26 Acts of Kindness - Day 12

For today's random act of kindness we finally got to complete our act in honor of Dawn Hochsprung, the principle of the Sandy Hook. Dawn, age 47, devoted her life to education and helping the students under her care. And in her final moments she gave the ultimate gift of her life as this 5'2" "raging bull" charged toward the danger in an effort to save her kids. And her actions that day, no doubt, did save many.

Dawn was made of tough stuff. In high school when the boys' track team refused to let her join she took her case the school board and then took it upon herself to recruit enough girls to make a full girls team as well. She worked her way through college while being a young single mother to two daughters. She earned her bachelor's degree in special education, her master's in education, and had just begun her PhD as well.

Dawn had been in school administrations for 12 years and the principle of Sandy Hook Elementary for 2 years. She was a fierce leader and an educational activist... but she also had a fun side. She set up "Appy Hour" at the school where the teachers would share their favorite education apps, and she dressed up for all of their theme days: wearing pajamas and carrying a pillow on Pajama Day, wearing a poodle skirt and saddle shoes to the Sock Hop, and had even dressed up as the "Book Fairy" and visited the kids of the school, sprinkling them with fairy dust to encourage them to read.

But no matter how busy she was at school her family always came first. She adored her two daughters, her grandchildren, her husband, and her step daughters. Her daughters said that even as a working single mom who was in school herself she made it to every one of their school events and games. Dawn loved to say there was no problem that couldn't be solved with chocolate (I agree!). And her love of reading spread to her home life as well. Her daughters recalled her telling them "Go read a book!" whenever they said they were bored (I find myself saying this to my kids as well).

At first I wasn't sure how to pay a fitting tribute to the fearless leader - the woman who gave her life for her kids. As I read about each person something generally jumps out a me more than anything else, and this is where I try to pull my Act of Kindness from.

Anyone who knows me knows my love for both reading and dressing up. I suppose it shouldn't be shocking then that the thing that jumped out to me about Principle Hochsprung was her encouraging others to read, and even going as far as dressing up as the Book Fairy to accomplish this.

For my Act of Kindness today I decided to honor Dawn by becoming another "Book Fairy." I got a bin-full of books, made little Random Acts bookmarks to put in each one, and dressed up in costume: A blue dress with a "B" on it (for Book Fairy, of course), fairy wings, a little tiara, and a wand.

The family then went down to our local library. We told them we were doing random acts of kindness and asked them if it would it be okay if we handed out some books to some of the children there. They smiled and said certainly. So we wandered around the library and found kids looking at books with their parents, and let them pick a book out of my collection. Some of the kids were shy, some where excited. By the end, apparently word had spread about the Book Fairy because parents were actually coming looking for me. =) The parents all were very excited and thanked me and said what a wonderful thing it was to be doing.

Well, I'm sure I got more out of it today than most of those kids. And that's how it is a lot of the time... like the old saying goes: "Tis better to give than to receive." I had a great time talking to the kids - many of whom were better readers than their ages let on (way to go kiddos!), and I found it interesting which book each child picked.

I hope that the original Book Fairy is pleased with my performance, and that she continues to spread the light she did while here on Earth.

"The light inside one person capable of kindness is brighter than the sun." - The Fairy Chronicles