Who You Are Makes A Difference.. A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high sc= hool by telling them the difference they each made. Using a process developed= by Helice Bridges of Del Mar, California, she called each student to the fro= nt of the class, one at a time. First she told them how the student made a difference to her and the class. Then she presented each of them with a blue ribbon imprinted with gold letters which read, "Who I Am Makes a Difference." Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to see what kind= of impact recognition would have on a community. She gave each of the stude= nts 3 more ribbons and instructed them to go out and spread this acknowledgme= nt ceremony. Then they were to follow up on the results, see who honored wh= om and report back to the class in about a week. One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a nearby company and honored him for helping him with his career planning. He gav= e him a blue ribbon and put it on his shirt. Then he gave him two extra ribbons, and said, "We're doing a class project on recognition, and we'd = like you to go out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon, then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going. Then please report back to me and te= ll me what happened." Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss, who had = been noted, by the way, as being kind of a grouchy fellow. He sat his boss do= wn and he told him that he deeply admired him for being a creative genius. = The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked him if he would accept the gift of the blue ribbon and would he give him permisson to put= it on him. His surprised boss said, "Well, sure." The junior executive too= k the blue ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart. As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said, "Would you do me a favor= ? Would you take this extra ribbon and pass it on by honoring somebody els= e? The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project in school= and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going and find out how it affec= ts people.=94 That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son and sat him down. He said, "The most incredible thing happened to me today. I was in my office and one of the junior executives came in and told me he admired me= and gave me a blue ribbon for being a creative genius. Imagine! He thinks I= 'm a creative genius. Then he put this blue ribbon that says 'Who I Am Makes = A Difference' on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon and asked me to find somebody else to honor. As I was driving home tonight, = I started thinking about whom I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you. I want to honor you. My days are really hectic and when I co= me home I don't pay a lot of attention to you. Sometimes I scream at you fo= r not getting good enough grades in school and for your bedroom being a mes= s, but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just let you kn= ow that you do make a difference to me. Besides your mother, you are the mo= st important person in my life. You're a great kid and I love you!" The startled boy started to sob and couldn't stop crying. His whole = body shook. He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn't think you loved me. Now I don't need to." --Helice Bridges-- You are under no obligation to send this on to two people or to two hundr= ed. But if you have anyone who means a lot to=20 you, I encourage you to send them this message and let them know. You ne= ver know what kind of difference a little encouragement can make to a person. Send it to all of the people who mean anything important to you, or send= it to the one or two people who mean the most. Or just smile and know that someone thinks that you are important or you wouldn't have received this = in the first place. : ) Remember that! I give you a blue ribbon. Who you are makes a difference! And I wanted you to know you mean a lot to me! You mak= e a Difference! _____________________ | ************************* | | | | | | Who I Am | | Makes a | | DIFFERENCE | | | \ / \ / \ / \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Don (67, 11) & Harriet (CG)