John Steve Hartman is posting his "Kindness 101" online to help entertain and teach kids about kindness while they are staying at home. It is especially useful now due to the outbreak of the coronavirus, which is now preventing people from going out.
"On the Road" Stories
Each week, CBS News correspondent, Steve Hartman, goes on the road to capture and document stories of American kindness and compassion.
There was once an 8-year-old boy who gave a 20 dollar bill to a soldier, thanking him for a job well done. He also covered the sad story of a man who was forced to move his widowed father out of the house where he lived for 50 years.
With the "20 dollar bill" story, the CBS News correspondent won an Emmy Award. The second story has moved a lot of viewers and has been receiving mail since then.
Both stories were showcased in Valentine Theatre Thursday night when Hartman returned to his hometown. He also covered a benefit program for the Jesuit Scholars program at St. John's High School in Toledo, from which he graduated.
Hartman was initially hired as a reporter and was introduced to a world of features. He found the career that he wants to pursue when he was doing night feature reports on Fridays.
He was surprised to be inheriting the idea of the legendary Charles Kuralt's On the Road mantle. He said that it was, and remains to be, one of the greatest honors of his life. Roughly 500 segments had passed, his story ranges from a child buying a homeless person fast food to the most recent, John Potter, who seeks people who need technical help from the Internet and repairs broken appliances free of charge.
One of the memorable stories that the 57-year-old journalist wants to share is when Myles Eckert found a 20 dollar bill in a parking lot and gave it to a soldier sitting silently and alone in a restaurant. Eckert caught national attention, which led to crowdsourcing efforts around the country.
"Kindness 101" Online
Most families are now required to stay at home in the meantime, and there is no announcement yet when the country will be virus-free. Kids would be usually playing out in the park or going to their friends' houses to play. Some would also be going out to hang out with their playmates. However, now, they have no choice but to stay home all day.
Hartman knows how hard it is to make kids stay home for so long, especially now that there is a pandemic, and there is no assurance when kids will be able to get out, so he wants to help parents by taking at least half an hour a day to educate and entertain children.
Starting Monday, Hartman will be offering an online class, "Kindness 101", live from his home in Catskill, New York. He will also show some of his favorite stories from "On the Road" and share the lessons to be learned. Facebook Live will start at 2 p.m. ET.
