Orion Jean uses his powers as an activator to help end book deserts through the Race to Kindness. Let’s learn how we can achieve incredible goals when we work together.
Orion Jean uses his powers as an activator to help end book deserts through the Race to Kindness.
You can write to us at listen at listen@akidspodcastabout.com. Check out our other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com.
You can find out more about The Race to Kindness at by visiting www.racetokindness.com.
You can check out Orion’s book, A Kids Book About Leadership: HERE
The Activators
S1 EP01, Orion Jean and The Race to Kindness
[INTRODUCTION]
Leo: Welcome to The Activators!, A Kids Podcast About Activism. I’m your host, Leo Abelo Perry!
On this podcast, we want to celebrate and amplify kids who are activating social change by doing what they love to spread more love. Social change means providing opportunities for people and communities to recognize what’s wrong and do something about it, for the betterment of humanity.
And on today’s show we’re talking to Orion Jean, the founder of Race to Kindness.
But first, how are you today? On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being “things are rough” and 5 being “off-the-charts amazing”, I’d say I’m a good 4. No matter how you're feeling, it's all. I'm glad you're here with me today. And doing a self-check can help you to understand how ready you are to learn new things or meet new people.
For now, you can just sit back, relax, and get ready to be inspired.
[MEET ORION JEAN]
Leo: Today’s guest is Orion Jean, the 2020 National Kindness Speech Contest winner and founder of Race to Kindness. You'll learn all about Race to Kindness in my interview with Orion, but let me say it's pretty incredible.
While you listen, think about the needs of your community and how you might be able help. As you’ll hear, Orion doesn’t do it alone.But with help, the work he’s done in his community is HUGE!
Maybe hearing Orion’s story will inspire you as well!
He’s definitely an activator that I can’t wait for you to meet! Here’s my interview with Orion Jean.
[INTERVIEW]
Leo: Hi, Orion. How are you doing?
Orion: I’m fine. How are you?
Leo: I am great. Can you tell us what your name and your age is.
Orion: I am Orion Jean and I am 10 years old
Leo: So cool. Aight. So out of a one to five, one being the worst five being feeling amazing, how are you feeling today?
Orion: I would have to say I'm a four and a half, you know? I'm not perfect. No day will ever be, but I am feeling pretty good.
Leo: Cool. Okay. What is one of your favorite hobbies?
Orion: Well, I would have to say one of my favorite hobbies would be reading.
Leo: Super cool. I also like reading.
Orion: Oh cool.
Leo: Alright. So, what's your favorite book?
Orion: I do not have a favorite book actually. Um, a lot of people wonder what my favorite book is, but I think that it would be unfair to the next book that I might read, because who knows? That could just as easily become my favorite as well. I never know. So I always want to keep an open mind, but I love all kinds of books.
Leo: Orion loves books, so you might already be thinking that the Race to Kindness has something to do with reading. You’re not wrong. But it’s actually much, much more than that.
What, what are you doing to try to change the world?
Orion: I am trying to collect material children and adults across the country. For those who may not have them, for example, toys for children in the hospital, food for those who may be homeless, or maybe they're just food insecure, and books for those who live in what we call “book deserts”.
Leo: That’s a phrase I never heard of before. “Book desert.” What do you think it means?
Orion: A book desert is a place where there aren't a lot of people who have access to books. There aren't as many children or adults with books in their homes. And they don't have the... sometimes they don't have the money. Or in librarian's case, they don't have the time. And it's hard for them to obtain books that they can own.
Leo: So your home might be a book desert if it does not have a lot of books. Your classroom can be a book desert. A library can even be a book desert if certain types of books are hard to get, like if they don’t have any cookbooks or comic books or books about whatever you’re looking for.
How are you doing what you really enjoy doing to make other people happy?
Orion: Well, I, as I told you that a big reader, and I want to be able to share my love of literacy with other people across the country. I want to make sure that as many people as possible cam benefit from the, uh, the joy of literacy and being able to learn about new cultures and places that you might not have had the opportunity to otherwise.
Leo: We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, Orion talks about the Race to Kindness, how it started, and where it’s going.
[BREAK]
Leo: Welcome back to The Activators! And my conversation with activist Orion Jean. He’s 10 years old, he’s in 6th grade, and he’s changing the world. That’s pretty awesome!
So what is Race To Kindness?
Orion: The Race To Kindness is a series of events all started about a year ago when, uh, my teacher, she sent me an email about a speech contest that she wanted me to enter. Now there was only one catch. There was only one day left to submit it and entries.
