MY Fest is planned and produced by MY LIFE (Magellan Youth Leaders Inspiring Future Empowerment), which consists of youth between the ages of 13 to 23 dealing with mental health problems, substance abuse, and/or foster care-related issues; and who are committed to making positive changes in their lives, while encouraging others to do the same. [check out their YouTube site as well for some inspiring videos]

MY Fest provides youth and families the opportunity to enjoy inspirational music, art and entertainment, and learn about the many resources available to them from a wide-variety of youth and family-based Valley organizations. Highlights of the event included an appearance by the Phoenix Suns Gorilla and a performance by Willy Northpole. UOWHO sold Kindness Bracelets at MY Fest, donating a portion of each sale to MY LIFE.

As Jamie Field, National Sales Director for UOWHO, tells it:

“We had so much fun, sharing UOHWO bracelets and stories with everyone!  My favorite of the day was from my new friend, Damien.  He told me about a time that he missed his bus and had to walk home- from Scottsdale to Glendale! Long into the grueling 15 mile walk, a cab driver took notice and pulled over.  He asked Damien if he wanted a ride, but Damien said that he didn’t have enough money for the fare.  The generous cab driver said that it would be “on the house” and to get in and drove him all the way home.  As Damien was getting out of the cab and giving his words of thanks, the cab driver just asked that he remember what happened that day and just “pay it forward.”  (Sound familiar?).  Inspired by the cabbie’s random act of kindness, Damien decided to make a New Year’s resolution to do one nice thing for some one each day!  I was so impressed with Damien’s stories that I gave him a UOWHO kindness bracelet to use and pass on.  He was beaming the whole time he was talking about how much fun he’s been having helping people and we were both excited for him to use UOWHO to encourage some one else to experience the same.”

Discover the experience for yourself by trying one of our multi-color 8-packs of Kindness Bracelets available from our online store.

Jamie Field and Sherrie Biggs had the pleasure of representing UOWHO at this huge event, which was held at the historic and beautiful Crystal Cathedral Church in Garden Grove, California.  The Crystal Cathedral is the home base for the international Crystal Cathedral Ministries, including a congregation of over 10,000 members and the internationally televised “Hour of Power.”   Jamie and Sherrie had the pleasure of meeting Debbie Bourne, the Conference Director, and promptly fitted her with a bright yellow UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelet!

That’s Debbie on the left, Sherrie in the middle, and Jamie on the right – nice smiles, ladies!

The schedule was packed with 23 speakers, entertainment, deliciously catered meals, workshops and a fabulous banquet. Only a few vendors were selected to attend this amazing event, and UOWHO was proud to be one of them!  With all our ‘kindness’ bracelets sold in just those three days, the conference attendees will have initiated over 1,000 random acts of kindness using UOWHO, many of which happened during the event itself!  Even the other vendors were excited about our bracelets and showed interest in using them for their causes, such as Women’s Bible Study Groups, Missionaries from Pakistan, and an Alzheimer’s Care Group.

What a wonderful event, seemingly tailor-made for UOWHO’s colorful rubber bracelets with the 10 little punch-out tabs.  As the Koach of Kare says,

“Though you are already kind, caring, and wonderful people, we can all do better.”

Get your kindness bracelet…do better…today. We offer a multipack of 8 different colored bracelets for only $8 + S&H available from our online shop!

For more info on this event and the Crystal Cathedral, please visit:

www.careandkindness.org

www.crystalcathedral.org

Well, yesterday Lloyd received an excited call from Deb who had just returned from a two-day teachers conference last week which had an attendance of over three hundred. The guest speaker at the event was Manuel V Scott, motivational speaker and one of the original Freedom Writers.  Manual spent a great deal of time at the conference talking about kindness and paying it forward.  On the second day, during the questions and answers portion of the seminar, Deb stood up and explained the concept behind UOWHO and their ‘kindness’ bracelets.  After the applause as she explained how UOWHO works she went up to Manual and gave him 6 bracelets, including her GOLD bracelet [more about our Gold special bracelets coming soon!].  Manual said UOWHO was an inspiration and he loved the concept.  Several other people approached her after the seminar and asked how they could get involved and buy bracelets, she duly gave them our website address. One of the organizers of the event told her that she was planning on placing an order this week!

