We're the litter heroes!" she exclaimed wildly, flashing her large, proud smile as one her brothers nodded in agreement off to the side.

"You're what?" I asked, as I was confused at the sudden exclamation that came with no context.

"You know, Daddy, litter heroes. Wherever we go we pick up trash and throw it away," she said with her smile still intact.

I smiled back and peered over my eyeglasses that were perched on the middle of my nose. "Oh, you mean you guys like to pick up litter, do you?"

All three children nodded proudly and I went back to reading a bedtime book. But as I began reading, I couldn't help but smile to myself and be grateful. I was grateful, you see, because in one, one-hour session earlier this summer my children learned a lesson about pollution and the environment by listening to another adult and then going out and picking up trash downtown as part of the session.

It's gratifying when your children learn a lesson and it sticks with them. In this case it was a Saturday science program at Port Discover, our science center for kids downtown. In the case of some kids over in nearby Currituck County, it's the influence of a woman and her children that saw a need and fulfilled it.

Tricia Phillips learned of a group of children in need so she formed the Soul Patrol. The kids in need, as explained in the accompanying story on this page, are in a home, or foster care, and it was discovered they were in need of supplies for school, or even clothing for everyday wear. Phillips got this group of kids together to help out.

Those children will likely take that lesson with them. According to national statistics on volunteering, those kids will have a high likelihood of volunteering for the benefit of others when they're adults.

I see it in my children, the willingness to be of service. As my wife, Robin, created the first-ever community garden program in our community, I watched my children invest their own sweat in the creation of the gardens.

We explained to them the significance of the large, teaching garden at the food bank; that it could help others feed themselves when they're in need. As Sam and Aidan shoveled soil into raised beds from the back of my truck, I knew they were having fun but I couldn't be sure the lesson wasn't lost on them. Perhaps, I thought, they're too young to understand what it means.

Yet sitting at our kitchen table, one of them will pick up a tomato from our garden, examine it and declare that the garden they helped create was helping others. They got it, I thought, once again gratified that lessons are learned and small lives are shaped for future benefit.

I can't stress the importance of those lessons. Whether they be manners and when and how to address an adult – we're still working that out at times – or the importance of picking up trash, it's brilliant to see the meaning these lessons hold for them.

I had a discussion about the current state of government with a man the other day. Where he sees doom and gloom, I told him I see hope.

"People are coming around, changing," I told him.

While he didn't buy it, he wanted proof. His skepticism out matched mine so we ended the conversation, yet had I thought for a moment to tell him about the children and how while it is a cliché that they are the future, I wonder if I couldn't have planted even the smallest seed of hope in his mind had I told him what the children are learning today.