A few weeks ago my child’s preschool was planning a week long project on teaching the kids about doing good deeds for others.
Just days before I was contacted by a desperate employee of a Bay Area family shelter. Eight babies had recently come through their doors and they were desperate for diapers. After pitching the idea to the school’s director, we decided that doing a good deed for these babies would be a great opportunity for the kids to directly help others.
The week before the diaper drive I came to school and made a little presentation to the kids. Let me just say: they were a hard crowd! I started off by asking them a few questions:
How many of you remember wearing diapers?
How many of you have a baby brother or sister at home?
Do they wear diapers?
Do they cry when they need their diapers changed?
We talked about how babies can get sad and uncomfortable when they need their diaper changed and how babies sometimes don’t have enough diapers. We talked about how sharing is important and that it feels good to help others. Their assignment for the next week was to bring a pack of diapers to school to put in our donation bin.
At the end of the week, the preschool collected 1000 diapers!
The kids were so supportive of the drive that they bragged about which diaper packs they had brought for the babies and had fun piling them into the bin.
At the end of the drive we donated the diapers to Fesco Family Shelter. They were surprised and thrilled to get the delivery!
I’m bringing the preschool some of the photos so they can hang them up in the classroom and talk about the good deed they did together. It was so much fun sharing the cause with them. Preschoolers get it!
To all of you out there who have preschool age children – will you take the Preschool Challenge? Talk to the school’s director about their plans to engage the kids with public service. You’ll be glad you did and we’d love for you to report back to us on your results!
Special thanks to my child’s preschool director and all the families who contributed!