Celebrate World Kindness Day!

World Kindness Day is an annual celebration that takes place on November 13th. The holiday was created by the World Kindness Movement - a group made up of various humanitarian groups across several countries. Its members pledged to “join together to build a kinder and more compassionate world” -  inspiring people to commit acts of kindness. 

The World Kindness Movement hopes to attain official recognition status as a day of observance by the United Nations. A large step forward was taken to this end when the UN tweeted about the day last year. In a year where the world needed kindness perhaps more than ever, the UN gave a nod to the day by tweeting about its importance, sharing its hashtag, and encouraging people to participate.  In an effort to continue the important movement this year, here are some different ways that you can take action on World Kindness Day.

There is truly no act of kindness that is too small. Keep your impact local: you can give someone a compliment, go out of your way to help someone at the store with their bags or with the door, pay for the person behind you in the drive thru, or donate books, clothes, or food to your community. 

Think about the amount of good you can do by simply being kind intentionally. Was there a time you received a compliment at the start of your day? Or when someone held the door for you at the coffee shop or picked up something that you dropped? These little acts of kindness can often kick start our day in a positive direction and allow us to brighten the days of those around us.

OR take your impact internationally: Connect with someone you wouldn’t normally in your video game chat, share your knowledge with others by answering a yahoo post, or support a new charity or organization in the business of helping others! Kindness works in a ripple effect. Go out of your way today to be kind to others and encourage them to pay it forward and do the same. Simple compassion has the power to bring us together and contribute to a more positive society.  

You can celebrate World Kindness Day with LtN by joining us in our Giving Tuesday Campaign. In the end of the month, we and those that have joined our campaign will be honoring mentors in our life through social media, so that we can in turn provide mentors to our student athletes. Even if you can’t donate yourself, you can share a post that can spread the word and encourage others to donate. And if you are able to give, consider donating even as little as your daily coffee. Your donation alone can go a long way, and imagine the impact if everyone chose this small act of kindness today.

Let's Celebrate Make a Difference Day!

October 23, 2021

CNU Men’s Lacrosse volunteer, Will C. participating in LtN’s Beach clean-up in Panama.

This Saturday, October 23rd, is Make a Difference Day. It is celebrated on the fourth Saturday of October each year. On this day, people come together in a common mission to improve society. Make a Difference Day was founded in 1992 when USA Weekend, the second-largest national newspaper at the time, suggested to their readers that they should do something good for their communities and for those in need. Their reasoning and selling point was that since that year was a leap year, and therefore had an extra day, that the day should be put to good use by helping others. Today, the holiday places emphasis on volunteerism and community service by encouraging everyone to take action in their community

There are endless examples of how one may choose to observe Make A Difference Day. It can be organizing a food drive, blood drive or recycling event, cleaning up a local park or school grounds, volunteering at an animal shelter or senior home, or helping raise money for a local charity or donating yourself. It can even be as simple as writing a Thank You card or saying some kind words to someone who is struggling. There is no shortage of ways that you can help your community or those in need and there is no gesture too big or too small! This day is the perfect way for people to give something back to the communities in which they live, work, or play. You can choose any area of need that exists within your community and find a way to help. 

If you have your own great idea for making a difference in your community, you can plan your own service project for Make A Difference Day! Planning a service project gives you the chance to be a leader in your community and allows others to come together for a good cause - which is yet another way to make a difference by deepening relationships between neighbors and creating a fun day for your community! Project leaders who register a project at the Make A Difference Day website are also eligible for the Make A Difference Day awards. Each year, 14 winners each receive a $10,000 grant to donate to the charity served by their project! Be sure to check out the Make A Difference Day Website if you wish to register your own project, find inspiration for ways you can make a difference, join a service project that interests you, or read some incredible stories about how some people have helped make a difference in their community!

LtN student-athletes Denis and Adolfo help clean their community beach.

Are you still looking for a service project to take on for the big day? Join LtN’s mission to make a difference in the lives of children around the world, using lacrosse! You can donate, become an ltn champion, or even volunteer to coach lacrosse in your local area! Need tips on a youth lacrosse clinic? LtN provides all the tools and tips to get started - just shoot us a message! 

Do something, anything, on Make A Difference Day this year that will help better your community and our society, and encourage others to do the same! Anyone, no matter their age or background can take action, big or small, to make the world a better place. 

- Panama Program Director, Caleigh DeCaprio

#MakeADifferenceDay #NationalMakeADifferenceDay

Sports on World Mental Health Day!

Mental Health in sports and in athletes. It’s just as big as physical health. 

Happy World Mental Health Day! The goal of this day is to raise awareness of mental health issues, to mobilize efforts in support of mental health, and to remind people of the priority mental health should take. The day-to-day aspects of our lives such as work, sports, school and relationships can drain our mental health, or rejuvenate it. By understanding what boosts and drains your mental health personally, you can recognize when you can dig in or when you need to take a moment for yourself to maintain healthy balance.

For athletes, mental health is just as big of a factor in performance as physical health. During the Summer Olympics, Simone Biles demonstrated exactly how important it is to recognize your limits mentally. When an athlete is facing bad mental health, it can affect their relationships, their personal confidence, their body, their love for the sport and so much more. With physical performance inextricably tied to mental state, sports can become a great platform for exercising of self-awareness and the building of positive mental practices.

At the youth development level, sport becomes many people’s first encounter with the practice of “leaving your problems at the door.” By this, we do not mean “totally ignore your issues by distracting yourself on the field.” When taught intentionally by trained coach mentors, the sports field becomes the place to assess your current mental state to come to a decision on what and how you can contribute outside of yourself today - that goes for coaching too! When we are able to hone this skill, sports can become a healthy way to take a break ourselves from the things that suck our emotional energy, and can provide us with space away from a problem that may help us find perspective and solution. While LtN uses lacrosse as our tool for healthy mental processing, we all have hobbies and passions that can provide this space for us.

When your mental health is low, it is important to take the time to nurture it and build it back up. Some ways to improve mental health are to seek help through a mentor or trained professional, do something fun, get physically active, think about the things you’re thankful for, or spend time helping others. Take the time to think about where your mental health is today, and the ways that you can improve it. Happy World Mental Health Day to all the beautiful minds!