Finding Kind at Flower Mound High School.

The past two days have been life-shaking. I realize that sounds dramatic, and many will blatantly laugh at my bold statement. But I don't care! These past two days I will remember forever, and the Finding Kind event has gone down in MY personal history as one of my most proud moments.

A quick history...I created a group called The Denton Women's Collective exactly a year ago. Here is my original blogpost explaining my thoughts and feelings regarding the start up of this organization, from back in December 2010. We have come so far in a year! Here is the post I wrote back in summer explaining how excited I was for us to really take off with Operation Beautiful, our sponsored child from India, and Finding Kind.

My friend (and personal role model!), Brittany Sassaman, completely organized the Finding Kind event. She found out about it, shared it with the Denton Women's Collective, contacted the film-makers, and hosted a viewing for the DWC at her apartment. She then got in touch with the FMHS administration and set up a meeting for us to view this film with the vice principals and counselors. They saw the need for this in the school and together, we brought this film to over 1200 girls this week. I have never in my life assisted with an event this size. I never thought about it because I never thought I could. Not only do I feel we positively impacted our community, I feel the WOMEN (specifically Brittany) in this organization LIFTED ME UP and helped me achieve more as an individual. And together, the counselors at FMHS and the women of the DWC lifted each other and lifted the community. What an incredibly rewarding experience.

A Kind Wall at FMHS filled with pledges girls have taken to be kind toward others AND themselves!

Kind Pledges

There are so many powerful scenes in this documentary, but the overall message is simple. Be Kind. If you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. You don't have to be everybody's friend, but you don't have to be rude to people you don't like. Include others. Stand up for others. Do not tolerate hate. We can't all be beautiful, smart, or talented...but we can all be kind. One of my favorite lines was when a doctor asked a new father, "What do you want your son to be?" and the father responded in one word...."Kind." Not handsome, not smart, not rich...And it costs us nothing. One of the girls last night told us, "We see a lot of programs on drugs and alcohol and other things that are really big deals. I'm kind of surprised it's taken this long for us to see something applicable to everybody...and it really is easy, we just need a reminder." Wow. Powerful.

Brittany and Rachel (founding DWC members) staying after the discussion, reaching out to girls from FMHS. The openness of these girls and willingness to take the pledge was inspirational!

At the end of the discussion last night, I was in exactly the right place at the right time. I knew (excuse the religious tangent) that God had placed me there for a reason. I felt aligned with my purpose, and I felt like God was winking at me or something with the uncanniness of a particular event....that's another long story, and I mainly want to share the overall message of Finding Kind and some photos! I'll save the awesome story for another post...

In summation, Be Kind! Check out the Denton Women's Collective! And thanks for reading! Thanks to the Flower Mound community for participating. Thanks to the counselors for facilitating. Thanks to my friends in the DWC for lifting me up. Thanks to Brittany for being an INCREDIBLE leader in this movement. Thanks to Dierdre, my future mother-in-law (eeeeeek!) for skipping a board meeting to come last night, and for dinner and drinks afterward!

Thursday Night in the Gym!
600+ in attendance!

And thanks to my mom, who without fail, has showed her support at every DWC event since the start. Your love and support mean more to me than you'll ever know.