LOCAL RESIDENT STARTED A KINDNESS MOVEMENT TO CONQUER GROWING TREND OF UNKINDNESS IN THE WORLD
NAPERVILLE–In late 2016, Naperville resident Karyn Ross, author, TEDx speaker, consultant and founder of The New School for Kind Leaders, was seeing a growing trend of unkindness in the world. “I saw it in how our leaders spoke and acted, I saw it on TV, I saw it on social media, and I saw it when I traveled all over the world speaking and teaching for my job,” says Karyn. “Unkindness has become an epidemic.” Wanting to do something to start a kindness movement, Karyn had the idea to create small green buttons with red hearts on them and slips of paper with messages such as ‘Plant Kindness and Grow Love’ and ‘Practice Kindness’. The idea was to anonymously leave buttons and slips wherever she was – airports, restaurants, grocery stores – for people to find! Three years later, in 2019, Karyn founded The Love and Kindness Project Foundation.
A registered 501(c)3 charity, The Love and Kindness Project Foundation (LKPF) is dedicated to creating a world of love and kindness before money. Unlike many public charities, LKPF focuses not on raising funds but on ‘raising kindness’ – especially with adults because adults solve world problems and raise kind kids. The foundation’s kindness is facilitated by giving out, at no cost (including shipping), Love and Kindness Buttons, hosting kindness events, providing downloadable material for those interested in kindness activities and handing out micro-grants to help others create their own Kindness Projects. Resources are available in many different languages. “Every single person can be kinder – background, language and economic circumstance is never a barrier,” says Karyn.
Since LKPF began, they have given out over 40,000 Love and Kindness buttons and given businesses, schools and individuals all over the world micro-grants of up to $250.00 to fund kindness projects of their own.
When the foundation first started, it was supported by the cashback Karyn received from her visa cards from work travel and from the royalties of her books. As a kindness raising organization, LKPF never expects anyone to donate (though it is kind and greatly appreciated). THE HEART COMPANY donates $1 per bottle to LKPF of its vegan fragrance, KINDNESS in a bottle, and this past Giving Tuesday, LUSH North America featured the foundation in all of its stores and online as well as donating all of the sales from the Snow Fairy Bath Bomb. “It is more important for people to do an act of kindness in return for our materials or help. That’s what will change the world.”
For more information on The Love and Kindness Project Foundation or to order buttons or donate, visit The Love and Kindness Project Foundation – Non Profit Foundation Site or follow them on social media to get a free #EveryDayKindness idea. Facebook: The Kindlies, Instagram @lovekindnessprojectfoundation .-Mindy Kyle, Photos Submitted
