Future Citizen

There are so many things that we take for granted.

Food for dinner every night.  A warm bed to sleep in.  A form safe of transportation – car, bus, scooter, bike…

And a country where we are able to get an education and live free from war.

Not all human beings are as fortunate.  I was introduced to one today (via video and text) by a friend.  She reached out to see if perhaps Kindness Activist could assist this woman.

Future CITIZEN!
(photo shared with permission)

She was a police officer in Liberia during the war.  She applied to come to the United States to work and was granted permission.

Only, coming to the United States and living in the United States are not the same thing…  Even after immigrants set foot in this country, there can be much hardship.  For this woman, “home” when she arrived in America was under a staircase.  She finally found work cleaning an institution.

She is a very hard worker and so caring of family.  She, of course, has bills to pay here in the USA, but she still sends money home to her family to help them survive.  She has also had to send funds to help cover sad things in Liberia, like family funerals.

Just scraping by – but so thankful and kind. 

She has her green card.  Has a social security card.  One thing left – becoming a citizen.  But the fees to do that, $800, are so high that actually becoming a citizen seems impossible.   

But not when kindness comes into play.

Kindness Activist is pitching in $100 towards her naturalization process.

I am giving her a Kindness Loan (not affiliated with Kindness Activist) of $500, interest free, which she has agreed to re-pay monthly for 12 months.  I will be sending her stamped envelopes with our address to make the repayments easier.

And in just one hours’ time, the friend who introduced me to her has crowd sourced the other $200 needed.

We share this story as proof that kindness exists in the world.  That people and their stories matter.  And that if we all consciously focus on being the change we wish to see, the world can indeed become a better place.

Good luck on the test, new friend.  Please let us know when you pass so we can join you in singing the national anthem of your adopted country, the United States of America.

 

 

 

 

Returning to "Normal"

We have been away from our home in South Arington for a bit over 2 months.  Time away is precious and honestly, hard to come by.  But I have come to realize the importance of it for rejuvenation and self-care.  And also - to give us space and time to get work done. 

 

Since we have been out of town, we have completed sooooo much Kindness Activist WORK!  Like, the behind-the-scenes things that take a ton of time and are hard to do at home.  Scheduling, calculating, writing – all of the things.  Because you see, when I am in South Arlington, I am SPREADING KINDNESS!  I just love to do, do, do – and I get so caught up in the doing that sometimes the organizing and details can fall behind.  So, this time away has been good for checking many, many Kindness Activist things off the to-do list.

 

But, like all escapes from reality for the last 3 ½ years, it was hard to sneak away.  You see, ever since the Little Yellow Free Pantry was established, we can’t just leave town on a moment’s notice.  No – we need to put a plan in place before we can go out of town.  Because food insecurity is REAL, and people know that the LYFP is a safe, non-judgmental place to come get what they need.  But if we skip town without a plan, then that resource disappears for the guests.

 

Enter….  THE PANTRY CREW!  They are the hard-working group of amazing adults and kids who pitch in and keep everything afloat while we are gone.  They bring donations inside our home into the storage area.  They unbox and organize them.  They sort everything.  They let me know what we are running low on. They fill the pantry.  And they assist guests when they see them.  It is a big ask – they volunteer their time and muscles – and we really appreciate it.  Thank you, Pantry Crew!!

 

Well, my partner David went home today.  I will be back in Arlington in a few days, but he went home today to start the semester teaching.  And he had not been home more than an hour or two when the doorbell rang.

 

Now, that is not surprising really.  Guests ring the bell to see if we have something they might need, donors ring the bell to drop things off, and sometimes people just come up to the door to say hello or, “WHAT IS THIS PLACE – A SHOP?  AN OFFICE?  A HOUSE???”.

 

So today, very shortly after David got home (before he was even settled in), the bell rang.  He answered it and got to meet some new people.  He texted me this:

 

“...aaaaaand we're back in the game...I was working on the Kindness Activist forms, and someone came to the door.  It was a guy who is driving a lady in a wheelchair around, trying to find the Little Free Pantry that she heard about when she was looking online for places to get food. She is a former secretary for the Navy, now retired.  She has breast cancer, and her retirement pay has ended.  So, she's having trouble making ends meet between Social Security checks.”

 

Let that sink in.

 

She is retired.

Has cancer.

And is Googling places to get food to help her get enough food to eat between Social Security checks.

 

Breaks my heart.

 

David sat out on the front steps and chatted with her.  She held a big umbrella to shade the sun, which can be especially harsh when you are on chemo.  David took the woman and the driver around to the side of the house and showed them the pantry.  He took her bag inside and returned it to her filled with food.  She was hoping for milk, but he explained that because he just got back there were no perishables yet.

 

She is going to come back another day.  I am looking forward to meeting her.  I will pass along some other resources that the community offers in case she is unaware of them and not signed up for them yet. 

 

But mostly - I hope to get time to sit down and talk with her.  Listen to her story, encourage her with her cancer treatment.  I don’t know for sure, but I am guessing that she does not have friends or family to help out.  I mean, if she did, I would hope they would be delivering meals or groceries now as she is in a fragile spot both medically and financially.

 

So yes, food insecurity is real.  And it can happen to anyone.  If this woman isn’t an example of that, I don’t know what is.

