Kindness Yard Sale Accounting - $859.38 left to SPREAD KINDNESS!

 Time for another KINDNESS YARD SALE accounting!! 

I have been travelling lately, which means I have been able to SPREAD SOME OF THE MONEY in other states!!  Here is where funds have gone since the last accounting:

·         $5 was put into a bottle with a message and thrown into the Atlantic Ocean at Flagler Beach, Florida.  The money and note went into a little glass bottle with a cork top, which I sealed with candle wax.  I swam out a ways before throwing it in, hoping it would go FAAAR.  Turns out it went as far as the people swimming next to us…  😊  They saw it and went to pick it up, and I smiled and said, “I just threw that in!  Can you throw it a bit further please??”.  They did.  Fingers crossed that someday someone finds it and gets ahold of me so we can all find out where it ended up.  And wouldn’t it be cool if they decide to use the $5 to pay it forward and give someone ELSE a treat?

Message (and money!) in a bottle

•   $20 was spent as a TIP for a restroom attendant in the Atlanta Airport.  She was emptying garbage, cleaning the counters, and mopping the floor.  She was the sweetest, FRIENDLIEST airport employee ever!  “Hello ladies!  Have a great flight!  Thank you ladies!!”.  She talked to every woman that came in the bathroom.  That has to be a thankless job, but she was doing it with grace, professionalism, and a smile.  She was not working for tips – there was no tip jar or anything.  But she was sure happy to get one.

Getting ready to suprise the bathroom cleaning woman with a big tip!

·         $1 was used to replace the money in a gumball machine when it ate a kid’s quarters.  He had such a sad look on his face when he turned the knob and his treat didn’t pop out…  But he smiled a big smile when I gave him replacement money to try again.

·        And since we were at gumball machines, another $5 was used to put quarters in machines for unsuspecting kids to find later.

·        Estelina is a 16 Deaf student from Maryland planning to go on a cultural exchange for a year in ARGENTINA!  She met an exchange student last year who was in the US from Germany and decided she needs to travel, too!  I think going abroad is an important experience for everyone, and was happy to be able to donate $75 of the Kindness Yard Sale money to help Estelina reach her goal.

  

Life changing exchange trip to Argentina coming soon!

·         $100 was used to help a family in need.  I do not know the family, but a friend posted about them and their situation sounded like a perfect one to help out with.  They live near St. Louis and have a child with a rare form of dwarfism, and while they were in Cincinnati getting medical care for her, someone STOLE THEIR CAR.  That meant the car seat for their daughter, their other child, and a special stroller that had room for the medial equipment was also stolen. ☹   (Update:  the car was recovered, though I am not sure if the car seats and stroller were.  Funds raised will be used to help for medical bills.)

Her Cabbage Patch doll has a trach just like her!  Could she BE any cuter??

·         Not all acts of Kindness I have tried have worked.  We tried to pay off a random student’s lunch debt at an Arlington Elementary School, but they were not set up to allow that.  Because it is summer there was not a full staff working and everything for lunch payments needed to be done online.  But we do not have an online account…  So that one was a fail.  We will try again when school opens!

·         Another failure was on a flight.  I was in line to board a full flight and the lady behind me had a roller bag.  The airline had announced overhead bin space would fill soon, so I told her to go ahead of me (I only had an under the seat bag).  The next lady in line also let her cut.  In talking, it turns out her grandma had just died and she was heading for the funeral service.  I thought buying her a glass of wine would be a nice gesture, so I explained to the flight attendant what I wanted to do.  But it turns out the woman only wanted water…  Kindness fail.  😊

·         We had a lot of fun using $7 at a drive-thru restaurant in Omaha, Nebraska!!  Runza is a Nebraska fast food chain, and when we go to Omaha we often pick up a burger there.  After eating, I hid behind the drive thru menu waiting for the next customer so I could surprise them and pay for their order!  My sisters surprised ME by driving up and ordering ice cream, but I told them the offer to pay for food was for strangers, not family.  We all had a big laugh.  Then another car drove up – an SUV with parents and kids.  They were happy to get free ice cream thanks to the Kindness Yard Sale!!

Hiding behind drive thru menu!

Runza - a Nebraska tradition

·         $50 was given to a student from Romania.  She is in the USA for a couple of months working as a cleaner at a hotel in Kansas City and we got into a long conversation with her.  She loves America – had done an internship here once before.  She is a medical student in Romania but dreams of moving to the US.  She was practicing her English and trying to get fluent.  She wants to work and hang out with people who speak ENGLISH, not Romanian.  I asked what she wanted to do while she is in the states, and she wants to visit Las Vegas and Los Angeles.  She did not want to take the money, but I told her it was to help her explore America.  I didn’t say it out loud, but I sure thought it:  this is not a good time to be an immigrant in this country.  I want her to have a GREAT experience.  I hope she gets enough money together to explore!!

·         And the last one for this installment is:  $16.79 was spent on FLOWER POTS!  I got the idea from a kindness group to paint flower pots, plant cute plants in them, and leave them out for strangers to find.  They were very fun to paint, and all 3 were found the same day we hid them in Ormond Beach, Florida (we went back to check on them).  2 were hidden in view of the ocean, and 1 was hidden in the center of a labyrinth.  I hope the plants are thriving in their new homes.

Flower pots, plants, and notes ready to be put out into the "wild" for strangers to find!

One of the pots waiting for someone to come along and adopt it

We have $859.38 from the yard sale left to spend on KINDNESS!  It is so fun to be able to delight people unexpectedly.  If you have an idea for a way to use some of the Kindness funds, please let me know!