Hero of the Month

May 2010: Colleen Smith

So I don’t even know Colleen, but I admire her chutzpah. Colleen Smith is a professional volleyball player who lives in Southern California and is 6 feet, 6 inches tall. She has a blog that is mostly devoted to raising awareness about everyday products that don’t work for very tall people, like kitchen counters and legroom in cars.

But she is also making a difference in the world by being friendly. Going beyond a simple “hi”, Colleen gives high fives to strangers and gets big smiles in return. Check out her video. As she wrote a few months ago, “Through small steps, we can begin to understand other cultures, different upbringings, and the beauty of diversity that shapes the world. We can embrace other people rather than ignoring them.”

Colleen’s friend, Steve Crandall, tipped me off about Colleen’s “High Fives for Happiness” efforts. He wrote to me about how Colleen uses her height to her advantage. People stare at her because of her height, so why not turn that attention into something positive by engaging them in a high five? Colleen reports that the first time she tried it, it left her feeling fantastic for the rest of the day!

If you want to try giving high fives yourself, she recommends looking at the opposite high fiver’s elbow for best results. You also might want to check out her post about National High Five Day , which was April 15th. Kudos to Colleen Smith, my “Just Say Hi” Hero for the month of May.