The Power of One

There was a young boy,
Only nine years old,
Who wanted to make
A difference in the world.

He saw homeless kids
On the news
And in the streets,
And he wondered what he could do.

He assumed that most of them
Had a home at one time,
So he decided to interview them
To find out what it was like for them.

In a couple of days
That boy interviewed
Over a hundred homeless kids
Asking them what they missed most.

Now imagine if that were
You or me,
It might have taken us
A year or more.

What that boy found
Might surprise you a bit,
But his survey revealed peanut butter
Was what those kids missed most!

He decided to collect
Peanut butter for the homeless kids,
And quickly earned the title,
“The Peanut Butter Kid!”

He told his teacher
About his project
And got permission
To share it with the class.

There were thirty other children in the class
And the next day
Twenty-nine of them
Brought jars of peanut butter.

He had a talk
With the lone holdout,
And the following day
That kid brought two jars.

The school principal
Heard about the project
And invited the boy
To present it to the school assembly.

The school district heard about that
And he was invited
To present his project
To each school in the district.

That nine year old boy
Collected over
20,000 jars of peanut butter
For distribution to the homeless kids.

That may not have solved
The homeless problem,
But it sure points out
The power of one!

If he could do that
Then what can you or I do
Who are not of such
Apparently limited means?