So of course I was a little bit skeptical about whether I should join or not because I had a disadvantage. I didn't have as much time as everybody else to work on my speech, but, you know, with the help of my mom and the advice of my mom, I decided to enter the contest. The speech that I wrote after being tweaked a little bit by a speech coach in the second round of the speech that was able to, uh, win.
And I was giving him some prize money to start the Race To Kindness. Now, my first project was the 500 toys where we partnered with a local children's hospital to, uh, help children in the hospital who. Cause they were used to because of COVID and you could only use a toy once you used to be able to, uh, toward disinfected and, you know, pass it on to another child now just to be safe, you could only use it once and throw it away.
And we were able to collect 619 toys with an a. And the second project was great as a meals where with the help of the community, the country, and really the world, we were able to collect over a hundred thousand year old, uh, and for months, and now we are on the Race to 500,000 books where we are hoping to be able to collect 500,000 books by the end of August.
Leo: That's great. Yeah, my mind is blown. Out of three years of you doing this, what's happening right now? What's the latest?
Orion: We are now at about a hundred thousand books at, well, maybe more than a hundred thousand.
It's like 120,000 ish right now. And we are hoping that, you know, even though we still get along, that's the goal. We're hoping that with the help of our country, that we will be able to reach this goal and help as many people as possible.
Leo: Listeners, can you imagine how much space you’d need to store 100,000 books?
Orion: Oh, we learned our lesson that to be raised to a hundred thousand meals, we're not going to keep everything in our house. We had to. We partnered with multiple organizations, uh, that have different purposes, but oh, kind of the same goal down with as many people as possible get books.
And they put them in their warehouses or some of them do book fairs, and we were able to deliver them to as many children as possible or adults as possible. Now we still have some here in our home, but definitely not as many. Thankfully.
Leo: In the time since recording this interview, Orion reached his goal! He raised over 500,000 books by the end of August and, from what I hear, donations are still rolling in!
This was the third year of the Race to Kindness.
The year before that was raising 100,000 meals.
How did you, how did you raise a hundred thousand meals? Like how?
Orion: Well, it was, I'm going to have to admit that it was a lot of work and I definitely didn't do it alone. With the help of my friends, my family, some people that I didn't even know all coming together with one common goal, we were able to help as many people as possible.
And that goes to show that if you have a common cause then hopefully people can come together and you can reach that goal.
Leo: That's so cool. How do you picture the world in the future?
Orion: Well, I hope that would be efforts of kids like me and adults and everyone really, we will be able to create a future where there is no, uh, no reason for me to have to collect a hundred thousand meals for those that are without.
Or to have toys for children in the hospital, because there will be no children,in the hospital. And I won't have to collect 500,000 books for the children and adults who live in book deserts because they won't be book deserts and hopefully with the help of as many people as possible, we will be able to create a better future where there is no one that is about, and that everyone has the same opportunities and privileges.
So we can. You know, create a better form.
Leo: That's great. Great! So I heard you were doing something with the A Kids Book About! Can you tell us about your book?
Orion: Yes, absolutely. I am working with A Kids Book About, on a book called A Kids Book About Leadership, and it is about how everyone has the potential to be a leader.
They might just not know it yet. And the book is all about how. Some people need to find the untapped potential inside of them so that they can become some of the world's greatest leaders, because we all have it in us. We just may need somebody to tell us that for us to fully, uh, for it to fully bloom.
Leo: Super cool.
Okay. So for every one of our listeners who's listening now, we’re going to give Orion a big “Activators!” cheer on three. Alright. So are you in your superhero pose? Are you ready to say “Activators!” on three? Okay. Three. Tow. One.
Activators!
Orion: Activators!
Leo: Alright! Thank you so much, Orion.
Orion: It is my pleasure.
[CONCLUSION]
Leo: It was so great to chat with Orion. I learned so much from him!
Here are some things I learned and lessons we can take with us as we make the world a better place.
Orion was able to do what he loves, to spread more love! He LOVES reading, and he found a way to spread his love of reading to other people by donating over 500,000 books! How cool is that? What do you love to do and how can you combine that with what you love with helping the community around you, just like Orion?
[CLOSING]
Leo: Thank you to Orion Jean for joining us today. You can find out more about The Race to Kindness at by visiting www.racetokindness.com!
The Activators! is written by me, Leo Perry (with a little help from my mom). Our show is edited and produced by Matthew Winner with helped from Chad, Michael Snavely and the team and the team at sound on studios, our executive producer is Jelani memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
You can write to us at listen at listen@akidspodcastabout.com. and check out our other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsco.com.
See you again next week for another episode of The Activators!