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School teachers David and Kim Schoolfield decide to use part of their combined $2,000 to teach their students the value of giving. Instead the students teach them a thing or two.
The school has a fundraiser in which the students donate $1 each to attend a fundraising rally during school hours, and David and Kim pay for the remaining students to attend. They hold an essay contest to pick a student to receive $500 to carry out his own random act of kindness.
The winning essay is written by a student named John. With help from David and Kim, he takes two strangers out to dinner and sends them on a shopping trip. Then, John surprises everyone by giving the men $50 each from his own pocket! "For a 12-year-old to give $100 of his own money to strangers so that they could have money in their pocket—it was like the tables were turning," Kim says. "We were really the ones who learned something."
Kim and David spend their remaining money in a variety of inventive ways. Kim poses as a homeless person and hands out gift cards to anyone who offers to help her. "We felt that this was a good way to give back to those that were compassionate enough to give in the first place," David says.
Kim and David buy meals for strangers behind them in line at a drive-thru, give a $200 tip to a waiter at a restaurant and donate $200 to their church. They pass out bouquets to women leaving a hardware store. And, two women using a Laundromat receive a big surprise when David and Kim give them a washer and dryer! Not to be left out, Kim and David's dog gets in on the action, helping his owners pick out toys for Oprah's dogs!
At the end of the challenge, the teachers say they had a lot of fun—and learned some valuable lessons. "We learned a lot about ourselves. We learned a lot about the hearts of other people [and] the giving nature of kids," David says.
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