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
