While Carol McCloud is an award-winning author and speaker residing in Venice, FL, she is best known as "The Bucket Lady" who has been spreading kindness and positivity to all ages for decades through her twist on the Golden Rule, bucket filling.  “We all carry an invisible bucket in which we keep our good thoughts and feelings,” said McCloud. “When our buckets are full, we are happy; when they are empty we are sad. When you fill someone else’s bucket, you fill your own bucket, too. You feel good when you help others feel good, and that is what I call the law of bucket filling.” Before she founded Bucket Fillers and wrote her first book, Have You Filled a Bucket Today? A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids, in 2006, McCloud spent 20 years in education as a teacher, counselor, youth mentor and early education director. Her passion is to help others, especially children, make positive choices and strive to be a bucket filler each day. 

McCloud is dedicated to helping schools, organizations, families, workplaces and communities practice the act of bucket filling through various publications from children’s books and journals to poster sets and coloring books. McCloud brought bucket filling to thousands of youth at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota County in 2018. She recently presented the organization with a $50,000 gift from Bucket Fillers to name the Reading and Homework Room at the new Louis and Gloria Flanzer Boys & Girls Club in Arcadia. Last Thursday, a groundbreaking ceremony for the Louis and Gloria Flanzer Boys & Girls Club’s expansion project took place. The expansion will also include a multi-purpose gymnasium for youth with designated space for physical activities, project-based learning and enrichment programs that further fosters their personal development. “My bucket is overflowing to be a small part of this wonderful project,” said McCloud.

To learn more, visit bgcsarasota.com.