Every year, Kristina Ulmer gives each of her 9th-grade students a $20 bill. They can spend it however they choose, with just one requirement: it must be spent on an act of kindness. It’s a tradition that the Pennsylvania English teacher has been keeping for nearly a decade, after she lost her 29-year-old sister Katie in a car accident. Katie left behind a $100 waitressing tip in her wallet, and Ulmer wanted to use it for something special in her sister’s honor. So, she matched the money with her own savings and distributed it to her students, challenging them to use it for good. "I want them to make connections to the people around them,” said Ulmer. “I wanted them to notice that people around them could possibly be struggling.” The annual project, which is now funded by Horsham High School in Horsham, Penn., has been a huge success. Through the years, students have used the money to bake cookies for first responders, donate food to local food banks, and buy yarn to crochet tiny hats for premature babies at the local hospital. Ulmer’s students have learned one lesson from the annual tradition: You don’t have to have millions; anyone can make a difference.
