- [Announcer] "Travels & Traditions" with Burt and Nicholas Wolf is is made possible by Goldbelly.

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Goldbelly.com And by Swiss International Airlines.

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Trully Swiss made.

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And by YP Foundation, helping those in need through education and improving life skills.

Guided by the principles of good deeds, charity, and public welfare, YP Foundation.

And by Five Star Travel, Inc.

in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since 1985, Five Star Travel has been developing and delivering detailed itineraries for trips, cruises, and vacations to destinations around the world.

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(bright music) - [Narrator 2] "Travels & Traditions with Burt and Nicholas Wolf" is a classic travel journal, a record of their search for information about our world and how we fit into it.

They travel to the source of each story, trying to find the connections between our history and what is happening today.

What they discover can improve our lives and our understanding of the world around us.

(lively music) (lively music continues) - As I travel around the world, from time to time, I come across organizations that are totally devoted to doing something good.

Many of those organizations are based in Geneva, Switzerland, and often work together to achieve a specific goal.

The most famous organization committed to doing good is probably the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement.

Until the middle of the 1800s, there was no organized army nursing system for casualties or safe places where the wounded could be treated.

In June of 1859, Jean-Henri Dunant, a Swiss businessman, was traveling in Italy and passed through the small town of Solferino.

A battle had just taken place in a war between Austria and Sardinia.

Dunant was shocked to see over 40,000 wounded soldiers left to die without any medical attention.

He abandoned his business trip and stayed to help the wounded.

He called for the development of a voluntary relief organization to help care for the wounded and guaranteed the protection of medics and field hospitals for soldiers wounded in battle.

His efforts inspired the founding of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, which is a humanitarian project with 16 million volunteer members and staff.

In 1864, the Swiss government invited the European governments, United States, Brazil, and Mexico, to attend a diplomatic conference that would adopt the First Geneva Convention advocating the protection of the wounded during wars.

In 1868, the Turkish government organized the Turkish Red Crescent Society.

It was the first Red Crescent Society and one of the most important charity organizations in the Muslim world.

During the following years, National Red Cross Societies were developed, including the American Red Cross.

The American National Red Cross is a nonprofit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness training.

It was founded in 1881 by Clara Barton.

She'd learned about the Red Cross in Switzerland and felt a similar organization was needed in the United States.

The best place to get a look at what the Red Cross Red Crescent Societies are doing is in their museum in Geneva.

It presents a detailed exhibition of the history of the activities of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The ICRC headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland, but it has offices in over 100 countries with a staff of over 22,000 members worldwide.

Another significant example of an organization devoted to good works is Doctors Without Borders.

It's a charitable organization that provides medical care throughout the world.

It was originally organized in 1971 and its first mission was to provide assistance to the survivors of an earthquake in Nicaragua.

In 1974, its first long-term medical relief mission was set up in Honduras after Hurricane Fifi devastated the area.

Each year, representatives of Doctors Without Borders meet in Geneva, Switzerland to discuss their activities.

- We have 41,000 staff globally, of which, you know, more than 85% are our staff that we hire in the countries in which we work.

So it's a really powerful community of MSF volunteers globally, and I think we hire people who have strong professional backgrounds.

We don't just hire doctors and nurses.

We also hire logisticians and administrators and you know, everybody who has to sort of come together to make these programs function.

It makes me feel absolutely like I'm doing something good for others.

- In recent years, they have been active throughout the world.

They respond to the health emergencies that are a result of climate change.

They're often first responders to natural disasters that strike without warning.

They're dealing with record numbers of people who have been forced from their homes and are struggling to find a place to live.

Another example of an organization devoted to good works is the World Central Kitchen.

It's a non-profit, non-governmental organization that provides food for people in war torn areas and during natural disasters.

It was founded in 2010 by chef and restaurateur, Jose Andres.

He was responding to an earthquake in Haiti.

Jose points out that food is essential to life and most important, during a crisis, a freshly prepared meal is one less thing for someone to worry about, during the wake of a disaster.

In 2010, Chef Andres headed to Haiti following a devastating earthquake.

