Choose Love Awareness Month is the annual campaign to spread awareness of the Choose Love Movement, and the importance of teaching children essential life skills through its free Character Social Emotional Development programming.
Our Month Long Celebration of Choosing Love. We are changing the world to be a safer, more peaceful, and loving place.
Jesse and the Starfish
Jesse was walking along the beach, picking up starfish and throwing them into the sea. An older person walking the other way comes over to him and asks, “What are you doing?” Jesse simply replies, “Well the tide has gone out, and the starfish are stranded on the beach. If I don’t pick them up and throw them back into the water, they’ll die.”
The older person chuckles and says, “I just came from the other way. There are thousands of starfish all over the beach. If you worked all day you wouldn’t make a difference.”
Without pausing Jesse bends down to pick up a starfish, and throws it into the water. He turns to the older person, looks them directly in the eyes and says, “I made a difference to that one.”
Learn and Share the Choose Love Formula
We welcome everyone — students, educators, families, and communities around the world — to learn and share the Choose Love Formula. Each week in February will focus on a pillar of the Choose Love Formula.
When you learn and practice the Choose Love Formula, you will find the courage to be grateful when life is not easy, forgive yourself and others and cut the cord that attaches you to pain, and step outside of the busyness of your life to help others.
Although we can’t always choose what happens around us, we can always choose how to respond, and we can respond with love.
Week 1 – Courage
The willingness and ability to work through obstacles despite feeling embarrassment, fear, reluctance, or uncertainty.
Week 2 – Gratitude
Mindful gratitude and the ability to be thankful even when things in life are challenging.
Week 3 – Forgiveness
Choosing to let go of anger and resentment toward yourself or someone else, to surrender thoughts of revenge, and to move forward with your personal power intact.
Week 4-Compassion-In-Action
BOTH the understanding of a problem or the suffering of another and acting to solve the problem or alleviate the suffering.
Ways to Participate and Help Grow Awareness of our Movement:
Our goal is to get our Choose Love community to take action, and help us promote the Choose Love Formula, reach more students, and help more people learn our essential life skills.
Choose Love Awareness Month Events
Join us as we celebrate Choose Love Awareness Month with special webinars and workshops that we’ve created for students, educators and parents.
Why Choose Love
Choose Love programs offer the solutions that are desperately needed in schools today. They teach children, and adults, how to Choose Love in any circumstance, and help them become connected, resilient, and empowered individuals. These skills, tools and attitudes have been proven through decades of scientific research to be the best way to ensure a healthy, meaningful, and purpose-filled life.
Post-Covid Impact
More than 80 percent of U.S. public schools report the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted student behavior and socio-emotional development, according to National Center for Education Statistics. Specifically, respondents attributed increased incidents of classroom disruptions from student misconduct (56 percent), rowdiness outside of the classroom (49 percent), acts of disrespect towards teachers and staff (48 percent), and prohibited use of electronic devices (42 percent) to the COVID-19 pandemic and its lingering effects.
Choose Love Skills
Choose Love gives children the skills and tools they need to have healthy connections and manage their emotions. It’s a proactive and preventative mental health initiative.
Teaching Students
- How to get along
- How to have healthy and positive relationships
- How to have deep and meaningful connections
- Skills and tools for resilience
- Emotional management
- Conflict resolution
10 years ago the unthinkable happened. My son Jesse was murdered at Sandy Hook. But he left a message that pointed the way to a solution. It led me to create the Choose Love Movement. More than three million people have engaged Choose Love since then to live happier, healthier, and safer lives. But we are only getting started.
– Scarlett Lewis
Spreading Awareness
More than
CHILDREN
People In
COUNTRIES
Nearly
SCHOOLS
We offer Choose Love at no cost because we know that the world is a better place if every person, every school, every community Chooses Love. So much has been accomplished over these past ten years, but imagine if we could double the number of people who choose love next year.
It’s a movement – and in the next 10 years, we will change the world.
It Starts with You! Join the Movement Now!
Choose Love Starfish Moments Essay Contest
The Boy and the Starfish’ is a story about a boy on a beach, throwing starfish back into the water, and reminds us that everyone can make a positive impact on someone through a small act of kindness.
It’s about recognizing the value of each individual connection and understanding that, collectively, these moments contribute to a more compassionate and interconnected world. This story shows compassion for others, and courage to stand up for what you believe in.
How can you create a Starfish Moment?
How can you use the Choose Love Formula to create a Starfish Moment? When you take a thoughtful moment, you can create a small act of kindness to positively affect someone else? Have you seen someone else create a Starfish Moment? How can you thoughtfully pick your starfish moments each day, and Choose Love for yourself or someone else? Consider which perspective you are in the story, the boy, the starfish or the older person.
Entries:
Write an essay or a story that shows how you or someone else has created a Starfish Moment. Essays should be under 1,000 words. Attachment as Word document preferred.
Who: Elementary, Middle, and High School students.
Deadline: February 29, 2024 and submitted online.
Note: Submissions become the property of the Choose Love Movement, and by submitting agree to allow the essay entry to used by the Movement for marketing purposes (online or in print). Essays may be published in a book, proceeds benefit the Choose Love Movement. Access Rules.
Questions?
Please email info @ jesselewischooselove.org.
Prizes:
Elementary Classroom submissions will be chosen by Choose Love Judges and/or random selection.
- One classroom will receive a Classroom prize kit. This kit contains: 25 wristbands, 25 pencils, 25 journals, 25 Starfish coins, 1 Starfish poster, 1 rubber duck.
- Two classes will receive 25 wristbands and 25 Starfish coins.
Middle/High School student selected by the Choose Love Judges and/or random selection.
- One Individual will receive a Choose Love prize kit to include 1 Choose Love t-shirt, 1 baseball cap, 1 journal, 1 pen, 1 bumper sticker, 1 plush duck, and 1 drawstring duck sack.
- Two winners will receive a t-shirt.
One high school student entry will be selected by the Choose Love Judges and/or random selection to receive a $500 college scholarship.
Proclamations for Choose Love Awareness Month
