Hannah’s Happy Day Foundation grants help spread good in the world
By Ben Cox
Photos/Submitted to The Source
It’s been four years since Hannah Mansell left the world, but her legacy continues to touch hundreds of lives. Mansell’s family and friends devoted themselves to preserving her legacy of kindness and service by creating a 501(c)(3) organization.
Each semester, Hannah’s Happy Day Foundation awards kindness mini-grants to classrooms in Jacksonville and surrounding areas. Teachers apply for grants amounting from $50-$300 to use in their classrooms for projects encouraging their students to show kindness to others within their schools or communities.
On Monday, May 12, Illinois School for the Deaf teacher Laura Ratliff and ISD Learning Resource Officer Corey Stewart organized a day of kindness in action using one of these grants.
The day was full of activities for various communities in Jacksonville including: making candy for residents of long-term care facilities, organizing donated items to give to the area’s unhoused, making t-shirts for veterans, making a picnic table donated to the apartment community, VOA, in Jacksonville, showing kindness to one’s self through yoga, handing out free popcorn, practicing courtesy skills and making treats for animals at PAWS.
Kathy Mansell, Hannah’s mother, said the day was exactly what she and others had in mind when they started Hannah’s foundation: “‘Be Kind’ is almost a catch phrase today, but how do you teach kindness? Can you teach kindness? Not directly. With activities like this, kids can experience being kind, and that warm feeling you get when you are kind to someone. Corey Stewart and Laura Ratliff did such a beautiful job with the activities and made the most of their grant from Hannah’s Happy Day Foundation!”
To learn more about Hannah’s Happy Day Foundation or to donate, visit hannahshappydayfoundation.org.
