Posted By Bob Knotts on August 27, 2010
On my desk sits a small bronze figure of Buddha. It represents to me the many wise lessons imparted to the world by this insightful man. 
But it also means something else: friendship. The inexpensive figurine was handed to me spontaneously by a woman at a shop along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand. The sales clerk did this as a kindness, I believe, a gesture of good will between us. I already had bought several masks and other art pieces at her store and paid for them. She had nothing to gain except my smile.
As I dusted the Buddha during my weekly housecleaning, this thought occurred to me: the gift was given with no knowledge of how I would receive it. I might just as easily have seen this as worthless junk and tossed it in the nearest trash can. Or I might have put it in some jewelry box when I returned home and never glanced at it again. Or. Or … yes, I might have looked at this small gift in the way I do, as an object I genuinely appreciate and use to enhance my life. That thought led me to another. Isn’t the same true of our own gifts, the talent and experience and enthusiasm we can share with others? All we can do is to give these, with no knowledge of how they will be received. Just like the Buddha from my friend in Bangkok. We only have the power to hand out our individual treasures to the world. What the world does with them is entirely up to others to decide.
Category: Sharing |
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Tags: Buddha, human values, Humanity Project, philosophy, positive psychology, self-help, shared value, The Humanity Project
Posted By Bob Knotts on August 18, 2010
We are very pleased and proud to welcome a new sponsor to the Humanity Project family.
Dr. David Sharaf
Dr. David Sharaf is a first-rate South Florida dermatologist and a practicing member of Skin and Cancer Associates and the Center for Cosmetic Enhancement. Dr. Sharaf and SCA have generously joined our group’s efforts to improve the lives of both kids and adults. We became familiar with Dr. Sharaf first as a patient over many years, receiving his careful checkups for possible skin problems along with removals of moles and the like. We found him meticulous, knowledgeable and personable — a genuinely funny guy with a dry wit. With this sponsorship from him and SCA, though, we also recognize that Dr. Sharaf is a caring member of this community with a commitment to helping others. To learn more about Dr. Sharaf and SCA, visit their website at http://www.scacce.com/about.html. I don’t know about you. But for me, well, I like to know that the people who help care for my health also really care about my health. Dr. Sharaf is most definitely in that category. Thank you, Dr. Sharaf and SCA!
Category: Sponsors/Community Partners |
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Tags: Dr. David Sharaf, helping kids, helping others, Humanity Project, Skin and Cancer Associates and the Center for Cosmetic Enhancement, The Humanity Project
Posted By Bob Knotts on August 15, 2010
"Bullying victim" -- Drawing by an 8th grade volunteer in our newest program
(Monday update: In addition to the article cited below, the South Florida Sun Sentinel posted a very nice blog about us today. You can check it out at http://tinyurl.com/2cuqu6g.)
As this Sunday morning gets going, we’re pleased to find another newspaper article about the Humanity Project. The Miami Herald covered our latest program in its Sunday edition — you can read about it by clicking here: http://tinyurl.com/2g5byh6. The piece also refers to “The Humanity Project’s innovative Anti-bullying Through the Arts program,” referring to our anti-bullying efforts in the elementary schools. We appreciate the coverage. And in all honesty, we must say that we agree. The Humanity Project takes pride in creating truly innovative programs that make a real-world difference. Also today, a big Happy Birthday to Sondra Lucas! She’s one of our earliest and strongest individual supporters — and one of our favorite people. Very Happy Birthday, Sondra!! 
Category: Our Programs |
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Tags: anti-bullying, at-risk children, Broward Sheriff's Office, helping kids, Humanity Project, Miami Herald, State Farm Insurance, The Humanity Project
Posted By Bob Knotts on August 10, 2010
See that cute picture? We took it just last night. 
These are only some of the many authors who helped us complete the two new anti-bullying books for our Anti-bullying Through the Arts program. (You can read more about the books in the previous post.) But we wanted to let you know that another fine nonprofit group, Utterly Global, has honored our young volunteers. These students are officially “Anti-bullying Heroes” — as you see by their t-shirts! 
