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Celebrate Tennessee: Project Selfless Promotes Kindness

Posted at 8:25 PM, Feb 16, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-16 21:41:15-05

A middle school student in Wilson County has created a new campaign bringing kindness to the forefront.

Project Selflessness started with a trip into downtown Nashville with Cali Vancleve's mom last July when she discovered her heart for the homeless.

"Probably first emotion was sadness and crying. I just bawled out my eyes with my mom," she said.

Cali had to help. Once a month, she and friends hand out bags filled with food, toiletries and water to homeless in the city.

"I realized that we can change everything cause we started passing out food and the homeless were saying thank you and God bless you," said Sydney Thaxter.

Cali's idea is to encourage other kids to put down the cell phones and selfies and be more selfless in the world around them. 

"Cause it is such a selfie generation, and how many likes can I get ... to take that focus off of them and see there is a bigger world out there I think that is so important," said Julie Vancleve.

A new club was formed at West Wilson Middle School based on Cali's generosity and the project. They're working on weekly kindness projects around school including collecting food for students in need.

"We meet in my room, a small room. I hope to move this into our auditorium and just make a huge impact at our school," said their teacher Amy Wilken.

Cali and the group will be downtown next Saturday. The club will be handing out their food bags to the homeless on February 24.