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Recently it was “PAY IT FORWARD DAY”
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It reminds us on how helping others is a key to developing our communities.
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How can we coach our youth to adapt this ancient but relevant concept?
PAY IT FORWARD DAY:
Last Thursday, the 28th of April was ‘Pay It Forward’ day. It appears that in 2015, people from about 75 countries participated in Pay It Forward Day.
What, you may ask, is ‘Pay It Forward Day’?
The concept is one where the recipient of a good deed is asked to continue the chain of kindness by doing something nice for someone else. The beneficiary of a good deed repays it to others instead of repaying the original benefactor.
This is a way of building community. Benjamin Franklin described the concept in a letter he wrote in 1784 to a Benjamin Webb, in which he stated that he was lending him some money and to pay him back ,Webb must lend this amount to someone else who should then also pay it forward. This was Benjamin Franklin’s trick to do a great amount of good with a little amount of money.
The concept of paying it forward was used as a key plot element in a play by Menander in ancient Greece in 317 BC. I told you it was an ancient concept.
This sense of helping others in our communities would be a great lesson for our youth to learn. After all, it is helping others that makes all of us stronger and more effective throughout our lives. One of our greatest times of joy is when we help someone in a time of need. It is a basic skill we should all learn and practice.
HOW MIGHT WE ENCOURAGE OUR YOUTH TO PRACTICE ‘PAY IT FORWARD?’
There are organizations that encourage us to use the Pay It Forward method.
Here is an example of a Pay It Forward Day card for primary school attendees. In this example a participant would do a good deed to show others they care, mark the card and hand it off to that person to pay their kind deed to another person. That person would then hand off the card so that they can pay it forward and so on. Here are some examples from such a card:
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Be kind to someone you usually ignore.
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Help a friend with their homework.
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Write a get well letter to someone who is sick in hospital.
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Do some extra chores at home.
SOME EXAMPLES:
These are some examples that can be used to introduce the concept of Pay It Forward to our youth. You can find an example of such a card at:
http://payitforwardday.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/PIF_Card__Primary_School_2009_V1.pdf
If you wish to read about some examples of Pay It Forward in practice, you can find them at:
http://aplus.com/a/7-true-pay-it-forward-stories
It is suggested that when we are coaching our youth, this could be a good technique that we could introduce to them. We could ask them as a group to create their own cards and encourage them to try the pay it forward concept and report back on their experiences.
What do you think about the Pay It Forward concept? Please share your comments.
Wishing you lots of love and laughter, as always.
Fred Jones
Victoria BC, Canada
Fred Jones