criticize or bully each other and
instead treated one another with
kindness imagine people disconnecting
from their phones to reconnect with each
other and engage in real life imagine
people going out of their way to help a
complete stranger in a huge way imagine
a world where kids could grow up in an
environment where doing good was fun and
kindness was cool so that bullying can
be stopped before it even has the chance
to start in their generation imagine a
world where everyone can wake up and not
have to wonder whether or not they’re
going to get a single decent meal that
day hello my name is Tegan Adams and I’m
here to talk to you about one simple way
we can all change the world for the
better when I was just a nine-year-old
kid I was really into doing good and I
was currently raising money to build a
school in Kenya Africa I was also into
the classic Pokemon cards and so my mom
challenged me to combine my love of
Pokemon cards and my passion for doing
good and come up with my own card game
that had to do a thing good so I went
off to my room and started scribbling
away and came up with the card game that
I have today basically looking at the
example card that I have with me here
you simply complete the challenge as
seen at the bottom so in this case just
give someone a smile and doing so you
receive the strength points as seen in
the top right corner so in this case
you’d received five strength points and
you can be used both in the home and the
classroom with the available teaches
lesson plan manual so a little while
after coming up with the original
sketches of the cards my mom told me
that the Dragons Den auditions were
coming to Kelowna and as a nine-year-old
kid I thought it’d be pretty cool to
even say I auditioned for the national
television show so that’s just what I
did and I ended up landing a spot on the
actual show and coming out of Dragon’s
Lair with $2,000 for zero percent of the
and you can also look in your lanyards
and you’ll find your very own duets card
and after you leave here today I want
you to complete the simple act of
kindness and then give the card to the
person that you did the simple act of
kindness for and tell them to pass it on
and hopefully we can start a do goods
movement now you’re probably wondering
how exactly this has to do with my talk
well one of the ways that we can all
change the world for the better is
through simple acts of kindness which is
the whole idea of do goods now by show
of hands how many of you believe that
one small act of kindness can change the
world that’s good because kindness
really is contagious I’m going to tell
you exactly how that is when you do a
kind act for someone expecting nothing
your return a chemical called oxytocin
is released in your body the person is
on the receiving end and anyone around
watching oxytocin is a chemical that
when released it makes you feel happier
healthier I want you to do more good for
example if you were to even just give
someone a simple smile it would release
oxytocin in their body yours
and anyone around watching making all of
you happier I want any two more good and
you just keep going from that the thing
is in order to really disrupt the
bullying epidemic we must go farther
than smiles we need to learn to
disconnect from our phones and reconnect
with each other
so we can engage in real life when
you’re walking down the street be aware
of things like doors even old open or
books that you can help someone pick up
off the ground these are the things that
the most optimistic caring people miss
because we’ve all become too attached to
our phones and other devices now I’m
gonna tell you a story and I want you to
really try to visualize what I’m about
to tell you I want you to imagine an
elderly lady trying and struggling to
bring all of her groceries to her car
everyone’s just walking straight past
her texting away on their phones until
one man decides to look up from his
phone and help her with her groceries a
little while later that elderly lady
comes across the younger lady
frantically searching her purse for some
change to pay for the parking meter so
the elderly lady pays her some effort
gives her some of her change that
younger lady then comes across an
individual experiencing homelessness
that she’s always previously just walked
straight past and decides to take a
moment to talk to him
and that really makes his day so when a
biker then comes by and drops his wallet
that individual experiencing
homelessness immediately grabs the
wallet and Sprint’s after the biker to
give him his wallet back
oxytocin can create a movement like it
did in the story but not all its own we
need to be willing to disconnect from
our phones and reconnect with each other
so we can engage in real life so what
I’ve been talking about are those simple
acts what about those great acts where
we’re called on to help someone in a
more profound way that could even be
putting our own lives at risk to have a
complete stranger just like Wesley
Autrey did at a New York subway one
afternoon nearby Autry a man suddenly
collapsed having a seizure and fell into
the tracks between two rails when
suddenly the headlights of a train
appeared watch you immediately jumped
down into the into the tracks below in
an effort to save the man the train was
slowing down trying to stop but it just
wasn’t enough watch we immediately
pushed the man down into a hole about a
foot deep just as the train passed by
miraculously both men survived unharmed
to us the Autry it was just a reaction
but I can guarantee you that he’d been
practicing simple acts of kindness in
his daily life leading up to that moment
that really defined him and we too will
have opportunities in our daily lives to
be that everyday hero but we like him
need to be practicing simple acts of
kindness in our daily lives so that we
too will act on instinct when that
moment arrives for example Martin Luther
King didn’t just stand up there one day
she was practicing from the time he was
a little boy standing up for himself and
others leading up to that moment when he
stood in front of the world and made
