A teacher in New York decided to honor each of her seniors in high school by telling them the difference they each  made.  She called each student to the front of the class, one at a time.  First she told each of  them how they had made a difference to her and the class.  Then she  presented each of them with a beautiful blue ribbon imprinted  with gold letters,  which read,  just like below:

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 go on and 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 sometimes being kind of a grouchy fellow; or was too busy to notice the efforts of his employees to please him at times.  He sat his boss down and he told him that he deeply admired him for his hard work.  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 all the hard work I do! 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 yell 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 body shook.  He looked up at his father and said through his tears, "I was planning on committing suicide tomorrow, Dad, because I didn't think you loved me. Now I know you care.  This is the happiest day I've had in a long, long time."

The boss went back to work a changed man.  He  was no longer a grouch or ignoring his employees efforts at work; but made sure to let all his employees know that  they made a difference.

 The junior executive helped several other young people with career  planning and never forgot to let them know that they made a difference in his life...one being the bosses son.  And the young  boy and his classmates learned a valuable lesson.  Who you are DOES make a difference!!!

Below this story here is a Blue Ribbon-that says the same as the story you just read above.
You are under no obligation to send this on to anyone...not to two people or to two hundred.  As far as I am concerned, you can forget you read this and move on to the next page or website.  But I hope you'll stop for a moment and think about the above story.

But if you have anyone who means a lot to you, I  encourage you to send him or her this Blue Ribbon and let them know.  You never know what kind of difference that your encouragement can make to a person.  Take a moment today and send this on to someone!

Send it to all of the people who mean anything  important to you, or send  it to the one, two, or three people who mean the  most.  Or just smile and know that someone thinks that you are important, or you wouldn't have received this in the first place.  Remember that!
 
 

I give you a blue ribbon.

Who you are makes a difference, and I wanted you
to know that I appreciate you!

Please accept my gift; and pass the encouragement on.
THIS Blue Ribbon is for YOU!!

(The above RIBBON can be downloaded for all backgrounds and IS transparent!
This is MY GIFT to YOU!)

I hope you enjoyed the above story and please DO pass the Blue Ribbon ON to anyone
YOU care about that may need a lift today!!  I am sure they will thank you for sending this!

REMEMBER- We ALL CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE in SOMEONES' LIFE!!

Thanks for visiting my pages; and please sign the Guestbook below before leaving!!

Take Care!

Irishgrrl

:)

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