We want every young person to feel valued and seen and have the same opportunity for a happier Christmas and a happier future.

John Lewis & Partners

There are 108,000 children and young people growing up in the UK’s care system, who don’t have the safety net of family to call on.

I feel like that is going to have an impact on so many young people who feel neglected and isolated this Christmas. Just seeing that representation that you are cared about is going to mean so much.

Rachel — Action for Children campaigner

Some of the UK’s most talented individuals come from difficult backgrounds, including a history of being in care. However, too often the potential of these children and young people is overlooked. They often don’t have the same opportunities as those who have family support.

I think it will make you stop and think and say ‘how can I help?’

Claire Pointon — Director of Customer, John Lewis

To find out more about what they’re doing and how you can help visit their Happier Futures website and learn more about their charity partners: Action for Children and Who Cares? Scotland.

It’s the things we do that mean the most.

Five year old Michael Orlando Clark jr. is smiling in the Kent County Michigan courtroom. He’s about to be adopted, and right behind him is his entire kindergarten class from Wealthy Elementary School in East Grand Rapids that he invited along to support and be part of his wonderful day. They were holding their handmade paper hearts for him. And so it was ordered by the judge that his forever mom and dad will be David Andrew Eaton and Andrea Lewis Melvin.

Rob Scheer wants to make sure no other child in the foster care system has an experience like the ones he and his children had.

Reflecting on his own time in care, Rob had an idea in 2013 to host an event where families and the community would come together to pack comfort cases for kids in care. From there the project grew into a volunteer led charitable organization that has distributed over 18,000 cases to children in the Maryland, DC, and Virginia area.

https://comfortcases.org

Every child deserves to know that they matter. When Comfort Cases provides a case to a child in need, we not only offer them new items that they can keep during their journey, we also provide them with dignity and the notion that someone cares about what they are going through.

Neste, the Finnish oil refiner, and Richard Williams, aka Prince Ea, have joined forces on a project called “Pre-Order the Future” aimed at creating more environmentally friendly products.

We want to raise awareness around the potential of renewable materials, and how they can be used to create truly pioneering products across variety of applications.
— Matti Lievonen, President and CEO of Neste

They’re asking the public to submit ideas for new product and service ideas across five topics: public spaces, entertainment, travel, learning, and mobility.

In August 2016, a jury will choose one of the five product or service concepts to be developed into a prototype that will be launched in January 2017.

People don’t choose dreams, dreams choose them… do you have the courage to grab the dream that picked you?

I spent so much of my life telling people the things they wanted to hear instead of the things they needed to, told myself I wasn’t meant to be anyone’s conscience because I still had to figure out being my own, so sometimes I just wouldn’t say anything, appeasing ignorance with my silence, unaware that validation doesn’t need words to endorse its existence.

• Read critically
• Write consciously
• Speak clearly
• Tell your truth

Green Shoe Creative in Peoria, Illinois held a singer-songwriter contest over the summer asking people to upload their best original song to YouTube.

They received an unexpected and unassuming entry in the form of a large manila envelop mailed to their office containing a letter and a handwritten page of lyrics inside.

The entry was from 96-year-old Fred Stobaugh with a song dedicated to his lifelong love and wife of 75 years, Lorraine, who had recently passed away.

I started reading through the song, and he titled it Sweet Lorraine. Listening to the lyrics and the passion behind the lyrics… it was so heartwarming. [We] decided to take Fred’s lyrics and bring them to life. We decided to put them to professional music, professionally record it…

Jacob Colgan, producer at Green Shoe Studio

Fred, at 96, became the oldest artist to appear on the Billboard Hot 100 for his song. Audie Cornish and Robert Siegel over at NPR have more in their interview with Fred and Jabob.

Only 4% of women around the world consider themselves beautiful. At Dove, we are committed to creating a world where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety. So, we decided to conduct a compelling social experiment that explores how women view their own beauty in contrast to what others see.

Update: The campaign has led to a number of follow-up studies and research into the data and statistics behind Dove’s “Real Truth About Beauty” survey research report.

• Is Dove Beauty Campaign Based on Bad Data?
• The Effectiveness of the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty in Terms of Society and the Brand
• The Effectiveness of Dove Campaign for Real Beauty in Affecting Customers’ Purchase Decision Toward Dove Products
• The Dove Real Beauty Campaign: How Does It Wash

via Bloomberg Businessweek
images via Dove Real Beauty Sketches

What will you create that will make the world awesome? Nothing if you keep sitting there. That’s why I’m talking to you today. This is your time. This is my time. It’s our time.

You can make everyday better for each other. If we are all on the same team let’s start acting like it. We got work to do. We can cry about it or we can dance about it. We were made to be awesome.

Kid President

This YouTube video features Robby Novak (aka Kid President) and was produced by SoulPancake. Founded in 2008 by actor Rainn Wilson, SoulPancake “develops thought-provoking content and creative engagement opportunities that encourage people to explore what it means to be human.”

