A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her

seniors in high school by telling them the difference they

each  made. Using a process developed by Helice Bridges

of Del Mar, California, she called each student to the front of

the class, one at a time. First, she told them how the

student made a difference to her and the class.

Then she presented each of them

with a blue ribbon imprinted with white letters which read,

"Who I Am Makes a Difference."

Afterwards the teacher decided to do a class project to

see what kind of impact recognition would have on a

community. She gave each of the students three more

ribbons  and instructed  them to go out and spread this

acknowledgment ceremony. Then they were to follow up on

the results, see who honored whom and report back to the

class in about a week.

One of the boys in the class went to a junior executive in a

nearby company and honored him for helping him with

his career planning. He gave him a blue ribbon and put it on his

shirt.  Then he gave him two extra ribbons, and said, "we're

doing a class project on recognition, and we'd like you to go

out, find somebody to honor, give them a blue ribbon,

then give them the extra blue ribbon so they can acknowledge

a third person to keep this acknowledgment ceremony going.

Then  please report back to me and tell me what happened."

Later that day the junior executive went in to see his boss,

who had been noted by the way, as being kind of a grouchy

fellow. He sat his boss down and he told him that he

deeply admired him for being a creative genius.

The boss seemed very surprised. The junior executive asked

him if he would accept the gift of the blue  ribbon and would

he give him permission to put it on him. His surprised boss said,

"Well, sure."  The junior executive took the blue

ribbon and placed it right on his boss's jacket above his heart.

As he gave him the last extra ribbon, he said,

"Would you do me a favor?  Would you take

this extra ribbon and pass it on by honoring somebody else?

The young boy who first gave me the ribbons is doing a project

in school and we want to keep this recognition ceremony going

and find out how it affects people."

That night the boss came home to his 14-year-old son

and sat him down.  He said, "The most incredible thing

happened to me today. I was in my office and one of the junior

executives came in and told me he admired me and gave me a

blue ribbon for being a creative genius.  Imagine.

He thinks I'm a creative genius. Then he put this blue ribbon

that says  'Who I Am Makes A difference'

on my jacket above my heart. He gave me an extra ribbon

and asked me to find somebody else to honor.  As I

was driving home tonight, I started thinking about whom

I would honor with this ribbon and I thought about you.

I want to honor you.  "My days are really

hectic and when I come home I don't pay a lot of attention

to you. Sometimes I scream at you for not getting good enough

grades in school and for your bedroom being a mess,

but somehow tonight, I just wanted to sit here and, well, just

let you know that you do make a difference to me.

Besides your mother, you are the most important person in my

life. You're a great kid and I love you!

"The startled boy started to sob and sob, and he couldn't

stop crying.  His whole bodyshook.  He looked up at his father

and said through his tears, "I was planning on committing

suicide, Dad, because I didn't think you  loved me.

Now I don't need to."

WHO I AM MAKES A DIFFERENCE BECAUSE

I AM A PERSON WITH A HEART,

AND FEELINGS AND WITH A NEED TO BE ACCEPTED.