It wasn't just about feeding people in need, it was about listening, learning, and cooking side by side with the people impacted by the crisis.

This is the real meaning of comfort food.

It's the core value that Jose, along with his wife, Patricia, used to found World Central Kitchen.

In 2017, hurricane Harvey hit Houston.

Jose with several chefs arrived right behind the storm.

Jose continued observing how food relief was handled during a crisis.

He immediately saw gaps in ways that it could be done better.

Then just a month later, hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico.

The storm brought catastrophic devastation and millions of Americans were in need.

Boarding the first commercial flight to San Juan, Jose started in one kitchen, cooking for a friend's restaurant in the Santurce neighborhood.

Chefs for Puerto Rico was born.

WCK would go on to serve nearly 4 million fresh meals in the aftermath of Maria.

While cooking hot meals with locally sourced ingredients from field kitchens has traditionally been their goal and focus in times of crisis, sometimes fresh produce boxes or meal kits for families to cook themselves are a better fit.

Partnering with local restaurants, looking to help their neighbors, allowed Jose to get meals ready immediately.

During their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, meals that were cooked, cooled, and could be reheated by families safely at home met the unique needs of the time.

In 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jose and World Central Kitchen opened eight kitchens on the border of Poland and Ukraine to supply food to the Ukrainian people displaced by the war.

No doubt, kindness creates a better world, but the question is, how do you encourage kindness?

One organization says it's totally up to you and me.

(bright music) With that story, we'll go to Cleveland, Ohio, birthplace of Superman, home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the location of a pioneering idea that is shaping the better future for all of us.

It all began 30 years ago when Stuart and Susan Muszynski turned a health crisis into a mission of kindness that would change their lives and have a positive effect on the lives of millions of others.

- My story of kindness actually started with my maternal grandmother, Dr.

Lea Lew, who was the Jewish dentist in her town of Miedzyrzec-Podlaski in Eastern Poland by the Ukraine border, and she volunteered her services to the Jewish Day School, but she also volunteered her services to the Christian Day School.

She had both Jewish and Christian patients and she was known for her kindness.

She was known for extending free services to the poor, helping people out with their family issues and other things like that.

When the Holocaust broke out in 1939 and they were running for their lives, my grandmother's patients were the ones who hid her and my parents and my grandmother's brother and allowed them to survive during the Holocaust.

And I never forgot that story.

- I grew up in a home where I observed my dad, Stan Yulish, doing kind acts all the time.

I would ride with him on Saturday to work and we would stop along the way different places, whether it was the parking garage, and he knew the attendant and the attendant's family, whether it was an act he was performing for someone along the way.

My dad seemed to know just the right act of kindness to do that would make somebody stay, and I've tried to emulate him every day in my life.

(screen whooshing) - Fast forward to 1992 and the second half of the year, I started losing my memory and I was like an Alzheimer's patient.

My wife took me to the doctor.

A doctor said I was having a prescription drug reaction and took me off the pill, cold turkey, which you're not supposed to do that.

And I had this massive withdrawal reaction and I got chronic fatigue syndrome and I was in bed for nearly two years, and about six months into my illness, my wife took me to a cognitive therapist and he asked me, "Stuart, what messages are you sending yourself?"

He actually changed my life.

I said, "I'm failing myself.

I'm failing my family.

I'm never gonna be successful again."

And he said, "Yeah, you've had a shock to your immune system, and in order to heal, you have to send yourself daily messages of positivity, kindness, and love."

And I remembered the example that my grandmother had set for me.

So that was very easy.

I created these positive visualizations, 40, 50, 60 times a day laying in bed.

I would picture kindness, positivity, and love, put positive pictures in my mind.

And one of those pictures, during one of those visualization experiences was I was in front of a group of high school kids doing a seminar, and the seminar was called Project Love.

And the next day I went downstairs, I opened the "Cleveland Plain Dealer" for the first time in almost two years, and I saw the front page article, kids killing kids in school, and I said to my wife, "I think God has a new mission in mind for us that we have to share my experience in turning around my life with kids who have negative environments in high schools, and we have to call it Project Love."

And that's how it all started.

