In his November 2011 Ted Talk, Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, Michael Norton, shared some fascinating research on how money buys happiness. The data he shared regarding fiscal currency and its relationship to joy and bliss would be surprising to most.
“If you are not happy
spending money,” Norton said in his Ted Talk, “then you are not spending it
right.”
According to Norton’s
research, four delighted Windham youth are spending their money wisely.
The young money-making entrepreneurs
in question include second grade student, Ben Dubois and his brother Jackson
who is a fifth-grade student, along with first grader, Lily Kuusela and her
older brother Jackson, also a fifth-grade student.
These four youthful businesspersons created a small enterprise of making bracelets out of multi-colored pipe cleaners and sold them to the community as a creative way to occupy their time during the pandemic when they were not busy doing their schoolwork. As for the money they made? They gave it all away to the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland (ARLGP).
“Logan has made bracelets
in the past and he thought about selling them so we all decided it would be fun
to do this as a business together,” Jackson Dubois said, who is a longtime
family friend and classmate of Logan’s. “We built and set up a stand to sell
them for 25 cents each. We were going to split and keep the money but decided
to donate all of it.”
This entrepreneurial turned
philanthropy endeavor began in mid-November. By mid-December as Lily Kuusela
noted, the stand was set up at the end of the Kuusela family driveway. They
made $100.
“We made $2.00 on the very first day,” Logan said.
Although the four
youngsters were successful at selling bracelets at their stand, news got around
quickly and individuals within the community started making orders via the
children’s parents’ Facebook pages.
“In some cases, we had
people donate money after they realized the kids were making the money to give
away to the animal shelter,” one of the mothers, Kim Kuusela said. “We even had
someone donate a package containing 350 pipe cleaners, but we do not know who
the doner was. No one is owning up to that.”
The $100 was delivered on Wednesday,
Feb. 17.. As for the choice to give the money away to the ARLGP, the decision
was easy.
“We all love animals and
we wanted to be able to help the shelter feed the animals with that money,” the
children said. “And we got Oliver from there,” Ben Dubois said of his family
cat.
As for the parents Kim and
Jon Kuusela and Jon Dubois and Jodi Mitchell-Dubois, their children sparked
wonder and amazement.
“I was very surprised when they decided to
donate their money to the ARLGP,” Jodi Mitchell said. “They worked hard and had
fun, and they could have decided to buy something for themselves or split it
and each take a share. None of them hesitated to donate the money, and while I
was surprised, I was also incredibly proud of them all for coming together and
looking outside themselves.”
The Kuusela and Dubois
youngsters are not stopping here, and they spoke with excitement about their
next endeavor.
“The next time we want to
sell bracelets and give the money to a homeless shelter,” Logan Kuusela said.
Although bracelets made
out of pipe cleaners may seem insignificant in the grand scheme of things, Norton
ends his Ted Talk with this powerful statement, “The specific way you spend on
other people is not as important as the fact that you spend money on other
people. You can still do small, trivial things and you can make yourself
happy.”
The parents of the
children wish to give a shout out to all the community members who encouraged
the youngsters in living their dream of philanthropy. “They helped to make this
possible, too.”
To purchase bracelets from
the Kuusela/Dubois children, with all the proceeds from their current endeavor
going to a homeless shelter, email orders at: windhambraceletsforacause@gmail.com
Interested in watching
Norton’s Ted Talk? Go to: https://www.ted.com/talks/michael_norton_how_to_buy_happiness <
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