That is, as in M.A.D. — Making a Difference.
I love to hear of children being involved in projects that help others, that aim to make a difference to the world. I have previously written about some of those projects here, here, and here. Sarah Brentyn, who blogs at Lemon Shark, often shares about the wonderful ways in which she and her boys are making a positive difference in their community.
This week I read about the M.A.D. projects of Canadian teacher Peter Cameron (a.k.a. Mr. C) and his students. At the beginning of the school year Mr. C challenged his students with the question, “What will you do to make a difference?” The projects, which were selected, organised, and conducted by the students, were recently completed. They included things such as:
- Helping others on snowy days by shovelling driveways
- Helping parents, grandparents, and great grandparents
- Giving compliments
- Supporting Doctors Without Borders
- Helping the elderly
- Helping at the Humane Society
- Keeping their school tidy
- Assisting the homeless by collecting socks, making supper, and hot chocolate
- Encouraging kids to eat healthy, and to spend more time outdoors.
- You can see a celebration of their projects in this video.
Mr. C. said that it was one of the most rewarding aspects of his 20+ years teaching career. The acknowledgement received from their member of parliament in the Canadian House of Commons, and his encouragement for others to join in, further affirmed the merit of the project.
Now Mr C. is reaching out to other classes around the world to join in with their M.A.D. projects and form a Global Make a Difference Team in which participants “complete a M.A.D Project to help make our world an even better, happier, healthier place to live”. Their goal is to have 100+ classes join in. Will yours be one of them?
To make it easy, Mr. C is making available to teachers all of his resources which may be modified to suit individual classes and situations. He says,
“The goal is simple: challenge your school, class, clubs and individual or groups of students to make a difference and see where it takes them! Be sure to let us know that your school/class will be participating and fill in the form to add your class to our M.A.D map!”
Places on the map are so far confined to North America. How wonderful it would be for locations to be added from all around the world. Children would see not only the differences they are making in their own communities, but also the positive actions of others around the world, which may in turn, inspire further projects.
Be sure to let us know of other projects that involve children in making a difference. I know there are many, some conducted by organisations, and others by individuals and families. They are what give us hope for the future.
Thank you for reading. I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.
Norah Colvin 
I appreciate your feedback. Please share your thoughts.