Every calendar year when we start planning for the end of school testing, summer activities, and community projects we try to decide on a theme that teaches our kids something important about being a leader, and about being participants in their schools and communities.
This year we have chosen the theme of being a catalyst. One of the classical definitions of a catalyst is; "somebody or something that makes a change happen or brings about an event". Our idea was to plan educational activities and community events that help us to teach our kids that we can create big changes and solve big problems just by being willing to try.
I laugh now because it seemed like such a good idea at the time. Little did we all realize how true that theme would be for this year. A "little" project to have our kids run a 5k to raise money for One-Revolution has turned into a community celebration to raise money and build support for Chris Waddell and his effort to climb Kilimanjaro.
The whole NHC concept is also taking off. We wrote our first grant application to the National Science Foundation. We have budding partnerships to provide curriculum and collaboration that will allow us to launch new homework clubs throughout Utah. Even our little science fair effort yielded 10 science fair winners in our elementary group alone. It seems every time we start something it takes on a life of its own!
One of the great benefits of being a part of this community has been how much the kids teach all of us about how the world really works. When I start to see how being involved, getting good grades, and being prepared in school impacts our kids I start to see how we all are catalysts every day, with each interaction. In every situation we can make a decision to either make somebody's day better or worse by our actions. I feel so lucky that these special kids have opened my eyes to that part of the world. It makes me realize why I am such a hopeless optimist - I get to see the world through the eyes of the most powerful catalysts, our kids - and it gives me hope.
