Netflix star brings kindness speaking tour to Troy

Leon Logothetis — author of “Live, Love, Explore,” star of the Netflix series “The Kindness Diaries” and a motivational speaker — will present at Troy High School Friday, Sept. 8.

Part way through his “kindness movement” tour of schools across the country, Logothetis spoke to The Western News Aug. 30 while traveling through Minnesota.

“My school years were not pleasant,” Logothetis said. “I was bullied by both teachers and students.”

Recalling two years spent sitting in the library eating lunch on his own, Logothetis said one day a boy came up and asked him to join him and his friends for lunch, a moment which made a profound impact on Logothetis.

“That’s the message I want to get across to the kids I see today,” he said. “You can make a difference, a huge difference, in someone’s life by showing them kindness.”

While not solely focused on bullying or suicide prevention, Logothetis’ presentation aims to “embed kindness into the culture of schools, with hopes that it could become a byproduct in helping lower youth suicide rates,” a news release states.

“we all know that schools can be daunting places and children can sometimes be very cruel without fully understanding the impact their behavior is having,” the news release continues. “But by speaking to them and including them in the conversation, it can make all the difference.”

Troy School Superintendent Jacob Francom said a former teacher, Robbie Radakovich, tipped him off that kids were responding positively to Logothetis’ message via his Netflix series.

“We are able to have a great lineup of guest speakers this year thanks to a few new grants we received,” Francom said, adding that as thanks for coming all the way to Troy, the school has plans to show Logothetis a little kindness by taking him floating on the Kootenai River following his presentation.

In “The Kindness Diaries,” Logothetis takes his childhood experiences and turns them upside down, as he travels the world relying only on the kindness of strangers.

“I still get offers from people asking if I want to stay with them,” he said, adding that his travels showed him that “true wealth is in our hearts, not in our wallets.”

Logothetis gave the example of spending a night on the streets of Pittsburgh with a homeless man.

“I asked if I could stay with him, and at the time, I didn’t know he was homeless,” Logothetis said. “He turned around and said he didn’t have a home, but that I could spend the night with him and he would protect me.”

During his school tour, Logothetis is asking students to send him messages via Facebook and he will send them a postcard. If they send it back with one kind thing they have done written on it, he will donate a book to a child in the United States.

“The aim is to donate 10,000 books,” Logothetis said. “We’ve already donated 3,000.”