Thompson Family Kindness

I firmly believe that doing, witnessing, and receiving acts of kindness makes a person’s life better.  When I feel “down”, if I purposely open my eyes and look for kindness, or better yet, go out into the world and do something kind, I cheer up.  I feel more alive.  I feel engaged with society. 

It was in that vein – the spirit of GET INVOLVED, BE KIND, and FEEL GOOD - that I set about organizing a big holiday time kindness! 

I had seen photos going around of people leaving scarves tied to trees and things with little notes telling people to feel free to take them.  So, I decided to do a project like that with my whole family in Omaha. 

First, we needed WARM THINGS TO GIVE AWAY.  To find those, I cleaned out our closets and asked my family to do the same.  I also posted to a neighborhood list serve called “Buy Nothing”* to see if anyone on there had anything they could donate for the cause.  As usual, my fellow “buy nothing-ers” jumped in to help out, and BOY did they help out!  Soon I had piles of coats, scarves, fleece shirts, mittens, hats, and gloves - 109 different items to be exact!**  I washed them all up and packed them in a big box bound for Omaha.  I also printed little tags (written in English and Spanish) – one for each item.  Then we headed for Nebraska, where my sisters and niece added even more items to the collection!

Getting organized with some of the warm items soon to be shared!

This was a project that the whole family could get involved with and help – from the youngest to the oldest.  We thought the tags would be more special if they had drawings on them, so the family artists set about decorating them.  They were lovely!  The drawings made the items feel more like GIFTS to people who needed them than “donations”.   The two oldest family members were in charge of making a hole in each tag and tying on a pretty ribbon.  Those were then pinned to each item.  

Sherry making pretty drawings on cards

Evelyn was in charge of ribbons

Annette making the cards pretty

Table full of artists

My dad was in charge of punching holes

Kemper is a great artist

One of the cards - isn't it sweet?

Jordan attaching tags to items

We picked December 23^rd for the giveaways, right before the holidays, and decided on two shifts so that more schedules could be accommodated.  It was a cold day, so we bundled up.  My niece even baked cookies to hand out with the warm clothes (those cookies were a huge hit!!).  We relied on the locals to know some places to leave items.  We wanted to make sure that people who needed them would find them and feel comfortable taking them.

SHIFT ONE - my niece Ashlee, great niece Tallis and 2 great nephews Kemper and Ryker, friend Jeannie,
my nephew Nate, me and my sister Annette (plus David, who was behind the camera)

The giveaway was lovely!!!  We put a super warm fleece shirt and hat (and cookies!) under an underpass that my great-nephew and great-niece had noticed a homeless man living.  We hung items around a big park area downtown.  We put things outside the public library (and handed some things out inside the library, got in a bit of trouble for that…  But hey, the group of homeless teens who got some of our things inside really loved them!).  When we were leaving the library after shift one, we put several items under the Christmas tree.  But when we went BACK to the library on shift two, a librarian returned those things to us and said we were not allowed to leave them there…  Oops! 

Organizing things to give away

Nate, teaching his son Ryker to share and be kind.  I love that all ages got involved!

See Diesel, the dog?  The guys at the shelter
loved him and wanted to keep him :)

The Emergency Shelter was happy to have warm
clothes to share with their clients

That’s ok, we just took them to other spots!  We put some outside a women and children’s shelter.  We put some under a Christmas tree at that shelter and gave some directly to the moms there (who were very appreciative).  We tied a couple things onto an RV that appeared people were living in it. We took items to a big homeless shelter (where Diesel, the chihuahua that came with us, was very popular!).  We left some things in bus stops where we knew people would have to wait in the cold – we put them all over!  It was nice to see that when we were driving around during shift two, we drove by some of the spots we left items earlier in the day and they had already been taken! 

Shift two (minus David, who was behind the camera again...)

We tied warm clothes everywhere 

Sharing is KIND

I am so happy that my family all got involved in this big kindness project.  It felt good to be out in the community.  It felt good to share some warmth on a cold, cold day.  It felt good to be KIND. 

David giving a parking meter a hat :)

Scarves - clean, warm, and FREE

Gloves, free for the taking if you have cold hands

Waiting for the bus can be cold, especially if you are not dressed for the weather. 
We hope that some people who needed extra layers happened on this bus stop.

*Buy Nothing: if you have not joined a Buy Nothing group in your community, check and see if there is one!  Buy Nothing is a group that believes in a SHARED or GIFT economy.  If you have something you do not need, you list it in Buy Nothing and someone who wants it comes and gets it (for free).  It is fabulous!  Freecycle is a similar group.  I highly encourage you to get involved with one or both! 

**We gave out 109 items.  It broke down to:  5 shirts, 1 pair of long underwear, 5 coats, 26 pairs of mittens/gloves, 22 scarves, 20 adult hats, 25 children's hats, and 5 fleece shirts.  :) 

Warm Kindness

Last winter I started something I call “Project Warmth”. 

We live on a busy intersection, and a lot of people walk by our home.  Sometimes in the wintertime, when I am snuggled up inside our warm, cozy house, I see people walking by that look so cold.  I don’t feel like I can open the door and invite every stranger in for a cup of tea to warm up, but I CAN give them something to help protect them from the freezing weather.  So I do!

With this project, every day I put an item of WARMTH outside on our front gate.  Some days it is a hat.  Sometimes a scarf or mittens.  Sometimes I put out a coat or sweater.  They hang on our gate next to notes (one in English and one in Spanish) that tell passersby that if they are cold, they can take this item for free. 

Someone in our town is now sporting this pretty and WARM hat.

 

A sweater might not seem extravagant to you, but it is an extra layer of warmth for fight the winter cold.

Many of the hats, sweaters, etc. are items I have collected from Freecycle, an online sharing organization where people give away items they no longer need.  I put a “wanted” post on Freecycle a couple of years ago asking for winter gear and several people donated.  So I washed it all up and keep it in two big “homeless giveaway” bins.  Once, after someone saw Project Warmth on our gate, I even came home to find a bag of hats and scarves on our porch with this note from a neighbor I do not know:

Someone else got into the kindness act - she left me a bag full of warmth to pass around!

I love Project Warmth.  It makes me happy to imagine that I helped someone make their walk to the grocery store a bit more bearable.  Or a day laborer’s wait for work a bit less cold.  Or a homeless person’s night more humane. 

 

Signs in English - I change the "item" part depending on what I am giving away at the moment

 

Signs in Spanish, which a kind friend from Puerto Rico translated for me :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sure, one scarf is not going to change the world.  But it MIGHT bring a smile to someone.  It might remind them that they are not alone.  And I believe it will add a little more WARMTH to their life, and a bit more happiness to mine, because I was able to share the warmth, and share the kindness.

 

Bringing a bit of warmth to my community, one stocking cap at a time.

Here is a piece I wrote about Project Warmth when it began:  Project Warmth

Do you know a Kindness Activist?  Maybe it is YOU, maybe it is a neighbor or your cousin.  Whoever it is and whatever they do that is kind, please let me know about them.  I would love to feature more KINDNESS ACTIVISTS here.  If people read about kindness that others do, they are inspired to go into the world and spread their own kindness!  Send me an email at:  kindnessactivist@gmail.com 

 

Now if you will excuse me, I have a scarf I need to go hang on our gate.  :)