BARACK Obama once said if you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope. Wise words and scientifically correct too, because being kind has been proven to make us happier. It seems every time we perform a selfless act, our brain produces serotonin which lifts the spirits.

So there must have been a lot of laughter at the Mansion House this week, when the Lord Mayor presented his young volunteer awards.

Cllr Gillies says he was humbled to be with so many young people “doing something tangible for others”. And he is right. Too often teenagers get a bad press, but when such a high profile figure publicly recognises the good things they do, the rest of us sit up and listen. Not that these youngsters seek recognition. Take 17-year-old Jennifer Moulds who began volunteering to do something more productive during the long summer holidays.

Since then Jennifer has taken part in the Besom project that provides a bridge between those who want to give time and those who are in need, helped run drama workshops for children and even transformed a family’s garden.

Jennifer’s friend Alice Whitehead is similarly philanthropic and perhaps typically says she doesn’t feel she deserves her Young Volunteer Award. We know Alice does and the same goes for the dozens more like her who collected theirs from Cllr Gillies. As Charles Dickens famously said: “No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.”