Ok, we will make THEIR day.

This is a follow up from intrepid's thread. I hope he doesn't mind as im assuming the aim of his thread was to encourage and inspire others. 'They' being everyday folk, especially those who you might think need a bit of variety within their repetitive life.

What I'm trying to do in this thread is to organize a system, where each week there would be a new set of 'tasks' or 'missions'. Anyone can participate of course, we would act out these simple tasks, there would be new ones each week, and we can collaborate our experiences back here and tell us if you think you've made a difference.

For example: One of this week's aims is to pay the road toll for the person behind you and then tell us how you felt. Or you could go for something more personal and give a random cashier a flower, wait for their expression, and report back. Get the drift?

Remember, we're trying to make THEIR day!

Anyone is welcome to participate of course and there really is no point unless you're honest. Photo's or videos would be even more awesome, but just your words of experience are good enough. I'll try my best aswell to do some of these things, random acts of kindness do make a difference.

Week 1 from 6/21/09 - 6/28/09

+ Send a nice card to a couple of people you pick out of a phonebook.

+ Leave some change in the soft drink machine for the next person to find.

Have fun!

I'm in, great idea for an experiment.

Will try something later today and report back.

Regards S_G

Star and flag

I drift in and out of ATS so miss much.

I'm sure I tried this years ago and seem to remember there were some groups out and about attempting random acts of kindness. if everybody did at least 1 a day the world would be a far better place to live.
Don't use vending machines so I guess I may send someone a card - actually took my partners grandchildren out the other day to a graveyard to do stone rubbings - some headstones are beautiful and then the girls decided to post them through random peoples letterboxes and some shops. I only let them post pictures and images no wording with peoples names on the chance it could upset someone.

Right finish work in 30 mins so off to do some kindness although I am not one for following proscribed action i will as usual go my own way.

Great idea!
I will definitely contribute... To make someones day, known or not known to oneself, is something we should do more often. To give and without wanting to take back is a very essential concept, lets make it part of our everyday life!

i knew it

www.actsofkindness.org...

www.randomactsofkindness.org...

thekindnessoffensive.com...

reply to post by serbsta


You are frigging awesome! Just by starting this thread you have truly made MY day!

i will get on it right away!

Thank you!

This thread is a great idea, "pay it forward" and "random acts of kindness" projects can have great, life altering results.

I volunteer at the local Salvation Army store 3-6 days a week; Toys there are 50 cents.

Sometimes when I put out some of the nicer toys, I'll tape two quarters to them so that the kid who digs them out of the bin won't have to go through the "please, please, pleeeeease!" bit with their parents.

Their reaction when they find the toy, AND the money to buy it for themselves, is absolutely priceless.

Making a kids day for 50 cents is money well spent!

On the flipside though: I am forever catching people stealing batteries from the childrens educational toys. How disgusting and awful do you have to be to steal education from underprivileged children?!

They also have a table near the front where they put free bread and donuts donated by local supermarkets. I see people carry out huge armloads of bread, and I've seen men wrestle bread and donuts away from elderly women. In my quest to improve my own life by helping to improve the lives of those around me, I've unfortunately been exposed to a lot of the disgusting aspects of humanity. Thank God for the kids!!

Im randomly mailing 2 cards to 2 strangers with the following message tomorrow morning on my way to school:

You're reading this, you're alive. Smile, never frown.

Im getting two cards both with a picture of a sky and a red balloon flying up on them. Will report back if i feel like im getting some positive karma back once im done.

I hsd s rather lengthy transaction at a bank earlier, and at a branch of convenience for me where I had never been.

The teller was cold as ice and looked at me with dagger eyes while attempting to keep composed.

After about 15 minutes, I broke through her wall of resentmental body language and began a conversation telling my agenda which cuased me to commence the transaction.

It was of casual interest and the insight seemed to melt her cold demeaner like jet fuel through a building column. (sarcasm for the comparison as you hopefully can see).

By the way, she looked like a cross between Mrs. VanVilderbeast, a ficticious and horribly strict German school marm, and Mrs. Claus, with short blonde hair and quite a set of headlights.

Soon, she totally lightened up and she exchanged a story, which was to enlighten me should I ever be in the situation she described, and coincidentally, I happened to be trained in the knowledge that caused her dilema in her story, which lead to further discussion and attracted two other bank employees as they overheard and were curious.

By the time all the t's were crossed and i's dotted, with a wave and a smile, I left, but not before wishing them all a great weekend. They all bid me farewell and the cheshire smiles were evident that a better day would result for us all, and being Friday and mid morning, the day seemed to be more pleasant.

And guess what.

It felt good to bring some cheer to them, and they to myself.
Making the initial move was satisfying in the end.

Bravo to this post, and to all the replies.

I'm saving this thread, so I can come back to it in future weeks to attempt more tasks.

I'm leaving some spare change in the vending machine!!

Til next week, folks!

How many participated?

What are the tasks for this week?