Seems you hear these words used a lot these days. Pay It Forward. Random Act Of Kindness. You know, the act of doing something nice for a fellow human being without expecting something in return.
Have you ever experienced a “Random Act Of Kindness” (RAOK)? I’m happy to say I have – numerous times in fact. The best part? They have happened to me on some of my worst days, the kind of day where EVERYTHING seems to be going wrong.
A RAOK can be anything that you consider “nice”, “thoughtful” or “kind” and tends to happen “out of the blue”. It’s the stranger’s hand that places a loonie on the coffee counter in front of you as you are frantically digging into the depths of your purse for your own loonie. It’s the person that notices you from behind an armful of packages, who steps up to open the door, AND who helps you carry the packages to your car.
Many of you may remember seeing the recent “Random Cup Of Kindness” campaign from Tim Hortons. Canada’s favourite coffee shop mailed out packs of $5 Tim Hortons Gift Cards to various bloggers and social media enthusiasts, asking them to hand the cards out at random. Some chose to pass them out at their local malls to weary Christmas shoppers. Some chose to show up at local children’s hospitals to pass them out to tired and stressed parents. Others chose to pass a card out to a stranger on the street
This marketing campaign was a great success for Tim Hortons, and left many people with that warm, fuzzy feeling of either having done something good for someone else, or having something good done for them. One such Blogger who was involved in this campaign was my friend Chris, aka “Canadian Dad”. You can read about his participation here Canadian Dad .
It is Chris who was my inspiration for my next quest. You see, I’ve joined Chris’ “2013 Creative Pay-It-Forward” campaign (which I thought was a great idea). Here is what Chris posted on his Facebook page:
2013 Creative Pay-It-Forward:
The first five people to comment on this status will receive from me, sometime this calendar year, a handwritten note along with a gift – perhaps a book, a donation made in your name, or a piece of pottery, maybe some music – a surprise! There will likely be no warning and it will happen whenever the mood strikes me.
The catch? Those five people must make the same offer in their FB status.
Ready, Set, Go!
Basically, Chris asked for 5 readers to provide him with their names and addresses and promised those 5 readers that, over the next year, all 5 of them would receive a small gift from him. The gift could be anything – a book, a song, a gift card – anything. The gift didn’t have to be anything big. The gift could arrive at any time over the year. Each gift would be an act of paying it forward.
The catch? Now I need to “pay it forward” and offer my own random acts of kindness. So now I am asking for 5 volunteers to accept a gift from me, and join me on my quest to make others happy. All I ask is that you must “pay it forward” by pasting Chris’ suggestion on your own Blog or Facebook Page. Any takers?
First image courtesy of adamr / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Canadian Dad image courtesy of Canadian Dad
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