Deb, who has already placed two orders herself, is placing another this week, she told Lloyd.  In her community of some 18,000 persons, she is already seeing the bracelets all over town!  She told Lloyd that she is having as much fun as we are spreading simple acts of kindness and making a difference in her community. “The bracelets really work”, she said, “and are making our community a kinder place!”

We at UOWHO really appreciate the work that Deb, and our other UOWHO fans are doing to spread a climate of kindness in their communities – they are making a real difference in their worlds and are an inspiration to many others who are discovering the ripple effect that our ‘kindness’ bracelets can make. We always love to hear your stories – keep ‘em coming!

THANK YOU UOWHO !!!
I am the Youth Director of a small town Methodist church and we are always looking for ways to remind the children
in our congregation kindness and God’s way when not in church.  The UOWHO bracelet fitted into our activities and lessons perfectly. In fact, we originally ordered 50 bracelets to share with our adult congregation members.  Those were gone immediately!!  I was amazed at how these bracelets have spread around our church and community.  So much so that we ordered another 50 and those are almost gone as well!! I get “warm fuzzies” when I am out in the community and I see someone from another church wearing one of our UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelets.  That reminds me that God’s word and love is being spread by the UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelet. I am very thankful to Lloyd, he has been a true inspiration to me and to the people and children of our church.  I have shared his story with many!

God Bless
Deb
Illinois

Other church groups are taking a keen interest in the UOWHO idea, including UOWHO founder, Lloyd DeShane’s own local Christ’s Church of the Valley in Glendale, Arizona. Deb’s church in Illinois are using the basic UOWHO bracelets whereas Lloyd’s church are using UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelets branded with their distinctive CCV logo (more news on this coming soon). Either work equally well, of course, when it comes to spreading acts of kindness and encouraging people to pay it forward. But having your churches logo on each bracelet is certainly a great way to spread awareness of the good that church is doing in the community, especially as each individual bracelet has the potential to reach ten other people in a continual chain of giving!

If you think your church could benefit from such a great and proactive ‘giving’ initiative you might like to check out our fundraising page for details and costs of ‘branded’ UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelets for your church – http://uowho.com/fundraising.html We are always happy to discuss ideas with you so please feel free to contact us if you have any questions. It is a great way to get your community actively involved in a ‘kindness’ campaign, especially for the youngsters, and the bracelets are a simple and effective reminder to ‘pay it forward’.

“Want to know how to change the world? One random act of kindness at a time”
From the film, Evan Almighty

The mayor has challenged other cities to match this accomplishment. Interestingly, UOWHO is actually talking to one particular town in Arizona about running a town-branded-UOWHO-’kindness’ bracelet, ‘kindness to visitors’ campaign. More news on this coming soon. Perhaps your town might like to rise the Elk River Mayor’s challenge ..? A UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelet on your wrist is a great reminder to pay it forward and, sometimes, we need a little reminder with so many distractions in our busy lives.

Have a look at our fundraising page on our website to get an idea of how we can ‘brand’ our bracelets, say with your town’s name or website. We are always happy to talk with you and help you create a ‘giving’ plan.

In preparation for Random Act of Kindness week (15th – 21st Feb), Youth Program Administrator, Amanda Scott-Thomas, contacted UOWHO to have her department join in on the fun!  We were heartened to see that our own Arizona Governor’s office would be initiating a potential 2,500 random acts of kindness using UOWHO’s pay-it-forward, ‘kindness’ bracelets.

Meeting Ms. Scott-Thomas and Children, Arizona Division for Youth and Families Director- Cassandra Larsen as well as the rest of the department staff was pure joy!  As Jamie explained how to use UOWHO’s ‘kindness’ bracelets and shared some of our bracelet wearer’s stories, staff were given multiple bracelets and excitedly discussed ‘kindness’ ideas as they put them on.

