What does it mean to live a life of virtue, to understand diversity, and to be committed to community service?

What does it mean to step out of yourself and help make the lives of others a little bit easier?

The Good Eggs is a trilogy of children’s books focused on helping young people incorporate the vital concepts of virtues, diversity, and service into their lives. By incorporating these concepts at a young age, the hope is it will carry into their teenage years, which, in turn, will lead into their adulthood.

The first book in the series is called The Good Eggs (which teaches Virtues), the second book is called The Good Eggs Travel the World (which teaches Diversity), and the final book in the series is called The Good Eggs In the Community (which teaches the importance of Service). These interesting and engaging adventures take the Eggs through three years of their lives. They grow, learn, and help each other through various issues and realize the importance of becoming a “Good Egg.”

Giving Back

This book series is also EGGStra Special, because when copies of The Good Eggs series are purchased, an identical set is given to a children’s charity/school. The Good Eggs is currently on a mission to get school sets of books into every Detroit, Michigan elementary school. I have had suburban schools purchase school sets as part of their character education programs, thus enabling me to donate a second set to a school (mainly but not limited to Detroit), who would not have the opportunity to purchase. I even had a suburban school (their 5th grade) follow each chapter of Book 3, The Good Eggs in the Community, and adapt it to their own community. They helped tutor children, made gift baskets for the elderly in their neighborhood, donated to an animal shelter, collected canned goods for a food shelter, learned about healthy eating habits and exercise, and educated themselves on caring for our earth. The local newspaper wrote an article on them! That warmed my heart immensely because the goal of The Good Eggs was actually put into practice!

Virtues in Action

Through the EGGStra Special Program, we have had many exciting opportunities to visit Detroit schools! One such visit was to the Detroit Academy of Arts and Sciences, where we spent the day with a class of amazing kids who were eager to learn all about The Good Eggs. Through our presentation, we shared with them the importance of kindness, generosity, and thoughtfulness for others. The kids told us beautiful stories of how they have demonstrated these virtues, and even decided to make some greeting cards for the residents at a nursing home situated across the street from their school. We stayed and helped them with the cards, which came out lovely and became a pleasant surprise for many senior citizens!

We also visited Clark Park Coalition, a wonderful program that provides educational, social, mentoring, and recreation for Southwest Detroit families. The children of Clark Park were very prepared for our visit. When we arrived, I was nearly brought to tears to find out they had been studying The Good Eggs for several weeks through a book club they created on their own – and it was done in both English and Spanish! They showed me their hard work through writing questions and answers, and I also did a Q&A with them. Such great kids with amazing hearts!

From a marketing standpoint, giving away books is no way to make money, however, it is an invaluable investment into our humanity. This investment can supply us with much more than money when it comes to the quality of our future and how the next generation interacts with and treats each other. With some awareness, kindness, and concern, a difference can be made in someone’s life!