Today in our busy lives it is easy to forget what makes our hearts stronger. It is easy to get caught up in all that we need to get done for our families, our friends, and ourselves. Recently, our family been so wrapped up in getting the kids ready for school, struggling with family issues, health crisis after health crisis and just maintaining balance in a hectic life. Here at TKO, we’ve also been working to gather supplies for our next big orphanage trip and seeking out charities in need for our next fundraising event. We continue to help make acts of kindness simple for families so that they may feel the heart-warming reaction that an act of kindness returns.
Today we took a moment to reconnect with why we started TKO. TKO was created in our efforts to teach our children to be kind. We found a day in our calendar that we didn’t have plans, we decided to go to Smart and Final and pick up bread, turkey, lettuce, oranges, candies, cookies and drinks. We packed sandwiches together, turned the music up, sang and moved as we created our own system to pack over 150 lunch bags. We loaded our car and headed to a park in Santa Monica.
When we got there we learned that there is a church group that delivers lunch every Sunday at 12 but there is never enough food. The people swarmed us and everyone was appreciative. We have been feeding homeless since our son Keanu was 2 and he is now 12 and preparing for his Bar Mitzvah. Our son Tristen, who is now 10 years old, hands out sandwiches and drinks like a seasoned pro. A homeless man we met said that he gets a small check every month but by the end of the month the money is gone so they are more hungry than ever, meaning that our efforts are overwhelmingly needed.
Times are tough for all of us. We all have people in our lives that we help emotionally, financially, and physically. Some have more than others and some have nothing at all. Today our boys met many people who have absolutely nothing, no roof over their head, no food that they can count on and no family to turn to. Today we remembered why we started TKO, It was Tristen and Keanu’s organization of Helping Hands. We wanted them to learn kindness, we wanted their friends to have a chance to experience it with them, and we wanted to share our time shaping their lives with them. Nothing could replace the love, compassion and bonding that we all got from our giving today.
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Mandy Ellen
Founder
