Kevin Love and unite4:good joined hundreds of students at Cleveland’s East Tech High School on Tuesday to launch spreadlove4:good, a program designed to inspire students to perform acts of kindness and volunteerism in a way that is fun, competitive and educational. spreadlove4:good is a partnership between the Cavs player’s SpreadLove foundation and unite4:good, an organization founded by Anthony Melikhov, committed to creating a global, social movement toward positivity and acts of kindness.
“When I started SpreadLove, I wanted to create something that inspired people to do good in their communities,” said Love. “With this program, I hope to continue that mission and empower high school students to give back, to show them they can change their communities through small and big acts of kindness.”
The goal of spreadlove4:good is to have hundreds of acts of kindness completed by the end of the project, to encourage students to integrate kindness and volunteerism into their daily lives, and to raise awareness of, and action on, important issues in our community.
“I know firsthand through personal experience the value of kindness and compassion,” said Anthony Melikhov, founder of unite4:good. “There is not a doubt in my soul that when we give back, we receive exponentially more. These students are going to gain so much through the spreadlove4:good program, as will the community. I’m thrilled to partner with Kevin Love, who has always demonstrated his commitment to spreading love and kindness.”
Check out some snapshots from the event.
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Representing the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, Academic Superintendent Warren Morgan took part in the launch event and addressed the East Tech students. “If there’s one thing you take away from your volunteer experiences through this program, I hope it’s this: we’re all in this together and it’s up to all of us to try to make our world a little bit better. You’ll be amazed to see what a little kindness can do for others, and for yourself.”
All East Tech students and teachers will be participating in the spreadlove4:good, a total of five teams. Each team will focus its volunteer efforts on one cause and be paired with a nonprofit organization that works locally on this issue:
- Education: Friendly Inn
- Environment: East Tech FFA Program
- Animal Welfare: Cleveland Animal Protective League
- Food Security/Hunger: Greater Cleveland Food Bank
- Health: Cleveland Clinic Taussig Cancer Institute
spreadlove4:good teams and individual participants will earn points for each act of kindness and volunteerism in the program that will run from January through April 2015. At the end of the project, students will receive rewards based on the number of points accrued. The team that has made the biggest impact will receive a special prize.
The teams will be led by East Tech’s teachers and staff, who will guide the research and learning around the issues, and facilitate and manage student participation in the volunteer projects.
About SpreadLove
SpreadLove is Kevin Love's community platform that aims to spread kindness, inspire positive change in behavior within local, national and global communities, and help charities elevate their causes and continue to do good things.
In the past, SpreadLove has worked to raise money for breast cancer research, organize community-wide coat drives, and help the White House promote their anti-domestic violence campaign.
To continue to do positive work in various communities, the “Starting 5” causes will be: Animals, Health, Fitness, Education, and Environment.