11-Year-Old Starts 'El Paso Challenge' To Encourage Kindness And Help His Community Heal

August 7, 2019

An 11-year-old boy in El Paso, TX, has started the "El Paso Challenge" to encourage kindness to one another in response to the Walmart shooting.

Ruben Martinez is challenging each person in El Paso to do 22 acts of kindness for others in honor of the 22 people who died that day.

"He was having some trouble dealing with what happened," his mother, Rose Gandarilla, told CNN. "I explained to him that we could not live in fear and that people in our community are caring and loving. I told him to try and think of something he could do to make El Paso a little better."

Since then, Ruben has been passing out flyers and posting on social media to try and help the #ElPasoChallenge spread.

The 6th grader is also leading by example.

"Last night, he agreed to go out to do his first act of kindness," Gandarilla said. "He chose to go deliver dinner to our first responders."