The kids at the New Direction youth center with Brett Ellen (Kids Finance Coach)

Dear Brett and Denise (Kids Finance Coach.com)

THANK YOU SO MUCH for your wonderful presentation yesterday at New Directions for Youth! I was at our facility this morning and there is still and excited “buzz” in the building left over from your fun and informative event. Our kids were thrilled and shocked to receive such generous gifts from you. Not only did they learn a lot about finance and saving, investing, spending and donating (you see…I was listening), you made them feel very special. We all know that you don’t have to volunteer your time and energy they way you do. We so appreciate your kindness, generosity and desire to educate our youth. Not only are you wonderful role models for your own children, you are generous in spirit to other’s children, as well. I will send you photos in the mail as soon as I print them! I look forward to working together with you to make this world a better place for our youth. Thank you, again. Your amazing presentation will be remembered by all of us here at New Directions for Youth. I am privileged and honored to know both of you. Fondly, Patti Jo Wolfson

On May 3, 2012 Turn Kindness On and Kids Finance Coach paid a visit to the New

Directions for Youth Center in Hollywood. The kids learned the basics of finance and Brett Ellen the Kids finance coach offered prizes, gift cards, movie tickets, an autographed Kareem Abdul Jabbar book and an iPod Nano and speaker set to the kids that answered the questions and participated in the presentation. A great event for all involved. Keanu and Tristen Ellen from Turn Kindness On also helped with the presentation. Great job guys!

Kindness On the Go!  In February 2012, Kindness Ambassador-ettes Carole & Jacky volunteered and trotted alongside a penguin colony on the Island of Magdelana, located in south Chile.

*Do you have pictures and experiences you’d like to share with your fellow TKO ambassadors??  Send us your story, pictures, and videos to jeff@turnkindnesson.org

The LA Kings have donated 4 lower bowl seats for the Mar. 22nd Kings game as well as a Kings experience.  The experience is to have up to 6 people in the penalty box during the games warm up period.

Tickets to win this fabulous prize:  $5 each and the drawing will be held on March 18th.  Call 818 264-4981 to purchase your tickets .  All we need is your name, email and phone number.

On Saturday February 25th, TKO will have 40 volunteers at LA Live and the Staples center collecting donations and selling raffle tickets for TKO.  Please keep an eye out for our TKO volunteers, bring your loose change and small bills and help send a military child to summer camp.  You can make a difference.

TKO and over 120 volunteers gathered from 7 am-5 pm  for two days to transform a playroom for the disabled children and their families at Carousel ranch.  www.carouselranch.org is a horse therapy ranch that offers life changing programs that connect children and adults who have physical or mental disabilities with caring volunteers and specially trained horses.

Christina, a 17 year old girl scout who was on a mission to earn her gold badge used her determination, hard work and talent to renovate a storage room into a beautiful play room.  The new playroom, complete with big screen tv, playstation 3, poker table, foosball table and more will entertain the families while they are waiting for their children in therapy.  When TKO found out that Christina was working on this worthy cause, we were excited to join her.  Our volunteer team went into action by building a handicap ramp,  getting donations from American Financial Network, Galpin Ford, Farmer John’s, Costco, Trader Joe’s, United Airlines, Julia Wong designs, Western Bagels,  and over a hundred children and parents.  Ron Gause from Gause Painting donated his time and talent to get the best work out of our many volunteers.  Generous financial contributions were received from the Fardad, Cooper, Villanueva, Mcintosh, Parra and Lawson families and furniture and toys were donated by our other TKO families.

Becky and Denise from Carousel ranch were touched by the transformation.  They were truly appreciative for the hard work that the volunteers gave and theysaid they can’t wait till the families of the children can enjoy the room.

This was one of the largest undertakings that TKO has taken on and it was a huge success.  Beautiful 12 year old, Ava Maas sang the Turn Kindness On song for all of the volunteers at the completion of the project and that brought our Kindness mission to a perfect end.

