I am pleased to report
that more of the money raised at the Kindness Yard Sale has been used to spread
kindness!! Here is an update:
-
$7.99 was used to buy roses. But not just ANY roses, special roses for a
man in hospice to give his wife. We know
them just as the “puzzle couple”, because we always see them sitting at a table
in the common room at the hospice putting puzzles together. They saw us working on another project that I
am going to use Kindness Yard Sale money for (I have not done it yet…) and
asked what we were doing. I explained it
had to do with roses, and the woman smiled.
The man said that he didn’t want any flowers, thank you
very much. So, I said, “Well, what if I
gave you a flower for you to give to your WIFE???”. That idea seemed to make him
happy! His wife looked at me and
deadpanned, “Well, if that happened, it would be the THIRD time in 51 years he
gave me flowers! The first time was when
our first child was born. I stayed in
the hospital for 2 days and when he came to pick me up the flowers were dying. He said they were a WASTE OF MONEY! So, for the next baby, he bought me a
PLANT. He only gave me flowers one other
time, for a Valentine’s Day”. They are
a very sweet couple and I knew it would make her happy to get flowers from her
sweetheart one more time, so I picked up these roses. I had him write her a note and tied it to the
flowers. He told me to leave them on the
puzzle table where she would be sure to see them. She was excited to be treated (and he seemed
proud to be able to spoil her a bit, I am sure she is the one usually doing all
of the caretaking since HE is the patient).
 |
| 3rd time's a charm - 3rd time to give his wife flowers in 51 years |
-
$42.09 was spent on boots, 2 hats, 1 pair of mittens and 1
pair of gloves. This kind act was
actually hard to pull off!!! I am
living in Omaha temporarily and it is very cold. There has already been ice and snow. I decided that I really wanted to use some of
the kindness money to outfit a child for winter – coat, hat, snow pants, boots,
whatever they needed! With most of the other kind acts in this
project, I have tried to not make them “need based” – because everyone
loves to receive kindness, no matter if they NEED it or not!! But for this particular one, I really hoped
to find someone who NEEDED respite from the cold temperatures.
So, I headed to Walmart to try and
find someone shopping for a coat. But
even though
I strolled around and around that store for an hour, NO ONE was shopping for coats! No one in the men’s, women’s, kid’s or baby
sections! I tried again another night at a different Walmart. Then again at a
Target. Then a 3rd
Walmart! I told my sister that
apparently EVERYONE in Omaha already has a coat, because no one seemed to be shopping
for them!! But one night I finally found
two little someones one that needed warmth.
A
man, woman, and two little girls were walking through Walmart. They were speaking Spanish
and I saw them looking at warm work gloves for the father. I noticed that both little
girls had on old, dirty coats, but no hats.
In fact, the smallest girl was BAREFOOT.
It
was a freezing cold night, and this little child had naked, dirty feet. It made me so sad. But those little girls were not sad! Quite the
opposite, they were having a very fun time out
shopping with their parents. They giggled
and ran and played while their parents shopped.
I
wasn’t quite sure how to ask if I could buy the kids hats. It wasn’t only the linguistic barrier – I
wanted to make sure the parents felt RESPECTED and not pitied. I picked up a couple warm hats that I thought
the little girls might like. One came
with a pair of gloves, and I grabbed a matching set of mittens to go with the
other hat. Then I found some courage and
went over to the family. I only have
rudimentary Spanish, so I could not really ask them properly if it would be ok
for me to buy them the hats and mittens.
But I asked in English and a bit of broken Spanish, then gestured a lot
and showed them the items. The little
girls’ eyes lit up! They look at their
mother for permission, and she smiled at me and nodded “yes”. I told them (gestured…) to stay where they
were and I would go buy the items and bring them back to them. Which is exactly what happened! I bought them, found the girls, and sat down
with them right there in that Walmart aisle to take all of the tags off of
their new stuff! They put those hats and
mittens/gloves right on and gave me 2 very big smiles! It was beautiful!!
 |
| Pretty PINK winter wear |
But
that left the more obvious problem to deal with – the tiny barefoot girl… She needed boots for winter, but I didn’t
want to make her parents feel bad for bringing her out in public with no shoes
on. But I decided I couldn’t ignore it,
and gestured to her feet and asked, “Boots??
Yes??”. The mother smiled again
and nodded, and I gestured to the girls to FOLLOW ME!! The 3 of us marched Pied Piper-like to the
shoe department. They were all smiles
and big eyes. I asked the mom which size
and we narrowed down our search to that size.
