Let 6 year old Jaden Hayes show you how to deal with sorrow #AtoZChallenge

At the age of six, Jaden Hayes suffered a pain that no child should ever suffer. Having already lost his father at the age of four, his mother too passed away in her sleep two years later leaving him an orphan. The child was truly heartbroken. How he chose to channel his suffering was something nobody anticipated though.

His aunt first realized how special Jaden was when he came up to her and told her how sick he was of seeing everyone sad and how he had a plan to change it. With her help, the six year old boy bought a bunch of toys and ventured out into the streets of Savannah, Georgia where he lives.

The orphan would go up to everyone he felt could use a happy boost and hand them one of the toys, demanding nothing more than that they smile and be happy. And it worked. People of all ages and races broke out into smiles as the young boy came up to them and handed them unexpected gifts. And yes, there were a few tears too as they realized the back story of the child standing in front of them looking to make them happy.

Dubbed 'The Smile Experiment', Jaden made over 500 people smile in just a few months. His target though was much higher as is the norm with small children - 33,000. That was two years ago.

Did he attain that target?
I got to talking with his aunt and legal guardian, Diane Hollars.

I find it amazing that at age 4, Jaden was capable of such maturity to focus on other people's happiness. How do people react when he comes up to them and gives them gifts?

Jaden has always been taught to get things for himself, if he wanted something, he had to get it, he had to get things for his mom, he did a lot "adult" things, when he should of been being a kid. Please don't get me wrong, I loved his mom dearly, but she was trying to get him to grow up too soon. I guess that's where his maturity comes in. When we brought him "home", it took us a long time to get him out of the 'adulting' habit - he wanted to cook and do laundry while we just wanted him to be a kid.

He tries real hard to make sure people have things. If somebody doesn't have something, he will go get them something; either give them his or go buy it. He gets sad when he sees somebody go without something, he says everybody needs something, nobody should be lonely.

Who are his biggest role models?

He talks a lot about his dad teaching him things when he was little, he also looks up to his Uncle Bugg- that's what he started calling my husband Scott when he was little. He likes Roman Reigns, John Cena, Stephen Curry.
He usually doesn't ask for much. He's more of a giver but one thing he really wants more than anything is to go to Disneyworld.

Jaden aimed to make at least 33,000 people smile. That sounds like a ridiculously huge target. How close is he to that target?

We lost count but he passed 33,000 a long time ago.

I guess Jaden must be 8 years old now. Does he still continue bringing joy to strangers with his gifts?

Jaden will be 9 on April 28. He has not publicly done another Smile experiment since the one in Savannah but he does continue to pass out toys and gifts to people whenever he sees an individual sad or sick somewhere. We carry toys with us wherever we go. We are in the process of planning  a trip to downtown Athens by UGA which is only about 15 minutes from us in the next few weeks to do another Smile experiment.

You can find more amazing moments from Jaden's Journey by seeking out the hashtag #TheSmileExperiment on social media.

Author's note:

This is part of my #AtoZChallenge where I will be focusing on Real Life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion.

The list for this year's (2018) Heroes of Kindness can be found here.

Of course, I have been tracking these lovely human beings for years now and have found children as young as six years old and old women in their eighties from across the world who will restore your faith in humanity. You can find the entire list of Real-life Heroes of Kindness and Compassion here.