Work For Free

What would I do for free? My friend put it this way. ‘In kind.‘

We have been working away at kid collaborations for weeks. They are for the Kids for Peace gala auction. I’ve already donated two paintings and sent over all the written information. It’s a tad more complicated with the gallery representation, but an honor to be featured.

I helped my friend at two other schools, on top of my two classroom visits. Now we have to put it all into projects. Literally hours of work. It was fun to have a friend to be exhausted and excited with. We have ideas.

Sometimes work I do for free is lovely and meaningful. Being with other high energy, good intentioned others, working towards a common good, is rewarding.

Kids for Peace was founded on ideas of children for how to make the world a better place. Cofounder Jill wanted to help children see how they can do real things to make the world better for others.

I’ll never forget the boy who raised $1000 for a rain catcher water tank for an African village in Kenya. He and his grandmother flew with the group to work on the school. He got to see for himself the people he was helping, in very real time. He said this to me on the bus one morning, “It was a lot of work!” He told me how he had to be at school early every day for months to collect and advertise for his cause. Seeing him standing in front of the giant water tank was one Kenyan experience I’ll never forget.

Cool to see so many people come together to help one boy see precisely how he made a difference. It’s one of the things I love most about Kids for Peace. Not to mention the families and children with the new school, or all the school children in chapters all around the world.

The other day I spent most of the day helping out with more gala related projects. Spending time with this focused, talented group was a pleasure. Truly, if you want to find quality people to hang out with, I recommend doing a little work for free for a cause or two that you believe in.