Everyone is worthy and deserving of an act of kindness, and the great thing about kindness, is that it tends to create a ripple effect of people paying it forward, which is what we hoped to create with our grant.
My husband and I began advertising on Monday, November 13th (World Kindness Day) to complete as many acts of kindness as we could the following Saturday, November 18th. We advertised in 4 different community Facebook groups and had a total of 10 families to help, with many others jumping in to support us, and others inspired to do their own acts of kindness.
We started out by partnering with a founder of a local non-profit supporting young girls with disabilities. The girls were hoping to have a craft event for them and their families (50 people), and we were able to reach out to a local farm to help us make wooden rounds with drilled holes for the girls to create Christmas ornaments. Next, we headed to a low-income mobile home park to help seniors with yard work, including cutting lawns and lawn mower repair. We had neighbours come outside and offer to help each other with my husband and I doing the most physical aspects. Thirdly, we purchased blankets from a local non-profit owned thrift store and delivered them (along with food and gas) to an individual living in his car and recovering from a major hospitalization, and spent some time getting to know him and those in the same situation parked next door. A request came in from a family of four who were new to Canada with two young kids and a husband who was injured. We picked them up dinner and brought it to their home and got to spend a little time getting to know them. As the afternoon went on, we helped a family of 5 to deliver flu medication as they were all sick and suffering, we brought groceries to multiple families going through tough times, and then partnered with a group of foster parents to help them get fresh produce and snacks for the kids and then teaching the kids about nutrition and why it’s important.
As we advertised our project, we received messages such as:
- “You and your husband are amazing!”
- “Aweh!! The Worlds needs more people like you guys, honestly”
- “Thank you SO much!”
- “God bless you both for the work you’re doing”
- When you choose kindness you will always be right”
All in all, the project was a great success and we certainly saw the ripple effect of people being helped and then going to help others in the local community.
Project Leader: Adrianna Stange