) The quality shirts were donated by Utterly Global to thank the kids. In turn, we want to thank these good folks and hope you’ll check out their website at www.antibullyingprograms.org. Utterly Global is based in New Jersey and their work includes programs in NYC. They heard about us on their own, contacting us to commend our at-risk student program and to help honor the kids who took part. Thank you, Lorrie and everyone there at Utterly Global. We very much appreciate your generosity and support!
Category: Our Programs |
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Tags: anti-bullying, at-risk children, helping kids, Humanity Project, teaching human values, The Humanity Project, Utterly Global
Posted By Bob Knotts on August 7, 2010
An update on our big book project for at-risk middle schoolers — the Humanity Project program that’s receiving so much media attention.
The two books are done! Yay! And we think they’re very special. (You can see one of the covers in this post, with the artwork drawn by our 8th grade illustrators.) This was a very challenging project for everyone involved. Especially for the kids. We worked with some 60 at-risk students who were asked, coaxed, begged, encouraged and inspired to write books on a heavy topic during their summer vacation. Many days we all had to work in classrooms at Olsen Middle School without air conditioning during 90+ degree heat. Then they also had to create the drawings, rap poetry and suggested classroom assignments about bullying that are part of these books — with all of these elements being appropriate to the story they wrote. As I said, it was a tough assignment. We’re proud of them. We can tell they gained a lot in many ways from the experience. They even told us so! And we think their books now will help elementary school kids who receive the Humanity Project’s innovative Anti-bullying Through the Arts program this coming school year. Thanks again to State Farm for underwriting this at-risk program and to Broward Sheriff’s Office for partnering with us on Anti-bullying Through the Arts. Most of all, congratulations to the young Humanity Project volunteers from Olsen Middle School!
Category: Our Programs |
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Tags: anti-bullying, at-risk children, Broward Sheriff's Office, helping kids, Humanity Project, State Farm Insurance, teaching human values, The Humanity Project
Posted By Bob Knotts on July 30, 2010
I wanted to just give you an update about our newest program for kids. You may have read about it or seen something on TV.
One of our classes for at-risk kids
The Humanity Project’s “At-Risk Reading and Writing Program” has been featured so far in the South Florida Sun Sentinel and on WSFL-TV with stories ready for publication in the next few days in both the Miami Herald and the Spanish-language El Sentinel … Time magazine’s kids version is also doing a story and CBS News has expressed strong interest. Why all the attention? Because the program is truly innovative, which is something the Humanity Project strives for in all our efforts. In this case, we have more than 50 at-risk middle schoolers writing books about bullying … for elementary school kids. There are two books and the main story for each book is done now. These imaginative tales have turned out great too! We’ll tell you more about the content soon. But for now, just know this: your support for the Humanity Project is making a real difference in the real world. Thank you!
Category: Our Programs |
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Tags: anti-bullying, at-risk children, helping kids, human values, Humanity Project, positive psychology, teaching human values, The Humanity Project
Posted By Bob Knotts on July 23, 2010
The Humanity Project today officially welcomes our newest member of the Board of Directors. Some of you already know Andrew Leone,
Communications Specialist at Children’s Services Council of Broward County. He’s a committed, caring, hard-working person who brings great skills to our work. Andrew has been a professional in the non-profit sector for more than 15 years. Previously, he was State Organizer for the health care consumer advocacy organization, Florida CHAIN. And Andrew held the position of Programs Director at Volunteer Broward, where his duties included managing disaster and recovery programs, and Marketing and Member Services Director at ArtServe, where he recruited local artists into the organization and helped promote their visual and performing arts talent. Soon after the Haiti earthquake, Andrew was part of a South Florida mission to assist suffering quake victims and he has helped on the scene of many other major disasters including New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. We think he’s a great addition to our growing organization, helping us to help others even more in the future. Today we offer a hearty “Welcome aboard, Andrew!”
