Giving Tuesday 2026: Emotional Well-Being for Kids

Hi Friends,

Since our last update, POP-UP Festival has continued to grow as a powerful way to support children’s emotional wellbeing by bringing entire communities together around emotional intelligence, kindness, and connection.

One standout example comes from Dubuque, Iowa, where a Kindness POP-UP Festival became a city-wide experience. Through a partnership with Six Seconds, the University of Dubuque, and the City of Dubuque, student and city volunteers worked side by side to bring emotional intelligence to life for 1,000 participants, including every second grader in the city and local college students.

Held outdoors on a bright, joyful day, the festival invited children to explore emotions through playful, hands-on activities designed to build emotional literacy, empathy, and positive connection. Undergraduate students and community volunteers stepped into leadership roles, modeling emotional intelligence in action while creating a welcoming environment where young learners could feel seen, heard, and supported.

Beyond the immediate experience, the Dubuque POP-UP Festival demonstrated what’s possible when emotional intelligence becomes a shared community practice. By engaging schools, higher education, and local government together, this project showed how simple, human EQ tools can strengthen relationships and foster a culture of care across an entire city.

With each POP-UP Festival, we continue to see how emotional intelligence creates ripple effects, supporting wellbeing, connection, and resilience far beyond a single event.

Thank you for making this work possible. Your generosity helps communities like Dubuque bring emotional intelligence to life for children and families, one joyful interaction at a time.

With gratitude,
Patty