Pay It Forward

The Pay It Forward Movement is the real-life reaction to the release of Catherine Ryan Hyde's novel ... http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/

Pay It Forward is a moving story about Trevor McKinney, a twelve-year-old boy in a small California town who accepts the challenge that his teacher gives his class, a chance to earn extra credit by coming up with a plan to change the world for the better--and to put that plan into action.

The plan that Trevor comes up with is so simple--and so naive--that when others learn of it they are dismissive. Even Trevor himself begins to doubt when his pay it forward plan seems to founder on a combination of bad luck and the worst of human nature.

What is his idea? Trevor chooses three people for whom he will do a favor, and then when those people thank him and ask how they might pay him back, he will tell them that instead of paying him back they should each pay it forward by choosing three people for whome they can do favors, and in turn telling those people to Pay it Forward. It's nothing less than a human chain letter of kindness and good will. But will it work?

In the end, Pay It Forward is the story of seemingly ordinary people made extraordinary by the simple faith of a child. The miracle of innocence: the story of how a boy who believed in the goodness of human nature set out to change the world.

"You see, I do something real good for three people. And then when they ask how they can pay it back, I say they have to Pay It Forward. To three more people. Each. So nine people get helped. Then those people have to do twenty-seven." He turned on the calculator, punched in a few numbers. "Then it sort of spreads out, see. To eighty-one. Then two hundred forty-three. Then seven hundred twenty-nine. Then two thousand, one hundred eighty-seven. See how big it gets?"