Random Acts of Kindness

Random Act Of Kindness January 16 �?" 23, 2008, The most difficult part of doing the 'Random Acts Of Kindness' is thinking of what to do. I spent all week trying to think of something that would: A) promote Rotary in and to the community and B) put a lot of smiles on peoples faces. How do you do that with $30? It wasn't until Tuesday morning the 22 of January that an idea came to mind. I headed over to Newport Village to the Toy Store. The ladies in there were most helpful. I told them about being with the Rotary Club Of Port Moody and how I was trying to do random acts of kindness. I explained my idea to buy some small inexpensive toys and give them out to kids that were crying so to put a smile on their faces instead of tears. Well the ladies got right into it and in no time we picked out a bunch of toys but it came to more then the $30 I had so they gave me a 10% discount as their random act of kindness. It's spreading! I left the store and hadn't gone 20 feet when I came across a young mother with two kids that weren't crying but getting close to fighting with each other. So I stopped them, explained to the mother what this was all about and gave the kids a toy each. The fighting stopped and the fun began. They were playing with the toys and laughing as I left. I kept doing similar things until all 13 toys were handed out with similar results. How many people do you think will hear about Rotary? People saw and heard me doing this that had no children and commented on it. The neighbors will hear about it, the other parent and friends. When I was giving a toy to a child in Starbuck's a gent at the table beside me leaned over and made a comment about what a nice thing I was doing. Turned out he was from Burnaby but had a grand child here in Port Moody. So I gave him a toy to take to the grand child. We then had a talk about Rotary and he said he was going to talk to his son about joining and pass on my name. If you haven't taken on the project then do so. You come away with such a great feeling from watching the people you do such little things for. If you can't think of something to do call me �?" I'll think of something for you that will be fun and effective. Heck what about getting a bunch of balloons with Rotary on them, going down to LaFarge Lake with a helium tank and give balloons to kids till you ran out? I think that would be a very interesting project and could be done any time, any day. Just think how many people would hear about and see ROTARY. Doesn't our supplier have such balloons? Worth checking into?