Keep the children in mind

As we all embrace newfound freedom, after one of the most challenging years that any of us are likely to endure, my thoughts keep returning to the children -- children who are lucky enough to be heading off to summer camp, children preparing to start a new school year in-person rather than via Zoom, children in the U.S. who lack adequate medical care, and children in the impoverished nation of Haiti who have lost their parents. My thoughts are also with my own children, one of whom is in the middle of his college years and the other who recently launched her post-collegiate career in New York City.

For more than 15 years now, I've worked in the field of public relations - and the projects that have come my way often focus on children. I've been honored to help a variety of anti-bullying projects and projects like the one -- The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement -- created by my Connecticut friend and neighbor Scarlet Lewis to honor her son, who lost his life in the Newtown shooting tragedy. To help keep her son Jesse -- one of the 20 first grade students killed in that tragedy -- alive, Scarlet has been tirelessly speaking at schools throughout the U.S., encouraging them to "choose love and forgiveness, rather than hate and anger."

For the past few months, I have also been working with an inspiring project dedicated to helping orphans in Haiti. The non-profit organization, established by Georgia residents Linda Gunter and her husband David -- The Love Him Love Them Ministry -- brought 30 orphans to the U.S., after they lost their families in the devastating 2010 earthquake. Through choir performances by these talented children, the organization raised enough money to open a much needed medical center in Haiti. With the recent assassination of the president of that island nation, the work being done by Linda and her amazing volunteers is more essential than ever.

I am also a proud member of the board of advisors of another impressive non-profit organization, the Children's Health Fund -- established 30 years ago by musician Paul Simon and the brilliant pediatrician Dr. Irwin Redlener and his wife Karen. I had an opportunity to produce a story about the CHF for CBS Sunday Morning back in the early 1990's. Thanks to my participation in a newly-established up and coming non-profit, The Friends Foundation for Homeless Children, I had the opportunity to reconnect with the team at the CHF, and we have found some great synergy.

As the world "opens back up again," I encourage you to look for ways that you, too, can make a difference in the lives of children. Although he passed away 24 years ago, I still think of the great journalist Charles Kuralt as my mentor, because of his passionate message that we each have a message that others will benefit from hearing. One thing that Charles said more often than anything else focused on children. "The best thing you can do in life," Charles often reminded me, "is to tell a child, 'You're the very best at...' something. Art, dancing, baseball, smiling, whatever the case may be." In other words, by reminding each child that they matter, and that they are special, we are planting seeds that will blossom well into the future. At this pivotal time in history, I