Beach Party, Welcome to America, and MORE

I have been SO busy with preparing for the next Kindness Activist fundraiser, the 3^rd annual yard sale, that I have been remiss in sharing how some of previously raised funds have been used!  Let’s fix that right now, shall we?  I am going to take a break from sorting and hanging and such to share some KINDNESS STORIES!  Here we go!

Instead of “saving the best for last”, I am going to start with the story of a Kindness event that I really enjoyed!  Of course, one is not “better” than any other, because kindness of all forms makes the world a better place – but this one was super sweet.

After my mom died, my dad remarried.  He has passed away now, too, and his wife now lives in a memory care home in Omaha, Nebraska.  I have always enjoyed talking with seniors, they have good stories to share!  And I like that places like where she lives have activities and events for the residents.  So, I decided to host a VITUAL BEACH PARTY for them! 

I was in Florida at the time and naively thought, “This should be easy!  I can just “bring them to the beach with me” somehow.  Long distance.  Piece of cake!!”.  I actually thought that maybe this event could be a trial run and I could somehow host virtual beach parties with other Alzheimer’s patients or hospice patients – people who may have a hard time getting to the actual beach, but would enjoy it.

So, after speaking with the activities coordinator to set up a time and date (she sounded as excited as I was!) I set about ordering beach supplies for the home.  I wanted the residents to be able to see the ocean (virtually via Zoom) but also somehow feel as if they were there.  So, I ordered funny sunglasses.  Leis.  Pretty straws with pink flamingos on them.  Seashells.  Small beach balls.  A kiddie pool.  Tiny water guns.  Bubbles.  Beach buckets and shovels, and KINETIC BEACH SAND for them to play with in their buckets! 

I had thought of everything, right??

Except, these were people with Alzheimer’s and other memory issues.  GOING to the beach in real life would be one thing, but doing it VIRTUALLY proved to be a bit confusing for them! 

My sister, partner, and I got to the beach early to set up and figure out the technology (thank goodness we had a cell signal at the beach).  We waited a while and finally the staff member at the home connected with us on Zoom.  But the technology was far from perfect…  They could see US, but we couldn’t see THEM!  Haha. 

So here we were on the beach – ready to build a castle “with them”, go in the water “with them”, dip our toes in the sand “with them” – but we could not see them!  Nor could we HEAR them over the sound of the waves crashing…

Time to improvise!!  We just went on with the event with the assumption that they could see us.  “Hi, welcome to the beach!!!  Would you like to follow me to the ocean and we can dip our toes in??”.  We built a sand castle, watched it get destroyed by a wave, swam, found some shells (shhh, we had “hidden” them so we could easily find them on camera…), and generally chatted.

It was fun, but a bit stressful.  I later got an email from the woman at the center who said, “It was great!  Thank you so much for doing this!  Our residents had a blast… The ones who didn’t understand still loved all the goodies you sent!  😊 “

So that was a relief!  And they posted some adorable photos of the residents “at the beach” so we finally got to see that YES, there were people on the other end of the Zoom call. 

The ladies having fun "at the beach"

Something tells me that may be a VIRGIN pina colada...

Ahhh, a relaxing afternoon at the beach

They also repurposed some of the decorations and sand that we had sent by making them into decorations!  Isn’t that great?

Reduce, reuse, recycle!
This clever table decoration was made reusing
the kinetic sand, pretty straw, and shells from
the beach party!

All in all, the money was wisely spent.  But am I ready to replicate it at other care facilities?  Let’s wait until next summer to think about that…

Beach party from our vantage point - "Which way do I turn my 
cell phone??  I can't HEAR them over the waves!!"

 

Amount spent: $236.39

A neighbor posted in a Facebook group that she was looking for coffee pods for the coffee maker in the teacher's lounge of the school she teaches at.  Well, let’s be honest.  Teachers have to spend their own money for way too many things already – mainly classroom supplies – so the least a school can do is provide them with good coffee, right? 

But, sigh, in this instance the teachers were supplying the coffee.  AND THAT’S WHERE KINDNESS ACTIVIST COMES IN!  This is just the kind of need that Kindness Activist funds are good for!  Teachers deserve to be applauded and spoiled a bit, right?

So, I talked with the woman who posted and she chose which types of coffee pods to get.  Amazon to the rescue – and now the teachers have a bit of coffee.

Amount spent:  $29.51

In a related story, instead of coffee, this one is about TEA.

Many of the Afghan refugees who had to hurriedly leave their homeland are being relocated to the metro DC area, where we live.  The communities they are moving to are being so supportive!  Apartments are being secured.  Furniture and clothing are being donated.  These people are arriving with nearly nothing but are being welcomed with open arms.

A woman in our community contacted a charity and was assigned a refugee family to help.  She crowdsourced the neighbors and boy did they come through!  The new family arriving must’ve felt overwhelmed by the warm welcome!  Their entire apartment was furnished with donations, I think, and food from the Little Yellow Free Pantry helped to fill their shelves. 

But as I thought about the concept of being forced to leave a homeland, I realized that no matter what material things were waiting for you in the new land, it would never be like HOME.  I tried to think of something I could do to bring a tiny bit of the comfort of home to families arriving, and I settled on TEA.

Tea plays an important role in many cultures.  It is not only a drink, it is a tradition.  So, I asked around to people in the area that are from Afghanistan to find out which tea would be reminiscent of home for the new arrivals.  Turns out it is this one:

I ordered 8 fancy tins so that it could be shared with 8 arriving families.  I hope that they will drink a cup and smile remembering what used to be, and be happy for all that is to come here, in their new home.

Amount spent -  $125.26

Ok, last story for this entry.  I didn’t plan it this way, but I guess it relates to the story of welcoming new immigrants to America, too.

We noticed to a flag flying in Florida was in rough shape.  It was faded and ripped and did not seem vibrant enough to reflect the patriotic spirit that we know that home owners have. 

Sad, tired old flag

But, like their flag, the homeowners ae going through a difficult time.  They are both out of work and one is suffering through a very hard period of grieving.  So I thought that Kindness Activist funds would be a perfect way to brighten their spirits and their flag.

We purchased a nice, brand new flag and left it with a note on their porch.  And, lo and behold, the next time we looked at that flag pole, the battered flag had been replaced by the clean and crisp new one. 

Beautiful new flag

Amount spent - $24.98