Hello, this is Mikey and Elaine Hampson, parents to two wonderful boys and the founders of
Dollars of Love. We wanted to tell each of you how proud we are of you for opening this book and taking the first step toward changing how the youth of today view the meaning of becoming rich.
In this book, you will find everything you need to create an environment in your household, classroom, ball field - or anywhere for that matter - to empower young people to pursue love and good deeds first and, through first-hand experiences, teach them the power and concept of "when we give, we receive."
From the time we are born, society slams down our throats that children need to pursue accolades and financial success; we are taught that these are life's most important treasures. Children start school, where good grades are treasured and winning awards are the focal point for anything they do, and they treasure these trophies.
Our children are taught that good grades will lead to good colleges, and this, in turn, will result in a high-paying job where we can buy lots of things. To make matters worse, we make children perform chores for money so that they can buy things they treasure.
What sort of pathways in their brains are we creating at such a young age? In our opinion, these pathways lead to selfishness instead of selflessness. It also hinders the pursuit of their higher calling, instead taught to suppress it to focus on society's harmful, generalized concept of treasure.
We, as parents, decided that we did not want our children to grow up idolizing the treasures society tells us we need. They will have plenty of time to work and make money, but in our children's formidable years, we decided it was necessary to provide them with a foundation for pursuing love, kindness, and good deeds.
Thus, the birth of Dollars of Love - a currency available to all walks of life, regardless of socioeconomic status. Dollars of Love is the most powerful kind of currency because it is earned through performing good deeds and actions of love.
So, what, exactly, is a dollar of love? It is what your kids receive when they perform good deeds. At the end of the day, they will reflect upon each dollar of love earned and write on the back of it how it made them feel. At the end of the week, they can turn their dollars of love in for a prize.
In the beginning, the prizes will reinforce their positive behavior, but as the weeks progress, the children will realize that the action of love earning them the dollar of love made them feel better than any prize they were awarded. This creates a pathway where it becomes second nature for the child to perform a good deed. It becomes a part of who they are.
We also inadvertently came across the concept of saving the dollars of love and trading them for rewards of various sizes. This taught our children patience and fiscal responsibility, which are important later in life.