 

Because everyone deserves good food. 

 

P.S. – the faces in the photo are blurred (it’s not your eyes, it is the photo 😊 )

 

P.P.S. – if you would like to pitch in items for the Little Yellow Free Pantry, our wish list of needed items can be found here:  Kindness Activist Wish List

Back To School Time - Kindness Fund Update

It is almost the end of summer, and you know what that means…

BACK TO SCHOOL TIME!

In 2022, my partner David and I went to WalMart and used Kindness Activist funds to buy school supplies for LOTS of families.  It was so fun! 

Well, we were at WalMart the other day, and saw several families, lists of required supplies in hand, scouring the school supply aisle. 

But guess what?  We didn’t approach any of them and ask if Kindness Activist could treat them with an act of kindness…

That probably sounds strange.  But here’s the thing:  offering acts of kindness to strangers can be really tricky.  There are so many factors to consider:

-         You don’t want to scare them (after all, you are someone they have never met approaching them with an offer that sounds too good to be true…)

-         Sometimes you do not share a common language, so how will you explain this situation

-         How do you choose who you will treat when there are multiple families shopping for supplies?

-         And, to us, most importantly – how can you offer to buy their school supplies without making them feel like you think they need your charity, that they are poor, that they are “lesser than”?

So honestly, it is a hard thing to do.  You have to be feeling quite brave, open, vulnerable, and willing to be told no (multiple times) to successfully navigate this one.  And this time we failed.  We just couldn’t get the right combination of courage, heart, and determination. 

It is a bit like double dutch jump roping!  If you have ever tried that before you know it is really tricky and timing is everything.  You have to stand outside the ropes as your friends twirl them.  One, two, three…  One, two, three…  You might try jumping in and get the pattern wrong.  You might get your feet tangled in the ropes.  But it’s ok.  You just get yourself together and make another attempt. 

So, we have not treated anyone to impromptu school supplies yet this year, but we DO have other Kindness Activist activities/expenditures to share!

A neighbor posted online about a young woman that she mentors through the AHC (Affordable Homes and Communities) College and Careers Readiness Program. The woman was preparing to go off to college – the first person in her family to accomplish this amazing feat.  Her mentor had set up an Amazon wish list with items that the teen’s program, the Virginia Tech Marine Cadet Program, required new students to have for their dorm room. 

Well, because of the generosity of Kindness Activist supporters, we were able to give the soon-to-be Cadet MANY things from her wish list!  We donated these things she needed:

-         2 spray-on bottles of sun screen

-         2 travel size sun screens

-         2 sun screen lip balms

-         2 USB C adapters

-         Benadryl

-         USB flash drive

-         Moleskin

-         Markers

-         And an umbrella 

For information on the AHC College Readiness Program and to find out how YOU can be a mentor, see this link:  AHC College Readiness Program

Kindness Activist funds spent - $99.55

Wish for the college bound student – OOHORAH!  You go girl!

I saw a mamma post on Facebook looking for the book “How To Talk So Little Kids Will Listen”.  She has 3 little boys (one is an infant), so really has her hands full.  That was an easy wish to grant.  I just hope she can find enough quiet time to sit down and read it!

Kindness Activist funds spent - $12.14

 

A teacher was hunting for Magnatiles of animals.  She has an autistic student who loves them and knew that they would be a great reward. 

I had never heard of Magnatiles until a child asked for some a couple of years ago in his letter to Santa.  Santa bought them, I saw them, and was an immediate fan.  Those things are great!  Educational, artistic, and FUN!  They are everything a toy should be (in my humble opinion).  Kindness Activist was happy to shop for and donate these!

Kindness Activist funds spent - $42.39

 

And finally for this update – a teacher posted that they would like bean bag chairs for their classroom.  They were not fussy, said any color would do.  They were posting in a group (Buy Nothing) where people give away used things. 

But here’s the deal: teachers in America are over worked and under paid.  They often use their own money to buy supplies for their classrooms, which is unfair in my opinion.  Do doctors have to buy the examination tables for their offices?  Do bankers have to buy the filing cabinets for their documents?  Do car sales people have to buy the chairs that their customers sit on? 

No.  Yet teachers are expected to outfit their own classrooms.  Heck, I have seen teachers ask for coffee makers for the breakroom (and Kindness Activist has kitted out a couple of school breakrooms…).  It just isn’t fair.

So, this teacher was basically asking for used bean bag chairs for his students to sit on.  I did some snooping on his Facebook profile and found his Amazon wish list for his classroom from last year.  It had a bean bag listed, but also had some really cool stools…

I reached out to him and confessed I had peeked at his profile.  I explained a bit about Kindness Activist and asked if he still wanted the stools this year.  He DID still want them, but seemed a bit embarrassed or shy about asking for them.  They were more expensive than the bean bag chair, he explained.

Sir, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.  You deserve the stools, all the stools.  And the set of posters you had on last year’s list to help make your classroom look amazing.  And a Starbucks gift card (just in case your teacher’s lounge coffee maker is broken…).

I love the colors!

Kindness Activist funds spent:  $144.15

Amount of money I wish we could spend on helping teachers have a great start to the school year:  $5,000,000

You can see the story of how we treated back-to-school shoppers at WalMart in 2022 here:  Back To School Kindness