In December of 2004, my son, Sam made glycerin soap for family and friends for Christmas. Sam was 6 years old and he was able to do about 85% of the project by himself. This gave him an incredible sense of accomplishment. After he had made over 60 soaps, he turned to me one day and asked if he could make a soap for each of his classmates. I looked at him and said, “Sam, you have 22 classmates.” He simply replied, “I know.” I reluctantly agreed and we set to work making more soap.
I brought the soap to Sam’s school the Thursday afternoon before winter break. I put a soap in each child’s cubby and then set out to help his teacher with the kid’s folders. As I was working, a little girl noticed the soap in her cubby. She looked at me and asked, “What is this?” I told her it was a bar of soap that Sam had made for her. She looked at me with the most vulnerable expression and asked, “Sam made this for me?” “Yes, and he chose that animal in the soap just for you.” I watched her tenderly take her soap and show it to her classmates. To each person she said, “Look what Sam made for me.” Not in a boastful way, but with a sense of awe and wonder.
I teared up many times that afternoon as I witnessed Sam’s classmates respond to their soap. When we got home I said to Sam, “Sam, could you believe how much your classmates liked your soap?” “Yea, Mom, Donovan said Sam Rocks!” “Wasn’t that something, Sam?” “Mom, that was AWESOME!” It was the first time Sam really got what it means to give of yourself and to have it received. It was tremendously powerful.
Ten days later we learned that a tsunami had devastated Southeast Asia. We talked about what we, as a family, felt we could do and decided to send money right away. I researched relief agencies and sent our small pittance via the internet. After I sent it, I felt impotent. That’s all we were going to do? Millions of people’s lives had been devastated and we were going to send a little money? I sat with this for 2 days and on the third day I posed a question to Sam. “Sam what if we made soap and sold it to raise money for the tsunami clean up efforts?” “OK, Mom, that’d be good” ”Sam, how much money do you think we could raise?” He put his hand on his chin and thought. Then he looked at me out of the side of his eyes and using his pointer finger for emphasis said, “I bet we could raise $200.00.” “What about $1000.00. Do you think we could make $1000.00, Sam?” “Oh, Mom, That would be impossible!” “Maybe not, Sam. If we got your friends to help us, and got other kids involved we could easily make 350 bars. If we sold them for $3.00 a bar we would raise $1,050.00. He thought for a while and then he looked at me and said, “Mom, I’m not even going to guess.”
That afternoon we started the Tsunami Soap Project. Over 400 young people participated in the Tsunami Soap Project. These children came from 4 schools, 1 Cub Scout Group and 2 Neighborhoods. Through their collective efforts they made over 1800 bars of soap and raised over $6000.00 to help with Tsunami Relief. Each group that made and sold soap chose the relief agency where they sent their funds. Monies went to Mercy Corps, Catholic Relief Services, Unicef, Oxfam, and World Vision.
This project gave our children the opportunity to reach out and do something at a time when they, like us, felt so powerless. It taught them that they can have an impact when they put their energies together. And it showed them that they really can make a difference.
