author and parent volunteer leading the Green Team, said Crayola wrote back and replied, “There’s no one here you can talk to about that. Sorry…”

But the kids didn’t take “NO” for an answer.

They started a petition on Change.org, asking Crayola to start a “take-back program” for their markers.

Nearly 92,000 people signed it.

A movement was born.

Meanwhile, Crayola’s competitor, Dixon Ticonderoga, heard about the kids’ plea and was inspired to start a recycling program.

That’s when Crayola had a change of heart and started a recycling program too.

“We’re so excited because this is a prime example of kids being powerful and kids making difference and changing the world,” Wilson said.

These kids are small, but they are mighty.

More than 1,000 schools are taking part in the recycling program today!

The lesson here: The answers are not always black and white. Color outside of the lines even if it seems impossible to make a big change. Don’t take no for an answer and look for another way. These kids were persistent and resilient.

Take Action:

1. Ask your local school to start a marker recycling by setting up collection bins around campus.

2. Watch this instructional video

3. To send back your markers, sign up with Crayola ColorCycle or Dixon Ticonderoga’s Prang Power Recycling Program

For more about these amazing kids and their project, check out my Go Inspire Go blog and video.

::Engage::
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Onward,
Toan

The post Re-Mark-Able!: Kids spur marker makers to launch recycle programs appeared first on ToanLamTV.com.

ONE!

Whether you’re a momma, daddy or millennial, I hope this “Shot of Inspiration” will inspire you to think about how you could be the one to make a difference.

As a high school student in Phoenix, Matthew Kaplan created The Be ONE Project, as in YOU CAN BE THE ONE TO CHANGE SOMEONE’S LIFE FOR THE BETTER, after he found out his brother Josh was being bullied via text messages and social media.

“It felt horrible,” Josh explained. “I probably cried every day in the fourth and fifth grade.”

Big brother Matt came to the rescue. He searched online for programs to help his brother, but nothing clicked. So he decided to create his own peer-to-peer anti-bullying program, The Be Open to New Experiences (ONE) Project.

He trains middle school students during a daylong program designed to open up their hearts and minds and to be kind.

I asked Matthew, “When you think of peer pressure, we think it’s a bad word. You think it’s a good word?”

He said, “I think it could be a positive thing. What if peer pressure could be used as inclusiveness instead of exclusiveness?”

The overall message: compassion, action and of course, “It’s cool to be kind.”

One of the teenagers who attended his session said, “This whole process really inspired me to think that every day, there are 100 opportunities to love another person and be loved.”

Matthew, who is now studying at Duke University, has inspired more than 150 Arizona teachers and high school students to be team leaders. Thousands of kids nationally have gone through his program.

I always tell kids you shouldn’t care what people say about you if don’t care about them.

When people make fun of others, they’re worried about their insecurity, and as Ellen DeGeneres says, “Let your haters be your motivators.”

I’m so proud of Matthew. You go!

For more about Matthew and his project, check out my Go Inspire Go blog and video:
Go Inspire Go 50/50 Hero: The Be ONE Project

Take action:

1. Support The Be ONE Project
2. Be the ONE to change your school culture. Invite Matthew Kaplan to come to your school
3. Learn more about what YOU can do!

::Engage::
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Onward,
Toan

The post ‘Be ONE’ to Make a Difference Against Bullying appeared first on ToanLamTV.com.

What: Kindergartener Inspires Community to Feed 200,000+ people

Where: San Francisco

Why: Phoebe saw homeless people and she knew two things: 1.) It made her feel sad 2.) She wanted to do something to help

Have you ever walked by a homeless person and felt bad because you didn’t know what to do?

Maybe you gave them a dollar or your leftovers.

I met Phoebe Russell when she was a kindergartner, but don’t let her age or size fool you. She’s one of the youngest philanthropist-teachers I’ve ever met. Her big heart and “can”-do attitude (pun intended) has inspired the San Francisco community to enable the San Francisco Food Bank to dole out more than 200,000 meals.

On the way to school, she would often see hungry and homeless people.

She asked her mom why they look so sad and dirty. Her mom said they didn’t have a home and didn’t have food.

She may not understand mortgages or rents, but she couldn’t see why people didn’t have food when there are grocery stores nearby and lots of food in her pantry.

She asked her Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Kathleen Albert, “Who helps hungry, homeless people?”

