“You may find that
making a difference for others
makes the biggest difference
in you.”
Brian Williams
NBC Bay Area news reporter Garvin Thomas is making a difference — a positive difference — in the lives of television viewers throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area. A couple of times each week, Thomas airs an episode of his feel-good, people-making-a-positive-difference segment called Bay Area Proud. These brief videos are sure to bring a smile to your face.
A couple of years ago, Thomas did an episode of Bay Area Proud dedicated to Cherries in the Summer, the children’s book I wrote in collaboration with then-12-year-old Vivian Nguyen, who illustrated a poem I’d written for my grandson, Liam. You can see this segment by clicking HERE.
A more recent episode of Bay Area Proud focused on a special education teacher who went above and beyond to accommodate a student with special needs. Such stories can restore one’s faith in humanity and in the basic goodness of those around us. Click HERE to see this story.
If you have some time on your hands and would like to view some of Garvin Thomas’ other Bay Area Proud segments, click HERE.
By sharing these videos, I hope to inspire readers to look for opportunities in your own lives to make a positive difference. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well.”
So often, we can get overwhelmed by the enormity of needs in our world and wonder, almost hopelessly, what can I possibly do to make a difference? I’m only one person. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa had this to say about that, “Do your little bit of good where you are; it is those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”
If not you, who?
If not now, when?
If not to make our world a better place, why?
A Beacon of Light 
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