I started with SHINY PINK ones, which the little girl seemed happy
with. But I didn’t want her to take the
1st pair I put in front of her – I wanted HER to pick her new
boots!! Eventually she spied these tan Ugg-style
boots and pointed to them. She and I sat
down on the floor again and I put her dirty, naked little feet into those soft
boots. She smiled and modeled them. Then we repeated the routine – they wait, I buy,
I return. I told the mom I knew the word
“zapatas” for “shoes” in Spanish, but what was the word for “boots”? “BOTAS!” the mom and girls gleefully told
me!!!
As
I finished my shopping I saw my new friends giggling in an aisle, new botas and
all.
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| BOTAS! |
- $5 was left on a bathroom wall!! I met a friend for brunch at a hip Denver
restaurant called “The Corner Office”.
After dining on delicious red velvet waffles, I excused myself to go to
the restroom. There I found this great
wall full of colorful sticky notes, and extra sticky paper and pens to leave
your own note! Perfect! So, I hung this: I would’ve loved to be a fly on the wall when
someone found it and seen what they decided to use it for.
 |
| FUN bathroom! |
 |
| I wonder who found it... |
- $51.04 was used to help make an immigrant’s Christmas more
joyful. My sister is living in a hospice
house, and the cleaner there named Angelique is a sweet, elderly African
woman. She doesn’t speak much English,
but always has a nice smile. One day I figured
out from the accent she has when she speaks English that perhaps FRENCH is her
native tongue. I called my sweetheart (who
is fluent in French) and he played on-phone translator for me and Angelique! She was so excited when he spoke French
to her!
She
is from Congo and has no family here.
She told me, “You are my family”.
She does not interact much with the other staff or guests here that I see,
and I imagine she may be quite lonely in America by herself. So, I got a $50 gift card to Walmart and a
nice card to surprise her! Walmart is very near the hospice house and I bet
she shops there sometimes. I hope her
holiday season is a little bit brighter because of this kindness.
 |
| A sweet gift for a sweet woman |
- $5 was used to “help kids that don’t have moms and dads”. My friend Tanya has two adorable little boys,
and one of them, Sam, posted a plea video on Facebook.
I mean, after seeing THAT, how could I NOT
share some of the kindness money with him??
He was doing a super kind thing of HIS OWN!!! Sam surpassed his monetary goal and is well
on his way to being an amazingly kind human.
-
$20 was donated to help a woman rebuild her café after everything
for it was stolen. Her name is Sandra
Rivers and she is a CODA, child of Deaf adults.
She had a dream to build a café where Deaf people could socialize and
there would not be linguistic barriers. Her
own parents have died, but she wanted to build “Deaf Delight” for other Deaf
people. Just 3 days before her insurance
for the business started, she was robbed of everything. She has not given up her dream, but she used
her life savings to buy the equipment that was stolen, so is hoping to fundraise
money to start over.
-
$5 was used to purchase then donate a handmade bead that
will be used in the “Beads of Courage” program. I had never heard of the organization before
but they had a booth set up at an art event that we went to and they sound
amazing! Participating hospitals give
each child who has to undergo procedures (pokes and sticks) a handmade bead for
each procedure! Kids who have very
serious illnesses have looong strings of beads! The children can play with them, wear them, or
just use them as a symbol of comfort and strength for all they have been
through. See more about this unique program here: Beads of Courage website
-
And finally for
this report, $41.07 was used to “Be a Santa to a Senior”. A grocery store had a Christmas tree with
paper ornaments adorning it. Each
ornament had a “wish list” from a senior citizen of what they would like for
the holiday. I looked the wishes over
and decided to choose Paul. His
wants were very simple – a book and one white t-shirt.
 |
| Tree of Senior wishes |
On the other ornaments people were hoping for
things like iPads and DVD players, but Paul must be a simple man who enjoys
simple pleasures. I liked that! And I figured, since he didn’t ask for
much, I should spoil him a bit… So
instead of ONE white t-shirt, he got a whole pack. Plus the book he wanted (which looks good by
the way). Plus a box of chocolates. Plus 2 fancy candy canes. HAPPY HOLIDAYS PAUL!
 |
| Paul is a man who knows what he wants. |
Another $10 donation came
in (thanks!!!), bringing the total raised for Kindness from the yard sale and donations to $1565.76. $24.26 of that remains to be used, and there
is a bit that has already been used but not written about here yet! If you would like to help this project
continue, donations of any amount are appreciated. You can PayPal them to: thompsongaines@msn.com
or contact me at kindnessactivist@gmail.com .
I hope this project inspires
YOU to go out into the world and spread kindness. Because every little bit makes the world a
better place.