So, are you encouraged now? Did that inspirational video help to get your thoughts provoked? Then don’t just sit there… get dancing!

The world needs you, stop being boring. … Create something that will make the world awesome.

Kid President

via Devour

Cayden Long, age 7, suffers from cerebral palsy, but his older brother Conner, age 9, doesn’t let that stop them from playing sports together.

They participated in their first triathlon as “Team Long Brothers” on June 5th, 2011 and over the last 18 months have competed in 14 races. Conner tows Cayden in a raft while swimming, pulls him in a trailer for cycling and pushes the trailer during the run.

Ten years from now the perfect place for me and Cayden would be… [to] have the Team Long Brothers flag on the moon.

Conner Long

The brothers were honored as 2012 SportsKids of the Year at a star-studded event in New York as part of the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year ceremony. There, they made a special new friend… LeBron James!

Parents Jenny and Jeff Long are also working on starting the Team Long Brothers Foundation:

Our ultimate goal of Team Long Brothers is to form a non-profit organization which will provide advice, emotional, spiritual and financial support to groups and families of disabled children. We hope you will consider helping us get the Team Long Brothers Foundation off the ground by considering a donation. Our goal is to apply for official non-profit status by the first quarter of 2013.

photo source: SI Kids

Afraid of getting coal in your stocking this year? Turn your bad deed into a win for the environment at Offset Your Naughty. Creative agency Carmichael Lynch is purchasing a carbon offset (equivalent to one metric ton of carbon dioxide emissions) for every confession, up to 400 entries.

Carmichael Lynch’s purchase of 400 metric tons is equivalent to planting 10,256 tree seedlings and growing them for 10 years, or preserving 4 acres from being deforested for a year.

So go ahead, get off that naughty list!

So I always ask the question, what would you like to do if money were no object? How would you really enjoy spending your life?

… do that and forget the money, because, if you say that getting the money is the most important thing, you will spend your life completely wasting your time. You’ll be doing things you don’t like doing in order to go on living, that is to go on doing things you don’t like doing, which is stupid. Better to have a short life that is full of what you like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way.

So, how would you really enjoy spending your life?

The Global Cardboard Challenge is the next chapter of a global movement growing out of the short film Caine’s Arcade, which shared the inspiring story of 9-year-old Caine Monroy’s cardboard arcade with the world.

On October 6th, the one year anniversary of the flashmob of surprise customers in “Caine’s Arcade”, hundreds of Cardboard Challenge events around the world will celebrate creativity, imagination, and community.

There are over 150 event organizers in 25 countries who have already signed up. You can get involved by hosting your own event or attending one near you.

Have fun on October 6th!

This Mother’s Day, the World of Children Award reminds us of the original meaning and message of this special day.

For nearly a century, we have recognized Mother’s Day as a national holiday that celebrates the special bond between mother and child. It began in 1870 as the Mother’s Day Proclamation, an attempt to call women together in support of disarmament. Later on, a woman named Anna Jarvis took up the cause to fulfill her mother’s dream of creating a celebration of mothers. President Woodrow Wilson finally declared it an official holiday in 1914.

from Taking the “Hallmark” Out of Mother’s Day

Read their full story and if you are still looking for something for mom consider giving her a gift that supports children in need via their special “Thank You” e-card program or supporting their partnership with Giftback.

via Alison from World of Children Award

We are a rag-tag team of artists, film students and movie buffs determined to complete our dream; visit Pixar.

After countless hours of research and labor, we have built a real-life working replica of Pixar’s iconic Pizza Planet truck. Armed with a few cameras, some maps and fair amount of gas money, we hope to make new friends and have some fun adventures as we embark on a road trip up the coast.

They were even able to grab the “RES1536” license plate that the car has in the films from the California DMV. You can learn more about their awesome project and recent studio visit on their website: The Road To Pixar.

via a The Positive Day reader tip. Thanks!

After it was lifted off the ground by its nose, our giant paper airplane rose and rose until it began swaying pretty heavily in the wind (a product of our having to delay the launch until the evening instead the calmer morning). Aaron, our helicopter pilot then gave the order to cut the plane loose from the cable when it began to pull the chopper itself in a strong gust. But after it was released, for several shining moments, our huge, beautiful, silly, hubristic 45-foot paper airplane soared.

via Laughing Squid

In 2008 Astrophysicist Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked by TIME magazine a series of ten reader-submitted questions. One of the questions was “What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the Universe?”

So that when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the Universe is in us.

Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson

As Carl Sagan said, “We’re made of star stuff“.

What we craved was something honest and good, unhappiness-offsetting, fail-proof and grin-inducing.

Lauren Perlow & Jeff Lam, co-creators

Since launching last November they’ve received hug video submissions from around the world from places like Argentina, the Baltic Sea, Moscow, Brazil and Jakarta. And their videos have now received over 5 million views.

The site even has a feature that lets you create your own personalized “love mixtape” to send to loved ones by simply entering a list of YouTube video IDs you want to include.

Magical, simply magical.

via Grace Kim (@grace_k)