- [Burt] With their new mandate and a passion for kindness.

Stuart and Susan moved forward with their vision for a kinder world.

- In May of 1994, we would do our first Project Love seminar, and we had adult volunteers manning small groups.

- Yes, they're working in a small group like a leadership team to change the culture, but what also is happening is they're becoming role models to be the discussion leaders for the next group of students.

- The program inspired us to be leaders, not just in our classroom, but in our community, and really leaders in spreading kindness throughout our community.

You know, and as I've grown both as a mother, as a wife, and as an attorney, it's really inspired me to try to pass kindness on in all that I do.

- [Burt] As a pioneer of what is now called Social Emotional Learning, Values in Action continues to develop character building programs in schools, organizations, and communities throughout our country.

The idea in all of this work is to create synergy that spreads kindness and changes lives.

- There's actually a body of science that tells us that we can actually teach the skills of kindness.

All of us can and need to learn these skills.

Fortunately, Kindland fits in so nicely to that.

I'm actually a co-chair on the Kindland effort here in Cleveland, and we even have Kindland lesson plans that our teachers have access to.

- I was inspired.

I went to one of the Project Love events and the message I really took away was that, little acts of kindness can have a magnifying effect.

It's pretty clear that kindness has guided me to where I am today.

It's the pinnacle that has kind of led me to the life I live both professionally, personally.

And I'm positive it will continue to be something that guides me forever.

- Amanda Guarnieri is the Vice President of Marketing and Community Impact.

- I started at Values in Action in 2006, and we were then Project Love, and we were charged with going into schools and doing workshops with all of the kids throughout northeast Ohio.

We were a team that did everything that it took to make our work in schools happen.

Stuart was the one who went out and made all of the connections.

Susan was the warm spirit that met with the teachers and the students, and Mary Alice was behind the scenes.

We couldn't have asked for a more family-like atmosphere to work in.

- [Burt] Seeing the positive impact, Values in Action programs have on students and culture, the Cleveland Metropolitan School District came to Values in Action to help in turning around one of the most troubled schools.

Values In Action created a program that delivered impressive results.

In a three year period, Values in Action was able to increase the graduation rate by 43%.

Suspensions were down by 78% and there was zero fights in the school.

- One of the things I've noticed with since Project Love and the values that we have here today is that, there's a family-like feeling now.

The kids are more engaged and interactive with the teachers.

The teachers are showing the same with the kids.

It's not that separation, if you will, of administration, teachers and parents and kids.

It's not we're all cutting out together.

We're all wanting to for the same good.

- Teachers and students made bonds and friendships from the beginning to the end, just thinking of Project Love and what they're doing.

So there was definitely an improvement.

- Values in Action created better programs for students and teachers.

The question is what happens after graduation?

- We know that employers hire on hard skills, but fire when soft skills aren't present.

Therefore, we designed our Via Workforce training program to nurture the soft skills and values that students need to be successful.

- Values In Action is a 16-week comprehensive training program where the students learn positive behaviors, values such as integrity, teamwork, responsibility, and what that looks like in the workplace.

In my role in this program, I was provided as a mentor from Swagelok Company to the students.

The interactions began in the classroom where we would first meet the students and talk about our culture in the workforce.

We would then meet with them periodically and have one-on-one sessions with them.

We saw a nice transformation in the students that we worked with.

We watched them transform from a what's in it for me attitude to more collaborative value-based performance in a way that they handle themselves every day in the workplace.

- Values in Action started programs for students through the 12th grade, but Stuart and Susan soon realized that there was more to do and extended their efforts into the real world, responding to the growing wave of divisiveness, negativism, and social disconnection.

In 2020, they launched their Kindland initiative.

A movement aimed not just at students but our entire society.

With programs, promotions, and competitions, all designed to help people focus on kindness, Kindland has evolved into a national movement.

The response and support of individuals, educators, companies, and government has been outstanding.

We use their Just Be Kind app to see what they were doing.

To date, Kindland has been responsible for over 200 million acts of kindness reported through their Just Be Kind app.

We posted signage in our window and in our yards to show people that we were involved with acts of kindness.

