Last week’s 26 Acts of Kindness honoree was Madeleine Hsu. Madeleine loved dancing and running. At first I thought I would center my act of kindness around dancing since the DD was a dancer, too. Apparently, God had other ideas. I received, in the mail, a request from one of my “adopteds” to support her as she ran a half-marathon on behalf of her mother, who is living through everyone’s worst nightmare: cancer. When I reread the description of Madeleine, it reminded me of Ms. Adopted, who had very similar qualities to Madeleine, when she was 6 years old. So, this week’s kindness act is a donation to her fund to raise money for research for lymphoma and leukemia. May that very donation be a way for her mom to live a while longer–her mom sustained me, emotionally, when I was going through a very dark time in my life and so, it only seems right to do something that also honors her.

The MIP Acts of Kindness count stands at 19. How about you? What did you do this week for your act of kindness? Please submit a comment below or send me a private email (about participating this week) on the Contact Page. Thanks!

This week’s honoree is a little ginger named Catherine. Read below for more information about her via CNN:

Catherine V. Hubbard, 6

The little girl with bright red hair will be remembered for her smile and her love of animals. Catherine is survived by her older brother, her parents, grandparents, great-grandmother, uncles, aunts and nine cousins. “Her family prays that she, all the students of Sandy Hook Elementary, and all those affected by this brutal event find peace in their hearts,” they wrote in her obituary. In lieu of flowers, her family asked that people make donations to the Newtown Animal Center. A Facebook page honoring Catherine spoke of how she is now an angel. “Such a beautiful little soul,” the post read, saying the family’s loss is heaven’s gain.

Please note that I have put links to the Newtown Animal Center and Catherine’s FB page, in case you want more information about her. Just click on the highlighted words above.

Tomorrow’s Post: And a little child shall lead them…

If one attempts to be a writer, there is one inevitable problem to be faced: too many books. Yes, too many. I know some of my avid reader friends will cry “Foul!” at this one because they certainly believe that whoever has the most books at death wins, but the reality is that books take up a lot of space and I seldom read a book more than once. I am thankful that e-readers are going to make this an obsolete problem one day, but until then, MaryAnn needs to give her weighted down bookshelves a break.

In reading about Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung last Tuesday, I was struck by her busy schedule, including having just enrolled in a Ph.D. program. I “inherited” quite a number of educational leadership books while working at our local university and thought they would help me with that career. Life has taken me a different direction (duh) and thus, these poor books are just gathering dust on my shelves. It seems a shame when I know our university library (which has a Ph.D. program in educational leadership) could really use them. So, this past week I have packed them up and taken them to my favorite place to study master’s level psychology. It seems only fitting that the place that nurtured both my education and my career should benefit from these books. And over the years I have grown very fond of several of the staff members there. I like to think that Dawn would have liked this way of blessing other learners and colleagues, too.

So, the 26 Tuesday Acts of Kindness tally stands at 17. Please let me know, either privately or publicly, if you participated and how many acts of kindness you undertook this week. Kudos to you for participating!

This week’s honoree is Madeleine Hsu. The description of her is, honestly, too brief, but click on her name below, if only to see her darling face. That, alone, should inspire your Act of Kindness for this coming week:

Madeleine F. Hsu, 6

Sweet. Unique. Bright. Determined. Sparkling. Those are words Madeleine’s family used to describe their little girl.”She was an avid reader who loved running and dancing,” they said. “She was a born leader.”

Last week’s honoree for 26 Tuesdays was Dylan Hockley. Dylan loved to read and if you read my Poetry post this past Saturday, you know that I have a fierce appreciation for Dr. Seuss, whose birthday was on 3/2. Our family’s Dr. Seuss books have long been donated to our local elementary school, but it’s my opinion that a school library can never have too many Dr. Seuss books.

I “polled” the members of my immediate family and asked them to tell me their favorite Dr. Seuss book while growing up. Here are the results:

PH – How The Grinch Stole Christmas!
Moi – Fox in Socks
Eldest DS – One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish
DD – Hop on Pop
DSL – Green Eggs and Ham
Youngest DS – The Cat in the Hat 

I went to our local Walmart and managed to pick up Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish for free. How? I had “leftover” gift cards from Wally World that needed using up. Next, I went off to our local Hastings Entertainment store and found the rest of the books listed above. The bonus? Since it’s Dr. Seuss’ birthday month, you can buy 2 Dr. Seuss books and get the 3rd free! Now, this is the way to shop, friends!

In our little town we have several excellent private pre-school and kindergarten programs. My youngest two children attended one of these wonderful programs and started off their educational lives really well because of it. Not only that, but the program exists on a shoestring budget to try and help as many kids attend this program as possible. So, the Dr. Seuss books have now been donated to this fine program, in the hopes that more children will be exposed to how fun poetry and reading can be.

So, with the other folks also doing their 26 Acts of Kindness, the MIP Kindness count stands at 15 right now. What did you do for your act of kindness to honor Dylan? You can submit a comment below or send a private email to me via the Contact page.  As always, details are welcome, but not mandatory.

This week we honor Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung. Hochsprung was the heroic principal who raced out of her office to investigate the commotion in her school’s hallways. Tragically, doing this very thing resulted in her being shot and killed. Here is a little about Ms. Hochsprung:

Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, 47

When I had the idea to work on the 26 Acts of Kindness, I decided to “schedule” each victim by last name alphabetical order. Little did I know that Josephine would wind up being featured the week before my birthday (which was last Sunday). Josephine had just celebrated her birthday right before the shooting, sadly. So, I feel a little kinship to Josephine right now.

