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Project enables kids to spread message of kindness

Posted at 3:52 PM, Mar 10, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-10 18:52:05-04

A scene change and a sea of change that started from humble beginnings. With Jill McManigal’s own children who attended Jefferson Elementary School in Carlsbad. The first chapter of Kids for Peace started right here.

“It was post 9-11 and there was a lot of fear. I just wanted to do something, because when we’re doing something it can move beyond the fear or feeling apathetic” says Jill McManigal.

But McManigal had no aspirations of starting a non-profit and no idea at the time that it would become a world-wide kindness revolution.

Kids like Grace, take a pledge to do a small act of kindness. “If somebody you know is having a bad day or if somebody you don’t know, and they’re just there…you just smile at them to make them feel good and to make you feel good. Just be a ray of sunshine.” When Graces smiles and giggles, you do feel good.

Kids for Peace have already built schools and clinics in places like Kenya, Pakistan and Liberia.

While McManigal might not have dreamed that Kids for Peace would grow as much as it has, she does have a big goal now which is to have the Great Kindness Challenge and a Kids for Peace chapter in every American school and every country across the world.

Jill McManigal is the co-founder of @Kids For Peace. An organization whose fundraising activities have built hospitals, medical centers and provided disaster relief to people around the world. Right now, they’re about a quarter of the way there.

Because of her incredible work in bringing the Kindness Challenge to millions of kids worldwide, ABC 10News and @LEAD San Diego chose Jill McManigal for our Leadership award winner for the month of March.