“The Food Bank,” Kathleen replied.

Phoebe was on a mission. She wanted to raise $1,000 before she graduated Kindergarten. With only two months of school to go, some adults told her it would be nearly impossible to raise that amount before being promoted to the first grade.

She didn’t give up, she wrote letters asking for aluminum cans. She knew that she could get five cents a can.

“Does she understand it the way you and I do? No, but she understood that she could do something,” Kathleen said.

“I think they’re looking at that it doesn’t have to be big,” Kathleen explained. “We talked about how it was the little money and the little donations.

“So when people came to the door with one or two cans, people we didn’t even know, she would say, ‘Oh that’s five cents, that’s 10 cents, that’s 15 cents.’ She understood that you have something small, and you just make it bigger, bigger, bigger.”

The idea was a smashing success.

Thousands of cans trickled in. People donated cash anonymously. Parents and the community wrote checks. Companies matched the contributions.

Phoebe raised $3,736.30 to be exact!

Everyone who knows me knows I love a good party, so I crashed her cupcake and balloon party where she gave the money she collected to the Food Bank and created this video for my nonprofit Go Inspire Go:

Inspiration is infectious. After this video went viral, the S.F. Food Bank emailed me to let me know that we helped her raise $20,200, or 90,000 meals.

The inspiration continues…​

Find out how social media and other kids in the community were inspired by Phoebe and helped her raise enough resources to enable the S.F. Food Bank to give out more than 200,000 meals!

Hint: It involves three other kindergartners who were inspired by Phoebe’s “Yes you CAN” message, and a chicken company donating 15 tons of food on her behalf!

Part 2:

Part 3:

“I learned something from her,” Kathleen said. “When you learn something from children it’s great. These children are all our tomorrows. They’re my tomorrows, they’re your tomorrows. They’re the people who are going to make a difference in our world as we get older.”

*This blog/video is dedicated to the late Kathleen Albert. Your energy and love lives on through the kids you inspired.*

Now, may I ask you, “What can YOU do?”

More info:

‘6-Year-Old Inspires Movement’ (Go Inspire Go)

‘Four Kindergarteners Inspire 135,000 Meals for the Needy’ (Go Inspire Go)

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Onward,
Toan

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Karma Kitchen, aka KK, has my favorite things in one restaurant: kindness, compassion, generosity, great food and volunteer servers who treat you like family! That’s what’s on the menu at this restaurant, founded by my friends at ServiceSpace, a nonprofit that explores ways to combine technology and volunteerism.

And if things couldn’t get better, there are no prices on the menu!

KK partnered with Taste of the Himalayas, a restaurant in Berkeley, California, for what the folks at ServiceSpace called an “experiment in generosity.”

Nipun Mehta, founder of ServiceSpace told the San Francisco Chronicle, “None of us had ever run a restaurant. We had practically zero budget, and no staff. Looking back, one might think we were crazy.”

Here’s how it works:

• 10 to 12 volunteers cook and serve customers every Sunday
• YOU come and eat. Your meal was paid for by the customer before you. You’re welcome to pay what you can and want… all the proceeds go back to the community.

Love, love, love this idea. Community, kindness…

I ate there so I can say the only thing crazy about it was it was crazy good.

Here’s a video I created for my nonprofit, Go Inspire Go about KK:

Perhaps it’s the love put into making and serving the food or the volunteers who share the spirit of generosity or the conversations around the community table.

It truly was a unique, inspiring and transformative dining experience.

Good food and kindness are infectious. If you want a taste of goodness at Karma Kitchen, you’re in luck. This idea spread across the globe, with more than 20 KKs to date.

So far, more than 58,000 meals have been served and more than 47,000 volunteer hours have been clocked! Here are all of the locations where you can get some food for our soul and stomach!

Cheers to generosity!

Take Action:

• Join the next Karma Kitchen in Berkeley. If you’re going on July 31, you can join me on the community table: RSVP here
• Volunteer to serve at Karma Kitchen — they currently have openings for starting Aug. 28.
• Do a small act of kindness, leave a Smile Card behind, telling the recipient to pay it forward and keep the chain going.

More info:

• About Karma Kitchen
• Recipe For Success: Karma Kitchen Serves Up Generosity (Go Inspire Go)

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Onward,
Toan

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