This weekend I was thinking how lucky I am to be a part of a family that has always given back. I grew up as a kid spending time with my grandmother visiting the sick and the elderly all over town. My mom and dad were known as the “go to” people whenever anyone needed anything. It was only natural that my brother and I would possess those genes that would keep us giving back as we maneuvered through our own lives.

When you learn a compassion for people early on in life it doesn’t leave you. When you are taught what it is like not to be selfish and think about your fellow person before yourself early on, it puts taking care of others in your DNA and doing so seems just the natural thing to do.

Early on when I started Bring Smiles to Seniors, visiting my grandmother in her nursing home had a tremendous impact on me. Seeing so many without visitors, cards, flowers and other items touched my soul in a way that I could have never imagined. The need to do something about it was a must do, not a wish that I could. It is that drive and passion that I learned from my family that has gotten us to the point that we have delivered over 50,000 cards since March of 2016. That same passion and drive lives within my brother.

My brother has always loved painting. Now, later in life, he has channeled that passion into starting a program that works with military veterans. He has lined up painting companies and other support to provide military veterans with the supplies necessary to help instill a passion in them for painting. You can read more about his program at facebook.com/pleinairforceveteranssquad.

As part of my brothers painting he now does podcasts on painting. This has inspired m to do the same for this program and we will soon be implementing podcasts to supplement these postings on morningswithron.com. We each have goals to reach even more people to be involved in what we do and having the support of each other is an amazing thing.

We consider ourselves lucky to have parents and grandparents that put us on the path we are on at an early age. There is something special about helping others and in both cases we help people smile. How much better can it get than that. We are thankful for every person that is on these journeys with us and we can’t wait to see what we can all continue to do together.

Have a great day and remember to be the reason someone smiles.

Ron