Estimated time to complete activitiy:
2 hours

Materials needed:
Order blue ribbons (Enough for his/her class plus a few extra) that say "Who I Am Makes A Difference" from local trophy store.

Description:
A teacher decided to honor each of her high school students by telling them the difference they each made. She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time. First she told each of them how they had made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon with gold letters which read, "Who I am makes a difference."

Afterwards, she decided to do a class project to see what kind of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the students 3 more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgement ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored whom and report back to the class in about a week.

One of the boys went to a junior executive and honored him for helping him with his career planning. He pinned a blue ribbon on his shirt. Then he gave him the other two ribbons and told him about the class project.

The junior executive went to see his boss who was known as a grouch. He told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius and pinned the ribbon on his jacket. He gave him the final ribbon & told him about the boy's project.

That night, the boss went home and told his 14-year-old son about the amazing thing that had happened to him that day. He told him that he wanted to honor him. He said, "My days are really hectic and when I come home, I don't pay a lot of attention to you. I yell at you for being messy and not getting better grades, but I want you to know that you make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you."

The boy began crying and told his father that he had been thinking of committing suicide because he didn't think his dad loved him.

This Christmas, I will be giving my children's teachers the gift of making 50 people each feel that they make a difference. I hope this inspires others to give something wonderful to their children's teachers - the gift of making 50 people feel special about themselves.