Friendship Day Provides Opportunities for Kids to Volunteer Together, Spread Kindness

What would you say being a friend means to you? Loyalty? Kindness? Generosity? For actress Emmy Perry, founder of Emmy’s Hope and generationOn Celebrity Youth Ambassador, it means being a great friend.

“To have great friends, you have to be a great friend,” she says. “Sometimes you’re not together, but friends are there for you even when you don’t see them. They’ll always put a smile on your face when you need it most.” 

Being a friend is important all year long, but on July 30, generationOn, the youth division of Points of Light, and Hasbro Inc. My Little Pony brand will celebrate Friendship Day – a global initiative that encourages kids to “Friend it Forward” by volunteering with friends in their schools, neighborhoods or broader communities. With Friendship Day just around the corner, we caught up with Emmy to talk about friendship, volunteering and following your passions.

“My organization, Emmy’s Hope, helps find forever homes for dogs,” she says. “My parents brought me to shelters to volunteer with them from a very young age, so I’ve always been passionate about it. I know I can make a difference in these animals’ lives – and I think that’s what friends do. They make a difference in our lives, and remind us that we matter.”

While Emmy works tirelessly, she also gets incredible support from family, and loves getting her friends involved, too.

“Anything you do with friends is more fun, but I love that volunteering starts a chain reaction. I feel like I set a good example for my friends though volunteering, by showing compassion and love,” Emmy says. “Then they get inspired and do something good for others and pass it on, and it just keeps going.”

No matter what you’re passionate about, there’s always a way for you to make a difference. In fact, as Emmy shows, you can make a difference no matter what! It’s just about getting started, and Friendship Day is the perfect time to get started!

“Listen to your heart – whatever you care strongly about, you can help,” she says. “That’s why I like generationOn. They encourage kids to go out and make a difference – it doesn’t matter what age you are! I like to say, “It only takes a spark to get a fire going – so let’s light up the world with love!’”

To learn more about Emmy’s Hope, visit their website.

Fans can join in on the fun by sharing their own acts of friendship via their social channels, tagging posts with #FriendshipisMagic and #FrienditForward or using the special My Little Pony filter on Snapchat, available on July 30. For each act of friendship shared using theese hashtags between now and August 31, Hasbro will make a $1 donation to generationOn up to $50,000. generationOn is also encouraging its community to "Friend it Forward" by providing kids and parents helpful tools and resources to engage in acts of friendship through service opportunities listed on the My Little Pony site.