The TKO founding family went back to their roots and visited the streets of Santa Monica this past weekend.  Through our non-profit organization, we have dedicated our lives to creating fun philanthropic projects for families to get involved in.  There are times when we are so busy making sure that everyone is safe and enjoying the heart warming affects of kindness that we don’t allow ourselves to connect and enjoy the moment.  On this beautiful, sunny February day we drove as a family to Santa Monica with over 150 meals.  Farmer John’s donated hundreds of hot dogs and sausages for our remodeling event at carousel ranch just 2 days earlier.  There we had worked with over 120 volunteers, in 2 days, building a playroom for disabled children.  We fed all the volunteers but we still had an abundance of sausages and hamburgers left in our cooler.  We decided to share the extras with the homeless people of Santa Monica.  We barbecued the sausages and kept them hot and ready to serve.  We handed out  chips, cold drinks, cupcakes and hot dogs and hamburgers to the many appreciative homeless men and women.

The first woman that was in line said “I am so hungry”.  My husband Brett and I looked at each other and instantly smiled as we remembered once again why it is important to not only do these small acts of kindness for others but for ourselves.  We have been blessed to have food on our table and enough to share with friends, relatives and strangers.  Our children, who have been feeding homeless for the past 12 years handed out much more then food.  They interacted, shared a moment of kindness and touched a life that may have been forgotten.  We hope that these memories that we make together as a family will stay with them forever.  As parents it has been an important part of our lives to instill our values into our children.  We offer them so many opportunities in life and one of the most important lesson that we offer is to value the life of others and to always help those in need.

We will be feeding homeless again next month and hope that you can join us, we just needed one for our family to reconnect and Turn Kindness On.

K2K video shoot

TKO has asked their volunteers to be a part of a Pilot show called Kids 2 Kids that will help families engage in philanthropic projects in their community and abroad.  A cast of TKO Volunteers will be featured in a program that will show the work that TKO engages in.  Jordyn is our K2K foreign ambassador and will report from Thailand on the work that TKO is doing in the orphanages of Bangkok.  She introduces the international aspects of what TKO does while overseas.  The other team members work together at the Kids 2 Kids clubhouse in Los Angeles to organize the needs and duties here in the United States.  Keanu, Grace, Sammi, Jordan, David and Tristen meet with Nik and learn about carousel ranch.  Nik introduces them to Christina, a 17 year old girl scout working on a project for her gold badge.  She has chosen to help carousel ranch and TKO wants to get involved.  (www.carouselranch.org provides horse therapy programs for disabled children) Christina, the Kids 2 Kids team and the TKO volunteers work together to remodel a play room for the kids and their families.

The show will inspire families to see how easy and important it is to make philanthropy a part of their lives.

Ka Hale A Ke Ola

“Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness:

The founding family of TKO has always lived with the Spirit of Aloha in their hearts, but on Jan. 18, 2012 they found a place of love nestled on the back roads of Wailuku, Maui.

Ka Hale A Ke Ola is a homeless resource center for families that provides necessities that families need to get back on their feet.  The shelter provides housing for the lucky few who get in and for those waiting they offer resources to help their children.  When a family needs to interview for a job, the staff provides free child care, counseling and educational skills to assist the parents in obtaining and keeping a job.  TKO was not allowed to take photos of the children as some of them were in hiding from abusive parents and relationships.

The children were loving and sweet and were playing in the playground as we toured the center.  Tiffany Somera, the Director of Children Services said that they are in need of everything from diapers to educational toys.  The children range in age from 6 weeks old to teenagers.  You can also donate your time and special skills to the teenagers.  We plan on offering a Kids Finance Lesson on our next trip by the kids finance coach.  www.kidsfinancecoach.com

If you want more information:

Contact:

Ka Hale A Ke Ola

808 986-8281

Once again we find that even in the most beautiful places in the world, there are kids in need.

TKO volunteers asking LA Kings Fans to donate to Camp TKO and Kings Care

TKO helping hands recently had 40 volunteers at the Staples Center. Their mission was to collect donations for kids from military families to attend summer camp.

The LA Kings and the Kings Care Program has teamed up with Turn Kindness On for three games during the season.  Jan. 7, Feb. 25 and March 17th.  Each of these games they will have TKO volunteers throughout the Staples Center asking for you to donate loose change that your children may find around your home or simply drop a bill or two.

They are also selling $5 raffle tickets for a great prize.  On January 7th, the Raffle tickets were sold and $2450 dollars was raised during that afternoon.

