The Club was delighted to have Laura Reiss, Founder, CEO & Executive Director of Kindness Matters 365, as our speaker.  Kindness Matters 365 programing teaches how (mostly) children can learn how to operate within a kindness environment. There are three principles that to which Kindness Matters always ascribes:

Gratitude  +  Compassion  + Kindness

Laura conceived The Kindness Matters 365 Foundation in 2007. It is a community service program that educates and inspires kids and teens to understand the importance of being kind citizens and community leaders by providing them with the opportunity to learn and experience the benefits of taking care of themselves, giving back to others and contributing to our world.

Each month, KM365 programs have a speaker from different philanthropic organizations share who they are and how they found their ways to contribute to our world. They engage in hands-on projects and school-wide drives to give back to the speakers’ organizations, e.g. dog toys for the Humane Society, thank you letters to our Forgotten Soldiers, get-well art for sick children in hospitals, kindness care packages for foster kids and so much more.

The intention is for all participants to listen, learn, interact and do something to give back at each meeting, and it is working! Beyond that, KM365 meetings are always heart-warming, moving, inspiring and educational.

They have created an Ambassador program to enable other parents to lead the development of Kindness Matters 365 in their local schools. The have trained over 500 Ambassadors who are now overseeing over 100 Kindness Matters 365 programs in 10 states that has brought the program to and affected the lives of tens of thousands.

Laura was asked how they measure results. She immediately said, “Not via Instant Gratification!” She explained that something like attitude and their three goals of gratitude, compassion and kindness takes time until it becomes part of each child’s heart. They are all about creating a mindset of kindness and are not focused on the metrics – although they are very impressive. She says “we are teaching, inspiring and educating a new generation of kind minded humans”

She shared that they have dialog with the Florida Dept. of Education. The Kindness Matters 365 program doesn’t focus on negative behaviors such as bullying. But, they find that once the student lets kindness into their heart that bullying goes away. She related that high school abusers get totally turned around once the program becomes part of their mindset.

They are committed to ending: bullying, anxiety, depression, school shootings, anti-Semitism and more all while inspiring a greater sense of belonging, improved self-esteem, increased peer acceptance, improved physical health, drastically reduced stress, increased feelings of gratitude, increased focus and academic performance, decreased depression and less bullying.

Together, we are going to build stronger people, safer communities, a better world.

Laura has won a number of awards including:

  • OPAL Award (from our Club!)
  • Women of Palm Beaches Leadership Award
  • Good Coin Foundation Recipient
  • Loreal of Paris Woman of Worth

If you are interested in learning more about Kindness Matters 365, visit them at link. They have a wonderful code that the teach as part of their program: