I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. -Etienne de Grellet
This was a very special contest for us. Probably the most meaningful for me personally and I am always grateful to all of you for your heartfelt responses. Of course, there were so many, and they were all so great, it was hard to pick one. So I didn't. I picked 2 grand prize winners and 6 who I gave honourable mentions to, though it was even hard to stop with 6. Just as an fyi, two of these winners were 16 and 17 years old. I am so impressed with the thought and care that went into all of your entries. These are the winners. Congratulations to all of them and to ALL of you who took the time to write in your thoughts on how to make the world a better place. I am so pleased with all of you. best, Charlie This first grand prize went to Laurie in Missouri: As a Hurricane Katrina survivor I can honestly say that one person can make such a difference in so many lives. It is because of volunteers from around the country that we had power after going without for two weeks. It is because of volunteers that we had schools for our children, clothes for those who lost everything and most of all, hope that our tomorrows would be better. Most of all though I will never forget one woman who came all way down to Maine to help us recover. She took my hand, looked into my eyes and said "the world cares and cries with you." This person helped me to regain my spirit of hope and strength and renewed my faith in mankind forever. I would tell people that the best way to make a difference is to realize that one kind word spoken, one selfless act or one smile can make a person’s day without even knowing it. Each person can start the ball of kindness rolling by realizing that they may be giving someone a lifeline without even realizing it and it doesn’t cost anything but the price of compassion. The second grand prize went to Marsha in Kentucky: My children and I decided that most of the "troubles" in this world are caused by selfishness and that the best way to combat the problem would be to spend more time thinking of others. With that idea in mind, we committed to spending at least one hour every day doing something for someone else. Normal daily responsibilities didn't count. Service opportunities were limitless once we started looking. But the most interesting outcome of this experiment has been the benefits we've received! We've become closer to our neighbors while trying to meet their needs. We've learned to be better stewards of our time and resources in trying to carve out service time from an already tight schedule. Most important of all, we've spent more time talking to each other about the things are meaningful to us. Your contest has provided me with many "teachable" moments for my children. Thanks for being the spark that got us going! These were the six honourable mention winners: Jennifer in Texas wrote: When I think about making this world a better place, I think about the children. There are so many children who live in less than ideal situations. Something I feel everyone can do to make the world a better place is to do SOMETHING to help these children. I was one of these lost children, and today I am in graduate school, all because of people who stepped in along the way to help me. I know that not everyone can be a social worker or a foster parent, but there are so many other ways to help these kids. There are mentoring programs where adults can simply be a good influence and friend for a child. There is a program in most counties where volunteers receive special training to "watch out" for the best interests of a child who is in the system. ANYONE can do this. You don't have to know anything about the law to advocate in the courts for a child. Someone who can only find an afternoon can sign up with the Children's services or a children's home to teach a workshop, help organize an office, or simply play a basketball game with a child. Susanne in Austria wrote: We have an old Jewish proverb in Austria, which roughly translates to "Don't treat people as you wouldn¹t like to be treated yourself!" in English. You can find this idea in almost every religion and philosophy around the globe in altered variations, yet this concept's banality lets us frequently forget the power of these words. If people stopped more often to put themselves into each other's shoes, they would understand what it's like to be on the receiving end of verbal and physical attacks. Likewise they'd realise how appreciated it's to come to aid instead of turning a blind eye to people in need. And occasionally people just want to experience tolerance and be left alone, just as we do. Nobody likes to be hurt, insulted or bugged, why do we continue to dish out? If more people embraced the concept of treating each other, as they would like to be treated themselves, there'd be a lot more love, respect and understanding in the world, which leads me to believe that ultimately this is the key to making this world a better place. And it's so simple that really everybody can start applying this principle in their lives right away. Emily-Ann in Arizona wrote: "A strong man sticks up for himself; a stronger man sticks up for others." This is what I am writing about. This is what I think could make things better. They're so many people who need help. If we would just open our hearts and help those who are less fortunate we could make a difference. There are even people who are more fortunate who need help. We don't have to start out big. We can start small, in our communities even in our own homes, helping the ones around us. They're problems that can be fixed. A little while back I went to a soup kitchen and helped out. It only took a few hours on a night that would've been spent watching TV. Afterwards I respected myself more. I felt better about myself. It just made me feel great inside knowing I did something to help. There is plenty of stuff to do in every community. We can all work together to fix them. Let us be the stronger man. It's just like how the dinosaurs left their marks; someday we might all be extinct, but we all have a chance to leave our footprint. Fiorella in New York wrote: For starters, we need to slow down. When was the last time you sat out on a porch, a terrace, or a stoop and just talked with a neighbor, without looking at your watch? I've been watching my neighbors lately to prove my point. On a block where neighbors share fences, driveways, and gardens, nobody stops to talk anymore, we're always rushing, to work, to the grocery store, to pick the kids up, to make dinner, rush, rush, rush... We need to acknowledge those around us. Not too long ago, while waiting for a bus, you could casually strike up a conversation with those around you, even if it was to talk of the weather, Today, we are busy with our cellphones, ipods, walkmen, blackberrys. The only time people look up is when the bus arrives and then we RUSH to get on! We need to bring back the basic human ability to be compassionate. We need to mind what we say and HOW we say it to others. I believe, these are small steps in making our world a better place, block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood, city by city and finally country by country. Bianca in Australia wrote: I really believe that if everyone, regardless of race, gender and social or religious status just took initiative’ in both their actions and mindset towards others that our communities, nations and world would be a far more peaceful and harmonious place. Whether it is within the family with parents making time in their day for their kids or politicians speaking from their hearts rather than their speechwriter’s hand, these adjustments are the sort that would benefit those immediately around them and the wider community. From the very small of picking up that piece of rubbish on the street sitting next to a bin to the not so very small of once having watched an ad depicting the need for sponsors for children living in poverty on TV, making that decision to take the next step and do something about it. All of it is important if we wish to make our lives and those of the people around us, happier and a lot safer. In today’s society, I also believe that its vital that we all as individuals make the choice to educate ourselves of those cultures or religions we don’t understand: promoting tolerance. Initiative’ is all it takes! Liane in Germany wrote partly about the United Buddy Bears exhibit that is traveling the world for Peace. I encourage you all to check out their website and read about all of the wonderful pieces in this exhibit, the artist's interpretations and how they all came to be, and go to see it if it comes to where you live. It's an extraordinary exhibit. Einsteins quotation on the bear is "Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
 How true this is at present. If we could understand or at least try to understand other folks the World would be a much better place. These "Buddy Bears, I think speak for themselves.They have been around the World and will be auctioned off . The proceeds going to UNICEF to build schools for underprivileged children in the poor countries. If each of us for instance donated a small amount to any charity , It would help I'm sure. Last but not least even just a smile or a friendly word to someone in a supermarket or on public transport who seems unhappy would probably "make" their day. Especially the aged, as often they are the most lonely in our society . We must not forget it was them, through their hard work and perseverance that brought us the prosperity and affluence that we have today.
This is what the contest was about: Do you ever think, if people would just do THIS (and you fill in what THIS is) things would be so much better? We all lead such busy lives, there is so much room for improvement in countries, in the environment, in schools, in our communities, in families, so many things we can do to MAKE THINGS BETTER, to counteract the "bad" and increase the "good." We all have ideas as to what could be done to make our lives and the world we live in safer, healthier, more peaceful and harmonious and ideas about how to make those things happen.
What are your ideas that would make our lives, our communities and our world a better place to live and what can we do to put these ideas into actions? Is there something that you do in your family life or in your community that you just KNOW if everyone else did this, it would make the world a better place for all of us? Has something been done that you think is a fantastic idea and everyone just needs to know about it? The actions of humankind change the world. What would YOU suggest to others, that we could change or do to become more mindful of the world around us to make it better and how would you suggest we go about doing it? We want to know your thoughts and ideas! So write them up and enter the contest! Then remember, One Person CAN make a difference. YOU be the one person that starts the chain reaction, and maybe we CAN make things change for the better!
What would you suggest to people that you personally know or to people anywhere in the world that you feel sure will improve their lives and the lives of the people that they know? What things do you believe people should do that would make the world, make the way we live, our communities, our families, our lives better? Then, tell us what makes you believe that your ideas are the best and how you would suggest that your ideas be implemented.
As you know, Charlie's father Alfred Shaughnessy passed away last year. To honour him, his mom has graciously donated some of the books that his father wrote to give away as prizes to the winners of this contest. Charlie will personally dedicate and inscribe each winner's book. Each winner will also receive as an additional prize, one of the photos that we have in our photo store, either for themselves or someone else of their choosing, that Charlie will also personally inscribe and dedicate.
All entries must be received by Tuesday, midnight 31 October, 2006 Only ONE (1) entry per person You MUST include your first and last name You MUST include the city & state or city & country where you live You MUST send your entries from a legitimate email address that is not blocked, as that is how we will contact you if you are one of the winners You MUST send your entries to contest@charlesshaughnessy.com and have the words Let's make things better contest as the subject title of the email or we may not receive it. You may also click on this link to create an email automatically. You MUST limit each individual entry to 200 words or less. You can have as many suggestions and ways to do them as you want, just state it all in 200 words or less.
If you are under the age of 18, you must tell us how old you are and please get your parent's permission to enter the contest. When you send us your entry, you will receive an email back telling you that we have received it. please make sure that you do not have our domain blocked. The email you get back will be from Auto-reply from contest@charlesshaughnessy.com If you do NOT receive a confirmation email back, please contact aj@charlesshaughnessy.com. This is very important!! With so many to read you MUST limit your entries to 200 words or less. This will be strictly adhered to. NO exceptions. Anything over 200 words will be disqualified. It MUST be 200 words or less. If it is over 200 words, no matter how good it is, it will not be eligible for the contest. NO EXCEPTIONS. For those of you who have entered our contests in the past, you know we absolutely stick to this rule! Just to make it clear, this 200 word limit applies to the written entry itself. The part with your name and where you are from is separate and not counted as part of the 200 words. As has been suggested in the past and seems to work well for people, one way to ensure your entries contain 200 words or less is to count them by hand OR, an easier solution. . . is to first create it in MS Word and then use Tools --> Word Count menu option which automatically counts the words. (or any word processing program that counts the number of words in your document) Once it is 200 or less, you can then just copy it and paste your entry into your email. DO NOT send attached documents as we will not read those. Your entry must be written in the message body of the email. To keep it honest and give everyone an equal chance, remember, only one entry per person. The winning entries will be posted on the website along with your first name and the state or country you are from. Look for the winner to be announced on the website, sometime in November, 2006. Any entry that does NOT meet the rules properly will be disqualified and will NOT be eligible to win. We are very excited about this contest and look forward to hearing what all of you have to say. We are thrilled to be able to share some of Charlie's dad's books and hope that you will all participate. Have fun and as always, thanks for playing!
Any personally identifiable information will be used solely by the official charles shaughnessy website charlesshaughnessy.com. The first name, and state or country only will be posted to the website along with the winning entries. IF you are a winner, at that time you will need to give us a full postal mailing address in order to receive your prize. It cannot be emailed. If you are unable to acknowledge our emails telling you that you have won and provide a full postal mailing address within SEVEN days of being notified, we will pick an alternate winner. When the contest is over, we will post on the website that the contest has finished and potential winners have been notified. Entries become the sole property of Shaughnessy Productions and charlesshaughnessy.com. If you have any questions you can contact aj by sending email to aj@charlesshaughnessy.com
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29 january, 2007
