This could be the most uncomfortable thing you ever do.

Ask any teacher you know–any teacher–and they should tell you that there are kids in their classrooms who don’t have a champion. A child’s champion (often called a mentor, but that sounds so tame for a job so mighty) is someone who commits to remembering their birthday, attending special events (no matter how small), taking them out to ice cream or pizza once in awhile, and asking them how their life is going on a regular basis. Whether in the suburbs or the inner city or Podunk, USA, the United States of America is chock full of kids who lack someone like that in your life. You may have been a child without a champion yourself.

The exploited children of our world, those kidnapped and forced to be soldiers or sex slaves or laborers, need every adult to champion a kid near them. Obviously you can’t champion a kid in Latin America if you live in Middleville, MI–that’d be a heck of a commute for ice cream or a baseball game. But I guarantee there’s a kid in your community that could use a champion.

Ask at your local school or daycare center or youth camp to see who you can champion today. But remember: a champion is someone who commits.