Boo and Cecil Grace’s Secret to Cultivating Kindness

Boo Grace had a life-long dream of seeing kindness and strength of character recognized – even glamorized – among school-aged children.  

So when she and her husband Cecil Grace noticed there was an abundance of programs focused on promoting athletic, artistic, and scholastic merit, but an absolute void of programs aimed at celebrating decency and character among students, they took matters into their own hands and, in 2002, created the F. Cecil Grace Foundation’s Operation Positive Role Model.

"Honoring goodness is the heart of all religions and of our country’s character," Boo Grace said. "Over the years, Cecil and I have tired of the standard charities."

Residents of both Katonah and Manhattan, the Grace’s have taken special interest in the students of Yorktown, providing almost $200,000 in grants and scholarships to students of the Yorktown School district. 

Most recently the  the program in which 8th grade students nominate each other for the acts of kindness during the school year. Students involved in the program met regularly and engaged in dialogues about what decency is. Eventually the council of students selected the winners who each received a scholarship in the amount of $1,000.

We asked Boo Grace to share her secrets to building character and making acts of kindness glamorous.

Patch: What motivated you to create Operation Positive Role Model?

Boo Grace: Problem kids and brilliant kids received the bulk of attention. The nice kid who helped his neighbor was usually overlooked. It occurred to me that the majority of the kids—the nice kids should be recognized for their acts of kindness.

The logical way of choosing the role models would be to have them nominated by their peers. We put ballot boxes around the schools. The school kids nominated their peers who did these unusual acts. The student council studies the nominees and selects the top candidates. They rank the student awards according to their evaluation of the importance of the action.

The top recipients are awarded $1,000. We have devoted several million dollars to the creation of the programs and giving awards to the four schools now involved.

Patch: When did you launch the program and how many kids have you impacted?

BG: We launched in 2002. We have impacted several thousand children over the years.

Patch: You mentioned that you live in Manhattan and Katonah.  Why the focus on Yorktown schools?

BG: My dear friend was a clergyman in Yorktown. He felt passionate about Yorktown’s program and helped sponsor it with the clerical and lay leaders of the community.

Patch: What is your definition of success?

BG: Finding an area of creativity that needs help and then being able to provide that help.

Patch: What's the hardest thing about running a foundation?

BG: The foundation has been pure sunshine in most ways. The youngsters love the program. They gave us a bench in their hero's garden and used their allowance money to buy us a tree and plaque saying “Grow with Grace.” The only difficulty is that we have been the sole supporters of the program over the years.

The program is so desperately needed and so very successful that we assumed that others would begin parallel programs in their own names. From the start we have emphasized that we have no pride of authorship. We had assumed that many of our friends would memorialize dear ones or just plain create the program in additional schools to fulfill the obvious need for keeping our youth on the straight and narrow.

The reality is that not a single parallel foundation has been started.

Patch: What are the most important things a person needs to be successful?  

BG: To find a “niche” where there is need for support and devotion and to be able to help fill that need.

Patch: If you could go back and do one thing differently, what would it be?

BG: There is no question as to what that would be. I would, from the beginning, state that my husband and I are blessed with wealth. However, the needs of the coming generation for the Role Model program are beyond our wealth or any single person's wealth. We must have cooperation of other like minded philanthropists for this vital program to continue and to grow.

Who would you like to see featured in this column? Email me at ajaxjoll@yahoo.com.

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