A film by HooplaHa.

Will Manganis lost his best friend Joey at 6 years old to cardiomyopathy.  “I wish that Joey hadn’t died”, he says.  Few eight-year olds have ever uttered such words about a friend.  The two had been inseparable since they met.  “We’d have to separate them a lot at lunchtime because they wouldn’t stop talking”, Scott Middlemiss, Joey’s father, says with a laugh.   “I wanted to sell lemonade at the farmer’s market, but we couldn’t do that, so I came up with kindness rocks”, says Will.  Kindness rocks are colorful rocks painted with kind designs.  Will sells the rocks (with assistance from his mom) at fairs and events, and even has a few retail outlets that carry his product.  He has used much of the proceeds to donate to the foundation established in the name of his best friend, and also to buy “buddy benches” for local schools.

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  • Nina Bauer

    just really beautiful !! and inspiring !! Nina

  • Mohan

    The very thought to keep the memory alive with an act of Kindness! The Young age at which he envisioned the idea is truly inspiring!!!

  • Tessa

    Particularly the Buddy Benches touched me. The energy between the two boys, for so long, seemed to emanate from that idea of sitting in the benches together.

  • Marcia Myers

    Kindness does rock. What a big story from a little boy. The world needs more friends like Maganis and Joey!

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  • Visit the Joseph Middlemiss Big Heart Foundation, whose mission is to spread and document random acts of kindness.
  • Learn more about pediatric cardiomyopathy, a condition that affects approximately 30,000 children in the U.S. 
  • Consider ways you can give back to your own community by performing acts of kindness.

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