By Tracy Holmes
Three weeks ago, Kit Sauder gave $6 to a woman begging for money for food.
He regretted it soon after, not because he thought she might spend the money on drugs or cigarettes.
He was upset with himself.
“I didn’t do the most I could’ve,” the White Rock teen said.
He wished he’d gone a step further and offered to buy her dinner. That would have brightened her day, he reasoned, if only for a short time.
That level of compassion is not often recognized in youth, University of B.C.’s Dr. Kim Schonert-Reichl said. They’re more often blamed for causing problems rather than making communities better.
Next month, a Vancouver event will work to change that stereotype.
Sauder is one of nine Lower Mainland students granted an audience with the Dalai Lama Sept. 8 at the Orpheum.
Nurturing Compassion – to be webcast to high schools across B.C. – will see the teens share their experiences with the Dalai Lama, opportunity to ask the peace advocate questions on compassion, kindness and empathy.
The forum is part of a three-day schedule that will see the Dalai Lama speak at GM Place on the art of happiness, to inauguarte the Dalai Lama Center for Peace and Education.
Schonert-Reichl, the event chair, described the students-only forum as “rare opportunity,” a chance to showcase how compassionate youth can be.
The Dalai Lama believes youth are the future, and capable of making the world a better place if given the chance, Schonert-Reichl said.
“He’s said several times that’s where we need to focus.. if we want to have change.”
Sauder was invited to the forum after his English teacher submitted an essay he wrote on compassion.
His piece is one of three that’ve been made into short films to be shared with the Dalai Lama Sept. 8. The stories are to be kept under wraps until the forum, so Sauder shared few details. His is about him seeing a woman crying at the side of the road. At first, he just walked past, but returned to try to make her smile.
“It was something human enough I felt I could write about it without sounding arrogant,” he said.