that grand declaration these are two
very big examples Martin Luther King was
very influential and it may seem that
compared to him and the other 7 billion
people alive today that you can’t make
much of a difference but you can make a
difference
I like this firsthand as a nine-year-old
kid when my mom gave me and each of my
brother’s a toonie and a challenge she
challenged us to use our own creativity
and talents to use that money to buy
supplies and then use those supplies to
make more money and then give it back to
charity I decided to do lemonade stands
where I would sell the lemonade for $1
but along with the lemonade would come a
cool toy that I would find from in my
house that I was too grown-up to use by
then it also came with a free refill I
kept on getting opportunities to saw my
lemonade because it was really
convenient living in such a small town
at the time that everyone was very
supportive and I was able to sell it at
my local street down at a local street
dance and other local gatherings and my
brothers and I also did bottle drives
where we would collect bottles from
whoever we could we would then use the
money earned from that to give to the
charity so we collected bottles from one
of the people that we got the bottles
from was the fire department since my
dad volunteered there and I mean you
know how firefighters are with their
by then we figured we should probably
come up with exactly what charity to
give the money to so we settled on using
it to build a school in Kenya Africa we
really enjoyed the excitement and
satisfaction of giving and decided we
didn’t want to stop there we also raised
enough money to build a school in
Nicaragua and unlike the one in Kenya we
actually got to travel to Nicaragua to
see the school we stayed in a small surf
camp in the small town of Gigi Leo and
we experienced the extreme poverty
firsthand and everyone there was sure
they were living on the ocean but they
were all living just in the dirt with
sleeping in their hammocks and if they
were lucky maybe little huts and and one
of the days that we were there we went
to the a nearby garbage dump where
people were living in even more extreme
poverty and we served in to stuff soup
the kids seemed to just come from out of
nowhere lining up with mismatched bowls
and pails and we’ve had over 200 kids
that day and the experience was it
benefited me as much as if not more then
it probably benefited them the
experience was really eye-opening and it
made me realize how much more we can
contribute and while I was there I wrote
a slam poem that I’d like to share with
you today no food hungry as a bear after
hibernation wasting really away without
water no bed but still happy no
education but still hopeful seemingly
invisible yet still there imagine for a
moment this is your life
your reality
you wake up and wonder if you’re gonna
get a single decent meal that day this
is their life every day so next time you
want to be wasteful think of all you
have and be grateful be grateful for a
place to call home and the freedom to
roam as many do not have the opportunity
to break into immunity from the clutch
of poverty beautiful for a bed to lay
your head be grateful for food water
education freedom I’ve seen poverty
firsthand but isn’t only in a distant
land we together can end poverty in our
city province country and our world we
can all do our part we gotta start
together we can raise a new generation
and end this cruel desperation
[Applause]
[Music]
so while I was there I realized two
things a how much we have and need to be
grateful for and B how much we can and
need to contribute and that was just us
kids all nine years old and younger they
were able to raise enough money to build
a school in just one year to only
lemonade stands bottle drives magic
shows and a couple of bake sales so
imagine what you as University students
teachers parents and community members
could do you can all use your creativity
to make a difference just like I did as
a nine-year-old kid when I was able to
sell much more just because of the fact
that I used my creativity to add a twist
of lemonade that I was selling by giving
a cool toy and a free refill and plus it
also gave the parents incentive to buy
it for their kids since the money earned
went to charity and I mean who would say
no to a cute little nine-year-old kid
who is trying to make a difference each
of you has the power to make a
difference like I did as a nine-year-old
kid and I know that’s times it may seem
that the little things don’t make that
big of a difference like for example
picking up that one piece of garbage it
seems that it won’t make that big of a
difference because there’s so many
others lying around anyways but it can
make a difference if each and every one
of us were to pick up that one piece of
garbage it would make a difference and
that difference starts with you not only
can we make a difference we can also
raise the next to the next generation
just like my mom was to me teaching me
that I could make a difference as just a
nine-year-old kid you are all leaders
and we can all raise the next generation
in an environment we’re doing it is fun
and kindness is cool all we have to do
is realize the power of kindness and
that it really is contagious and then
act on that realization by disconnecting
from our phones and reconnecting with
each other and always being on the
lookout for someone that can use a
little help or an extra hand in any way
we also need to realize that we’re doing
these simple acts of kindness we’re
preparing ourselves to step up in a much
bigger way when the time comes and not
only do we need to realize these things
we need to teach them to the next
generation so we can raise kids as
upstate
instead of bystanders and lastly we need
to realize that we can make a difference
and the only thing stopping you is your
own self doubt just like Scott Adam said
there’s no such thing as a small act of
kindness every act creates a ripple with
no logical end this is the power we all
have whether we’re 9 19 or 90 to change
the world one simple act of kindness at
a time thank you
[Applause] [Music]