The Conversation
Kindergartner Creates “Joy Box” To Spread Happiness In His Community
There's a six-year-old genie in Turlock, CA and he's granting people's wishes from his front yard.
Levi Navarra was inspired to create a "Joy Box" after his mom told him his original plan to take all of his classmates to Disneyland wasn't realistic. His second idea was to host a pancake party for his class, which his parents agreed to do.
The Navarras invited Levi's classmates, neighbors and friends to the party, and over 80 people came by to partake in a buffet of hot cakes with rainbow sprinkles, a bouncy house and some lawn games.
After that, Levi was hooked. He wanted to do more to help his community, so his family decided to build a small book swap library to put in their front yard. Unfortunately, the box Levi's dad bought at an auction wasn't the right size for the project.
Levi quickly came up with another idea. He wanted to build a box where people could leave their wishes.
"My wife (Amy) is great," Levi's father Dan told CNN. "She takes a spark of an idea with him and lets him build a fire out of it. So they went to Home Depot, and they picked up stuff, and came up with a name -- and here we are. We put it up in the front yard, and we're going for it."
The family set up the box and included pens and "wish sheets" where neighbors and those passing by could stop and write out their wishes, hopes and dreams, and put them in a mailbox.
A sign is attached to the box to explain how it works. It reads, "Anyone and everyone is encouraged to place a need, hope, dream wish or desire in our box. No request is too big or too small, our goal is to one day be able to grant them all! Our plan is to collect them all once a month and make as many come true as we can for those who have put a note in our box! So please grab a paper, fill it out and drop your need, hope, dream wish or desire in our Joy Box."
They started out by printing 65 wish sheets for people to write on. After a week, only two sheets were left.
"Once a month, we'll sit down as a family and we'll look at all of them together and see what resonates with Levi," Dan said.
The "dream wishes" range from big asks, like $8,000 to pay off debt, to smaller requests – one little girl wanted some toys to play with outdoors.
Something the family didn't expect was the number of people who wanted to chip in and help grant wishes for others.
"The part we didn't anticipate was people saying, 'Hey, let me Venmo you 50 bucks,' Dan told the Modesto Bee. "'Let me give you some gift cards to give out.' 'Hey, if you have somebody who needs a construction project, I'd love to donate my time.'"
While the Navarras aren't in the position to shell out cash for every single wish they get, they're doing what they can to help as many people as possible.
As Levi sums up the true mission of the Joy Box, "We want to spread joy to our community and the world."
You can check out the Navarra family's Instagram page to learn more about Levi's Joy Box and other projects from @navarrapartyof5.
