Meet Forest Melton of The Ben’s Bells Project in Downtown Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Forest Melton.

Forest, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Born & raised in South Phoenix, I come from a family of 10, and there was never a dull moment. After high school, I attended the University of Arizona, and ended up moving to Tucson for a number of years. #BearDown Eventually I moved to Dallas-Fort Worth to work on another degree, and then returned back to Phoenix. Upon moving back to Phoenix, I became interested in starting a non-profit, and got accepted into an exclusive local incubator called Seed Spot. Seed Spot only takes on socially conscious ventures, and I wanted to build a volunteer app of sorts. I have since settled on serving on various boards, until technology catches up to my ideas. I was named 2019 Man of the Year through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for being a part of a team that raised the most money of the male participants that year. I have been a part of The Ben’s Bells project for 15 years now, and SOUNDS Academy for 5 years. In 2015 we opened the Ben’s Bells Phoenix Studio in downtown Phoenix.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has not been a smooth road. It feels like 2 steps forward, 3 steps backwards most of the journey. There are so many moments of failure and disappointment where it feels like you’re the only one. It is so easy to point to other people that seem to have things figured out, or appear to be further along. It makes one feel really inadequate, frustrated, and stuck. Not only am I the king of comparison, but I am also the king of over analysis. This is a dangerous combination, because not only did I have to experience the actual losses and failures, I had the pleasure of also reliving those failures in my head over and over again.

The challenges I experienced between getting back to Phoenix and now have been numerous. In 2011 I was rejected from various graduate programs. In 2012 I dealt with the ending of a long-term relationship, and then the ending of my job a few months later. 2 years after that, my father passed away of cancer. I’ve had a failed business or two, and had some devastating falling outs with friends. The challenges do not stop coming, especially now that it is 2020, and COVID-19 has come along, and simply changed everything.

The Ben’s Bells Project – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Ben’s Bells is a very cool non-profit whose mission is kindness. We do this in a number of ways, but our flagship activity is the distribution of Ben’s Bells randomly in public places. The Ben’s Bells are wonderful, beautiful, and come with an important message, kindness. They are special, because they cannot be purchased, only found randomly or nominated and awarded. We also have “Kind Kids” programming in over 400 schools, as well as a pretty healthy waiting list. This kindness education permeates the culture of institutions, and comes at no cost to the school. Most importantly, Ben’s Bells, changes the way people think. We teach people about how kindness is an action, and is not to be confused with being nice which often comes in the form of not ‘rocking the boat’ or not making anyone feel too uncomfortable. Kindness is not the easy road, and there are some things we need to learn first, before we can do kindness really well.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I define success as making meaningful progress in reasonable time on a worthwhile goal. The markers I am looking at are typically simple big picture things like “does this get me closer to my goal or not”. Sometimes that looks like massive action, but sometimes that looks like removing extraneous milestones that are not actually progressing one towards their big picture goal. For Ben’s Bells, success is defined as whether activities and outcomes are in alignment with our kindness-centered mission.

Contact Info:

• Address: 918 N 2nd St
  Phoenix, AZ 85004
• Website: https://bensbells.org/
• Phone: 602-374-5523
• Email: phoenix@bensbells.org
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bensbells/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BensBellsProject
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/BensBells

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