I thought about doing something birthday-related, but all of my birthday-type ideas seemed to have a “down side” to them that bothered me…a lot. So, I decided instead, to focus on her love of the color purple (the shade, not the movie!). The university in our little town has, as its school colors, purple and white. And this is the school where I worked and studied as a grad student. So, I decided to give the local “spirit store” a check (to a trusted friend there, who just happens to manage the store). I asked her/the store to give a purple t-shirt to whomever she deemed “in need of a free t-shirt” anonymously. She was very kind and was delighted to take part in this act of kindness.

Since our college’s basketball team is always pretty competitive, I figure this is a great time of year for someone to be donning a new purple tee. Let’s hope they get as much joy out of it as I did, giving it in memory of Josephine.

Today’s honoree is Dylan Hockley. Here is a little information about Dylan:

Dylan Hockley, 6

Dylan and his family had just moved from England to Connecticut two years ago. “We specifically chose Sandy Hook for the community and the elementary school. We do not and shall never regret this choice,” Dylan’s family said in a statement. Dylan’s family said he loved to cuddle and play tag with neighbors at the bus stop every morning. “He was learning to read and was so proud when he read us a new book every day,” the family said. “He adored his big brother Jake, his best friend and role model.” Dylan’s parents also expressed gratitude to the educators who died with their son. “We cannot speak highly enough of Dawn Hochsprung and Mary Sherlach, exceptional women who knew both our children,” the family said. “Dylan’s teacher, Vicki Soto, was warm and funny and Dylan loved her dearly. We take great comfort in knowing that Dylan was not alone when he died, but was wrapped in the arms of his amazing aide, Anne Marie Murphy. So, what did you do for your act of kindness? Please submit a comment below that you participated (Details are not necessary, but are certainly welcome!).

Tomorrow’s Post: What I Just Love about Visiting the Dentist….

Last week’s Sandy Hook honoree was Olivia Engel. With the previous honorees, I had no difficulty thinking of something that I could do to honor each of them. But, Olivia was so involved in the short time she was on the planet, that it was difficult to choose how I could do something on her behalf. But, Olivia was “into” soccer and since all 3 of my kids were soccer players and we have quite an active soccer association in our little town, I decided to try to locate the current President of this association and send him a donation that would allow a child to play soccer for one season “on me.”  I remember that paying for 3 registration fees, 3 sets of shin guards, and soccer fund raisers used to be a rather large expense. And since we are still recovering from a recession, I’m sure there are some talented young athletes whose parents just can’t afford that fee anymore. And for those of you still doing the “soccer chauffeur runs,” don’t forget your folding chair, the water bottle, your warm blanket, and a loud, happily-cheering voice!

So, our 26 Acts of Kindness MIP count stands at 11! And here is a little bit about today’s honoree:

Josephine Gay, 7

Josephine had just celebrated her seventh birthday Tuesday (before the Sandy Hook shooting). There’s a picture of her on the Web, published in various news stories, that shows her smiling with glasses on the tip of her nose. Josephine liked to ride her bike and sell lemonade in her neighborhood in the summer, The Wall Street Journal reported. The little girl loved the color purple.

What did you do for your Act of Kindness? Remember–it’s okay to simply say you participated, but it’s also okay to elaborate if you’d like.

Tomorrow’s Post: We’re now fighting meteors…with a Death Star?

Last week we honored Rachel D’Avino, a staff member at Sandy Hook Elementary. Rachel loved animals. Since I am in the process of converting the DD’s bedroom into a writing office, she and I are slowly sifting through her girlhood items and deciding what to keep and what to donate, etc. As with most girls growing up, the DD wound up with a fair number of stuffed animals in her room. She and I talked Super Bowl weekend and surveyed her collection and she was okay with letting go of the big teddy bears in her room. As a counseling intern I did a fair number of counseling sessions at a family therapy center in a nearby town. I asked one of the partners if she might be able to use the teddy bears in the therapy playroom.  She said, “Yes!” So 3 rather large bears and a few miscellaneous smaller animals are going off to a new home this afternoon! Today that puts our total of Acts of Kindness at 9! What did you do for your Act of Kindness? Please submit a comment below to let me know if you participated, so I can “up” our count for MIP. Thanks in advance. As always, you don’t have to say what you did…just that you participated.

Here is this week’s honoree. Olivia was one of the students at Sandy Hook.

Olivia Engel, 6

Last week’s Sandy Hook honoree was Daniel Barden, who liked drums. Since I live with two percussionists, the LSH and I went to our local music store and searched the extensive offerings of drumsticks for a few sets that would help out our local church. (We have a contemporary service each Sunday.) When the owner of the store learned that we were giving the drumsticks to our church, he not only gave us a discount, but he also gave us a free set of drumsticks! What a generous man!  I felt like we were the ones receiving the act of kindness!

A relative of ours said he gave a larger than usual tip to his server at his local restaurant as his act of kindness this past week, so the MIP 26 Acts of Kindness stands at 7 and we are only two weeks into this little “campaign.” What did you do for your act or acts of kindness this week? (And yes, it’s okay to just say you completed an act or acts of kindness.)

Today’s honoree is one of the staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary and in light of the holiday we will be celebrating this coming Thursday, it is truly sad to read about Rachel D’Avino. But, I hope her example will become an example to us all and that we will make sure she did not die in vain:

Rachel D’Avino, 29