Category: Volunteering |
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Tags: Andrew Leone, Children's Services Council of Broward County, Haiti relief, Humanity Project, teaching human values, The Humanity Project
Posted By Bob Knotts on July 22, 2010
We thought it was worth passing this along to you. One of Florida’s largest newspapers, the Sun Sentinel, has published its lead editorial today about the Humanity Project. Here’s the link to this gratifying commentary on our work: http://tinyurl.com/3ax9hvc
Students in our At-Risk Reading/Writing Program -- Sun Sentinel photo
To quote just a bit of this editorial here: ”Society needs innovative thinking, and collaborations that involve and engage the youth affected by bullying, if we’re ever going to turn the tide. This book certainly sets the tone and should be an eagerly anticipated read. BOTTOM LINE: An inspired idea.” We very much appreciate this support from these journalistic community leaders. The Humanity Project prides itself on innovative ideas that help real people in the real world. Thanks, Sun Sentinel, for recognizing our efforts. And special thanks to our great sponsors and community partners, especially State Farm and Broward Sheriff’s Office, for helping us to make this all possible.
Category: Our Programs |
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Tags: anti-bullying, Broward Sheriff's Office, BSO, human values, Humanity Project, State Farm Insurance, Sun Sentinel, teaching human values, The Humanity Project
Posted By Bob Knotts on July 19, 2010
The Humanity Project is in the news today. South Florida’s Sun Sentinel, one of Florida’s largest newspapers, has published a major piece on our innovative At-Risk Reading/Writing Program. Just click to check it out:
Some of our at-risk summer students in July 2010, helping to write their own anti-bullying book for younger kids.
http://tinyurl.com/2eagwae There’s also a link just posted with a WSFL-TV news story about our program at http://tinyurl.com/3axtath (FYI: You have to watch a 30-second commercial before the story airs.) This Humanity Project program is possible because of a generous grant from State Farm Insurance. The books these kids are writing this summer in turn will go into elementary schools as part of our in-school anti-bullying program — and that anti-bullying program is made possible in large part with generous help from Broward Sheriff’s Office. These partners help us to help others in fresh ways that make a difference. If you read this news story by Rafael Olmeda, you’ll see what we mean. Please pass along these links to any interested friends and family, by the way. Thx!!
Category: Our Programs |
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Tags: anti-bullying, Broward Sheriff's Office, BSO, helping kids, human values, Humanity Project, State Farm Insurance, teaching human values, The Humanity Project
Posted By Bob Knotts on July 15, 2010
Yep, that’s just what this is — a blog post that is part update, part news about the Humanity Project. First, the update. Our website redesign was launched only a month ago … and is ongoing. We’ve run into a technical issue with some of the podcast posts, for instance, but it should be resolved soon. That will allow older podcasts to be re-posted. We also expect to make some small design changes and other improvements in the next couple weeks.
Now for the news: The Humanity Project’s summer At-risk Reading/Writing Program (sponsored by State Farm Insurance!) for 6-8 grade students is into its third week. And things are going great! So far we’ve worked with 
nearly 50 kids who are struggling to keep up in school. We’re helping them write their own books about bullying. They’re doing amazingly well too — you should read some of their writing! Actually, you’ll have the chance to do just that. We’ll soon post on this website two books written by these kids and we will use them in our Anti-bullying Through the Arts program in elementary schools as well. These at-risk students learn to write and read and work together as a team. The elementary kids get a book written by their older peers that should help the younger kids stop bullying. And we all get a smarter, better adjusted student population. Win-win-win. That’s the goal of the Humanity Project: action for the greater good that also serves our highest individual interests. These at-risk summer students are putting that idea into action.
Category: Our Programs |
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Tags: anti-bullying, helping kids, helping others, human values, Humanity Project, State Farm Insurance, teaching human values, The Humanity Project
But it also means something else: friendship. The inexpensive figurine was handed to me spontaneously by a woman at a shop along the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, Thailand. The sales clerk did this as a kindness, I believe, a gesture of good will between us. I already had bought several masks and other art pieces at her store and paid for them. She had nothing to gain except my smile.
