In 2009, Brian Williams set a goal to see if he could collect 5,000 pairs of shoes to donate to kids in need and Global Acts of Kindness was born. He thought it was an unreachable goal but when the students got other schools involved, they were able to recruit churches, fitness gyms, and community organizations to contribute. When one young girl told him that it would be cool if they could actually see where these shoes go, Brian was inspired to think bigger. “Yeah, let’s do it! Let’s go to Africa.”
Since that time, Brian and his team have collected over 300,000 pairs of shoes and built orphanages, libraries, and computer labs. Recently they revamped an entire playground for students including a full basketball court and a full-sized soccer field with 360 seats.
As the founder of Think Kindness, Brian has traveled across the United States sparking the kindness movement with students through school visits. He challenges the students to see who can make the biggest difference in the world in under 15 days. He launches each campaign with a school wide motivational assembly to get the kids pumped up. Think Kindness follows up with what they call a Kindness Takeover – daily video messages, posters, and banners. Each school is challenged to document 5,000 random acts of kindness within that 15-day mark with the end goal of kindness seeping out of their school walls into their community.
Brian believes that everyone should begin every day with one mission, “Today I will make the world a better place than it was yesterday.” With his organization Think Kindness, Brian is inspiring kids to be kindness ambassadors for change.
