It all started with a parade float on New Year’s Day.

There I was, cozily ensconced on my living room sofa watching the Tournament of Roses Parade. Into the TV’s frame floated a gorgeously floral, festive display depicting the story of the Three Pigs and the Big, Bad, Wolf.

But in this reimagined version of the fable on wheels, the Wolf had decided to help the Three Pigs, offering a hand to rebuild their homes. The parade commentator announced that the float entry was from the “Kindness is Free” organization.

The organization’s name hooked me immediately, sparking this thought: kindness IS free, isn’t it?

It costs us nothing to be kind to someone. Here at Wisdom of Wounded, we often remark that “small acts of kindness can make a big difference” and our founder Karen Mulder is very fond of the Starfish Story which emphasizes that everyone has the power to make a positive impact.  I immediately made a mental note to research the Kindness is Free organization after the holidays.

What I discovered is truly inspiring. Kindness is Free (“KIF”) is an organization devoted to showing kids that it is easy to be kind. Through their affiliation with the Boys & Girls Clubs of West San Gabriel Valley & Eastside, KIF works with organizations that want to spread the message of the rewards that being kind brings.

KIF’s mission has led them to collaborate with schools, libraries, places of worship, senior centers and municipalities as they encourage young people with this message: being kind is easy, and it doesn’t have to “cost” anything.  Although based in southern California, KIF’s momentum is growing as their message spreads throughout our country.

My curiosity prompted me to reach out to KIF’s Chief Kindness Officer Josue Arias who put me in touch with Scott Ehlers, their Chief Kindness Strategist. Given the cultural moment we’re in, I wanted to know:  how tough of a sell is “kindness” for today’s youth? Scott told me via a Zoom interview that the message of being kind to your friends, family, neighbors—and even strangers— is a remarkably easy message to share. “When we go out to our pop-up community events, kids of all ages want to help out. They see adults getting the ball rolling and are really eager to jump in,” he shared.

For example, during the Palisades and Eaton fires in California, the Kindness is Free organization went into the community to distribute water, and Scott witnessed a group of middle schoolers jumping right in. (Mom Side Note here: if you’ve ever lived with a 7^th or 8^th grader, you know they can be notoriously skeptical of what adults tell them, so this was impressive.)

And older teens are equally passionate about making a difference. Scott shared with me the story of a high schooler named Carla from the local Boys & Girls Club who attended the Kindness is Free Teen Summit. Summit organizers issued a challenge to the teens: go into your communities with acts of kindness. Carla had recently heard that men and boys rarely receive flowers—and she decided to change that, figuring that everyone deserves to receive flowers. So, she organized friends and other club members to create paper flowers.  Then they went out into their community distributing little floral tokens of joy to men and boys.

Towards the end of our interview, Scott invited me to become a Kindness Ambassador. I took the pledge and now join 295,00 people who have pledged to become an ambassador of spreading kindness.

As for me, now that I’m a Kindness Ambassador, what’s my plan? I’m going to deepen my commitment to an intention I set for this year, which was to reach out more consistently to my social circle with a simple message of support. You know the saying, “Be kind because everyone is fighting a hard battle?” Well, many times even friends that we know well hide their “battles” from us. So, I’ve been meditating quietly every few days to see whose name comes to mind. Then I reach out with a few words of encouragement and support. So far, the response has been very positive; people are always so happy to hear from a supportive friend.

This intentional reaching out—offering compassionate gestures of support—is what I’ve most learned from my time with Wisdom of the Wounded. And it reminds me that kindness may be free, but it still asks something of us: attention, compassion and action for its magic to work.