LAST WEEK I WENT BACK TO HIGH SCHOOL

This blog is about one of my biggest passions and one of my biggest weaknesses.

My passion is Vitamin Angels. Our mission is to reduce childhood mortality by providing essential nutrients to newborns, infants and children under five.

Or, more simply stated, we raise money to buy vitamins that keep kids from dying.

The program I’m most connected to is one I helped create seven years ago — Operation 20/20. Our goal is to eradicate Vitamin A deficiency childhood blindness on the planet by the year 2020.

Hundreds of thousands of kids under the age of five go blind each year from Vitamin A deficiency. Half of them die. We’re not looking for a cure. We have it. Two megadoses of Vitamin A per year. The cost for those life saving vitamins? 25 cents per child per year. That's it — 25 cents — and last year we were able to provide enough Vitamin A to save 10,000,000 kids.

But there are still another 150,000,000 children at risk, and my job is to spread the word. Last week I was invited to speak on behalf of Vitamin Angels at Scarsdale High School in Scarsdale NY.

I had three half-hour sessions, with about a hundred kids in each one. I was amazed at how absorbed they all were in what I had to say. They listened and watched intently. Except for one kid.

He sat tapping on his cell phone, laughing at what was on the screen, and holding it up for the girl next to him to see.

I wanted to scream — hey, you smug, oblivious, privileged jerk… kids are dying… pay attention. I wanted to rip the phone out of his hand, sell it, and use the money to save another 500 children. But I restrained myself. I didn’t want to ruin it for the other 99 kids in the room. I needed to focus on them.

It wasn't easy. I kept staring at the wiseass. That one lucky duck who hadn’t yet learned to care about others less fortunate than he was.

I got through that final presentation, and as I drove home, the replays in my head were dominated by the behavior of that one kid.

Yesterday I got an email from the school that said students have already formed a Vitamin Angels club and are pumped to help.

I know I made an impact. I feel confident that these students will raise even more money than the $15,000 their predecessors at Scarsdale High have raised for Vitamin Angels over the past five years.

I feel good about having been able to reach them.

And yet, I can’t get that one kid out of my head. The one who didn’t think my message was important. The one who disrespected me and the cause I am so passionate about.

And that’s the other part of this blog. My weakness. In a joyful day that is filled with positive feedback, why is it I always seem to focus on the one negative?

How about you? Do you ever find yourself ignoring the thunderous applause, and zeroing in on the one person who isn’t clapping?

And when you do, how do you get out of the negative?

Is there a cure for that?

Marshall posted on October 27, 2009 7:30 AM