The Winner received 2 glass seats, row 1 for the January 12th game.

The Winner drawn:  Tim Raboin

Congratulations Tim, We will look for you on the glass at the next LA Kings game.

For more info or raffle tickets for our next drawing call: 818 264-4981

Using her home as a free day care center, Nuannoi Timkul (Khru Noi) hopes to save poor kids from drowning in a sea of poverty and illiteracy.

TKO (Keanu and Tristen Ellen) visited the Rat Burana slum of Thailand and found a 54 year old woman who has been caring for slum children for the past 17 years.  After a spinal operation, Khru Noi was paralyzed from the waist down.  All of her savings had been depleted and her husband, a factory worker and herself were near penniless.  While her husband went to work, Khru Noi who was dealing with her own depression saw children in her neighborhood who were wandering around the town, often stealing fruit from neighbors gardens to eat.  Unlike others who condemned the children, Khru Noi took them into her home and shared stories of life as well as the fruits from her home. According to Khru Noi, the parents of the slum children are mostly poor farmers who work as unskilled labor in the  Rat Burana area.  Khru Noi, who has a junior high education started to teach the children to read and write.  Her husband earned 70 baht a day (approximately $2.10) and gave her 20 baht (60 cents) which she used for noodles to feed the children.  Khru Noi sold her belongings and took odd jobs to earn extra money to buy books and a blackboard.  Within a few years she had over 60 children.  She tried charging the parents but the parents would then just make their children not go to Khru Noi and it left them wandering the streets so she stopped charging the parents.  She has helped a few of the children graduate from school and as we watched her limp and drag her paralyzed leg across the room, we could see a true love for her children through her eyes.  An amazingly inspiring woman, Khru Noi  touched the hearts of our TKO family.

Once a woman who was sad and depressed about her own life.  She has now taken it upon herself to help others.  Today her kindness has helped her to find a passion to care and teach children in need.

We carried bags of  dehydrated foods donated by Alpine aire foods and Natural high foods.  We also packed soccer balls and toys donated by the employees of American financial network from their Holiday party.  www.afn-net.com If you want to help Khru Noi, please let us know and we can send your donation to her or let you know how to reach her.  She is in need of financial assistance and from what we saw, she truly spends every cent on the children.  The very small, cluttered home had many children coming through during our 3 hours there.  We purchased pizzas and drinks and handed out many smiles to these very thankful children.

Thank you,

Team TKO

The Ellen family

Brett, Mandy, Keanu and Tristen Ellen

TKO visits the slums of Thailand

Our recent trip to Bangkok, Thailand once again proved very rewarding.  It showed us how easy it is to reach out to those in need. We asked the locals upon our arrival to our hotel if there was an orphanage that we could visit.  We stopped by a local market and purchased some diapers, wipes, food and drinks.  We called ahead of time to ask if we could bring some items.

We were welcomed by the staff and we were asked to watch a video about their services.  The Baan Fuengfa center cares for 440 children from ages 2-13 years old. These children were all mentally or physically disabled.  Their families were not able to care for them so they were placed to live at this full time residence.

TKO was touched by the sweetness of the children.  We had the opportunity to sit with them during their lunch time.  The Baan Fuengfa center is government funded and also takes private donations at the Krung Thai Bank Public Company Ltd.  Pakkred Branch account No. 123-1-18770-0  Their telephone number is 02 5836815 and their website is www.fuengfah.com

They appreciate any help that they receive as the assistance they receive from the government does not cover their expenses for their children.  If you are planning a trip to Thailand, they welcome visitors and as one volunteer told us while we were there.  ”We can always use simple things like diapers and wipes as we often run out of them and the babies must sit in dirty diapers”.  This was the first orphanage we visited on our trip.  We spent time with many children who were missing limbs and had other physical deformities.

They children as well as the staff were all very appreciative of our time.  We hope that our visit will bring more visitors to their center to assist them in their everyday living.

Thank you,

Team TKO

Mandy Ellen

Lunch and ice cream with the children of Baan Fuengfa disabled babies centerTKO founder Tristen Ellen and child from Baan Fuengfa disabled children's ctr.