My Kids Save the World

Ok - perhaps a slight exaggeration.

I will readily admit that sometimes my kids drive me nuts.  Conversely, I’m sure I drive them nuts as well.  I know I drive my wife nuts.  Ah .. the circle of life.

However, my kids both have big hearts and a strong desire to do good for the world, and they actually act on that desire to help in ways that make me very proud.  With all of the coverage of the tragedy in Japan, they recently came to me and my wife wanting to know how they could help.  We suggested they think of how they could use the abundance of activities to which we cart them on a daily basis to raise funds to send for relief.  My son starts a twice-weekly swimming clinic this weekend, so after some creative and highly complex alternative ideas, they settled on raising money via a ‘swimathon’.  They would contact friends and family and ask them to pledge a per-lap amount, up to 100 laps, and then donate the collected money to the Red Cross.  Sounded like a good plan to us, so we gave them some ideas of how to spread the word and set them loose on the interwebs.

In less than a week they’ve managed to pull together a collective sponsorship of $2.00 per lap, so if they hit their 100 lap goal they will have raised $200 to help Japan recover from the devastation of the earthquake/tsunami.  In their world a lap is the same as the length of the pool.  When I get back to swimming for cross-training this summer I think I’ll do laps in their world.

The swimathon is tomorrow, and I’ll be in charge of the photography for the ‘event’.  I love that they wanted to do this, and I really love that they acted on it and will follow through and make it happen.  I could learn a little something from them about turning good intentions into reality.