“As Arizona state employees, we have a vested interest in the health, wealth
 and betterment of our state. Our livelihoods, families and quality of 
life depend upon it,” Amanda told us.

As news of their initiative spread via their internal newsletter, other State departments decided to participate too- the Arizona Division of Emergency Management, Arizona Commission of Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Arizona Department of Corrections! Way to go Arizona!

Once again, we would like to extend our appreciation to all of our new friends at the Governor’s office that were so welcoming to our staff at UOWHO, and for all of the hard and sincere work they do for the communities of Arizona.  We look forward to hearing about their ‘kindness’ experiences and, if you were the recipient of a UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelet courtesy of an act of kindness from the Governor’s Office, then we would love to hear from you!

If any Government Departments from other States would like to create some kindness, either for next year’s Random Acts of Kindness Week, or for a different initiative, we would be delighted to hear from you – and, don’t forget, our ‘kindness’ bracelets can be ‘branded’ with your message or logo!

UOWHO’s tent featured 8 little Christmas trees decorated with the bracelet in all different colors: red, pink, blue, green, black, purple, orange, and yellow.  Games for the children included the bracelet toss and a candy pull.  Kids loved the prizes: Beanie Babies, Candy, or of course, a UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelet in the color of your choice.

We made many new friends, including a wonderful Grandma who purchased a handful of UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelets to send all over the US to her grandchildren for Christmas (and made off with a few Beanies as well!).

We talked to many groups about how to use the UOWHO as a fundraiser for their organization.  Boy/Girl Scouts, Sports Teams, and Dance Teams can all have a great time spreading goodwill while earning money for their cause.

The Verrado High School Dance Team will be using bracelets to help them raise money for a trip to Europe!  They have already ordered 100 of them and hope to sell many more after that!

Young people are always looking for new ways to channel their enthusiasm and energy towards making their world and their community a better place, often through something as simple as going out and committing an act of kindness for someone.

UOWHO’s ‘kindness’ bracelets now give such groups the tools they need by providing them with a physical reminder to those who are on the receiving end of their acts of kindness, to pay that kindness forward to someone else. In that way, their individual act of kindness to one person has the potential to spread to nine others – that’s what I call a ripple effect! All it needs is for you to cast the stone into the pond. Check out our online store or see our bulk rates for charities and groups here – http://uowho.com/fundraising.html

Have a great Random Acts of Kindness Week everyone – and don’t forget to share your acts-of-kindness stories with us!

1) You wear your ‘kindness’ bracelet as a reminder to do look out for people who might need help in some way.

2) When you do an act of kindness for such a person you remove one of the ten little tabs from the bracelet and discard it (but don’t litter – be kind to the planet & your neighborhood as well).

3) You take off your ‘kindness’ bracelet, give it to the person you have just been kind to and ask them to wear it as a reminder to pay your act of kindness forward to someone else.

In that way, each ‘kindness’ bracelet has the potential to reach ten different people and encourage ten acts of random (or deliberate, if you prefer) kindness.

And, if you are so inclined, you can inspire other people to participate by telling your story here on our blog, or on our Facebook page, on our MySpace page, in a video on our YouTube page, or on Twitter. We would certainly love to hear your stories.

Remember, every act, no matter how small, has the potential to make a big impact in the life of someone else. So start your acts of kindness off now with a multl-color 8-pack of UOWHO ‘kindness’ bracelets from our online store – ONLY $8 for a potential 80 acts of kindness. Think what a difference that could make!

“At Red Robin, we celebrate Unbridled Acts or random acts of kindness, but Unbridled Acts are not a prerequisite for employment or a job requirement. Team Members perform Unbridled Acts at their own discretion and risk.”

I love the “at your own risk” part! Makes you wonder just how far they will go to commit an act of kindness! Well, you can find out for yourself because various guest stories are published on their ‘Unbridled Acts’ page.

We commend you Red Robin and hope that others will follow your lead!
If any of you know of any other businesses, large or small, taking such a kind approach towards their customers and fellow workers we would love to hear about it!