1,600 Acts of Kindness
A selfless 18-year-old, who has learning disabilities and a rare chromosome anomaly, has carried out a random act of kindness every day since the start of the pandemic. Sebbie Hall, from Lichfield, Staffordshire, began his kindness marathon in early 2020 after he wanted to give his own iPad to a friend so they could Zoom.
Sebbie’s mom, Ashley, asked him to think about what skills he could use to raise cash. He responded: “I can be kind.” Since that day, the teenager has performed at least one act of kindness each day—totaling over 1,600 good deeds. Sebbie’s kindness has caught the attention of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who thanked him for his “wonderful determination,” and actress Joanna Lumley who said his kindness “stole my heart.”
The teen has posted mail for isolating locals, walked neighbor’s pets, watered gardens, washed cars (and a boat), baked cakes for nurses, given 100 roses to 100 women to make them smile, handed out lottery tickets bought with his own money to strangers, and helped at food banks. But that’s not all; he has also handed out PPE, turned unwanted Halloween pumpkins into pies and soup for needy people, and given warm coats to the homeless.
Other sweet gestures this selfless teen has carried out include:
- He has delivered 365 donated Easter eggs to random houses dressed as a bunny
- He dropped off secret Santa bags on 80 doorsteps last December
- He has written poems for various friends
- and delivered toiletries to the women’s refuge
His deeds attracted an astounding $39,000 (£28,000) in donations, which he has given to several charities. These funds have also paid for:
- 300 families to get adapted IT devices (such as an iPhone or tablet),
- Funded a disability rugby team,
- Three IT suites for youngsters to use to find work,
- Bought communication kits for children at four specialist schools,
- and set up a disability arts hub.
Sebbie —who was told that he would never talk or walk — has utterly defied those expectations and his own uneasiness about conversating with strangers. “Kindness is my superpower. I’m not stopping. I want to raise more money and make people happier,” the teenager pointed out.
Ashley explained:
It’s hard for any young person to go up to random strangers and speak to them, and even harder for Sebbie because he finds it really hard to find words himself. But he somehow found this inner strength of being kind. It’s given him a position within his own community and confidence that he didn’t have before.
Now, Sebbie — an inspiration to many – is raising money to set up physical therapy suites by running two miles per day.
Donating Fire Extinguishers
An 11th grade San Francisco student Arul Mathur has invented the Fire-Activated-Canister-Extinguisher (F.A.C.E.) to protect the property of people he loves – and he’s donating all the profits.
Mathur noted:
Over the past three years, there have been almost 7,500,000 acres of wildfire in California alone, destroying nearly 50,000 structures.
A single device can protect fire-risk areas in one’s house (like the attic or kitchen). At the same time, multiple can form a defensive perimeter around an entire property against low to moderate intensity fires.
How does it work? When a fire comes near the device, an integrated sensor detects the heat, causing a glycerin element to burst within and immediately releasing an eco-friendly fire-retardant spray 5-6 feet in all directions with the help of a sprinkler.
The fire-retardant can be re-filled relatively quickly, and the only other human-controlled aspect is the initial introduction of air pressure into the canister. This task can be executed manually via a valve at the top of the device.
Besides potentially winning himself a career in advertisement television with an outstanding reveal video and excitable timbre, Mathur introduced the device via Kickstarter with an offer of $99 for F.A.C.E, which will now go up on retail for $120 when production begins. In less than a day, he reached his goal of $10,000.
Currently, the only market alternative for F.A.C.E is a manual extinguisher or an automatic sprinkler system. However, if it’s not installed during the construction of the house, it will cost between $1 to $3 per square foot, equating to several thousand dollars for a family-size home.
While five to six feet of spray won’t put out large fires, if enough are placed in strategic areas, neighborhoods, and rural communities can prevent brush fires from becoming wildfires or kitchen fires from becoming house fires. One thing’s for sure; it could help delay a fire until firefighters come with more powerful equipment.
Mathur highlights that “we need to work together and tackle the spread of fires head-on.” This is why every penny of profit from the campaign will go toward donating F.A.C.E. devices to fire-prone areas that need them the most.
Watch the device instantly put out a fire in the video below.