I even went to their online store and bought some of their gear.

I feel kinder already.

I always smile and make eye contact and often try to tell a joke that will make people laugh.

One of my favorites is about this guy who turns to his wife and says, "You're always talking behind my back and pushing me around."

And she says, "Of course, you are in a wheelchair."

Recent history has shown us that just as easily as our country can come together in time of crisis, it can be torn apart by meanness, intolerance, and hatred.

Kindland focuses on how we can bring people together to be more kind to each other, how we can work together to find solutions in common ground.

Studies have shown that positive psychological traits like optimism and resilience result in better physical health, lower rates of cardiovascular disease, and longer life expectancy.

Dr.

Martin Seligman is considered to be the father of positive psychology.

As president of the American Psychological Association, he called for a shift in psychology's focus.

He wanted psychology to study positive human traits.

- And starting about six years ago, we asked about extremely happy people and how do they differ from the rest of us?

And it turns out there's one way very surprising, they're not more religious, they're not in better shape.

They don't have more money.

They're not better looking.

They don't have more good events and fewer bad events.

The one way in which they differ, they're extremely social.

- [Burt] His approach and courage is a commitment to kindness, gratitude, and courage.

He suggested we focus on positive emotions like joy, gratitude, hope, and love.

Cleveland psychotherapist and life coach, Ken Alexander, feels that this positive psychological approach should begin early in a child's development.

- Positive psychology, which is probably one of the newest introductions into psychotherapy and the counseling world has got a wonderful place for certain populations, if not all of the populations.

So taking that approach, particularly I would say in an elementary or middle school setting, sets a good foundation and acts as a positive catalyst for the individual to run with what they know they already have that works for them.

Let's say at the preschool level.

Okay, we have preschools where the intervention and application of this type of therapy in just any kind of setting serves as a catalyst for healthy thinking.

The child doesn't necessarily have to be in therapy, but if they are surrounded in an environment that encourages this type of positivity, kindness, early spirituality, they begin to use this to their advantage, whereas the negativity doesn't have the ability, as it once did to, as I like to say, rent out space in their head.

- As I looked into the Kindland movement, I discovered that their work was in keeping with the philosophy of Seligman and Alexander.

And that's no surprise because the co-founder of the organization, Susan Muszynski, is a clinical psychologist.

- From the beginning, we've based our programs on cognitive psychology.

Cognitive psychology is the study of how our beliefs, what we put into our mind, affect our feelings and our behavior.

So therefore, if we could choose in a situation to decide to question, put a different belief into our minds, we will then have a different outcome in terms of our feelings and our behavior.

- Throughout this program, we have explored the power of kindness in organizations and individuals and witnessed the positive impact it can have on our society.

Building the next generation of kind, caring, positive people is imperative, and that's the continuing work of the people at Values in Action.

Recently, I learned that Kindlands national movement is being adopted by large corporations and state government.

They're using the Kindland model to promote a culture of kindness throughout their organizations.

As Mark Twain famously said, "Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see."

Working on this program has made me focus on kindness throughout the day.

It's become more and more part of my life.

Well, that's my kindest "Travels & Traditions."

Please join us next time, right here on your local PBS station.

But wait, there's more, for daily reels featuring interviews and stories, film during "Travels & Traditions," visit @NicholasWolfTV on Instagram or @BurtNicholasWolfTV on YouTube.

(gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - [Announcer] "Travels & Traditions" with Burt and Nicholas Wolf is is made possible by Goldbelly.

Shipping stone crabs, pizzas, birthday cakes and more from manny of Americas restaurants.

Anywhere Nationwide.

Goldbelly.com And by Swiss International Airlines.

Flying to over 100 worldwide locations.

Trully Swiss made.

Swiss International Airlines.

And by YP Foundation, helping those in need through education and improving life skills.

Guided by the principles of good deeds, charity, and public welfare, YP Foundation.

And by Five Star Travel, Inc.

in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Since 1985, Five Star Travel has been developing and delivering detailed itineraries for trips, cruises, and vacations to destinations around the world.

Five Star Travel, Inc.

(bright music)