Stories by MakeSomeoneSmile (56 matches)

My Experiment with Free Hug Friday

My scheduled day of kindness this week is tomorrow (yes, I’m still doing it each week, just haven’t written about them all!) but I was not sure what I would do. While catching up on some of the stories here today, I decided I will make it Free Hug Friday!  My catch phrase tomorrow any time I see someone a little down or frustrated is to say to them “Looks like someone could use a hug!” and then let them have it! I’ll certainly have to be a little careful so I don’t scare some of the people inmy office. Most of them think I am a little off anyway, so they will just add this to the list of strange things they’ve seen me do. I have noticed how much a touch or hug can mean to people, even if they don’t realize it at the time so I’m going ... Read Full Story >>

Character Counts!

My favorite kindness sidekick, my 7 year old daughter Rachel, was a teacher of kindness today. I wanted to share her beautiful kindness story with all of you. We were invited to her school today by her principal for a special ceremony. Her school has a program called Character Counts which has 6 pillars (Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring and Citizenship). Once a month they recognize one student in the school who exemplifies the character of a particular pillar. Today the focus was on the Caring pillar, which represents being kind, compassionate, showing you care, expressing gratitude, forgiving others and helping people in need. Well, as you may have guessed, Rachel was the honoree!  The principal called her up to the front and read many wonderfully kind things that Rachel does and what a positive role model she is. Her teacher then followed with many specific examples of Rachel’s kindness and how ... Read Full Story >>

Let Someone Know You Are There

My son’s kindergarten class did a performance yesterday for the parents and rest of the school. It was great but one particular thing made me think a little more about life in general. I was in the back videotaping it since my wife could not attend. About 10 minutes into the program, I could see the change at the exact moment my son saw that I was there. He was doing great and being a wonderful participant before that moment, but I could tell how seeing me there made such a difference and meant so much to him. His smile, wave, and frequent “thumbs up” directed to me, made me laugh as I was able to relive them over and over later. It made me think. Sometimes just letting someone know you are there for them can make all the difference. They may not call on you or ask anything of ... Read Full Story >>

Three Little Things That Made A Big Difference

This week I was reminded that everything we do matters in life. I did 3 small things this week that I found out made a big difference to someone else. 

I waved to a new neighbor who was intensely watching her little boy in the yard. She broke into a smile and a few days later told me that I had changed the rest of her day for the better with my small gesture.

When I was in the drugstore, the woman stocking cold medicine dropped one. I picked it up and handed it to her, thinking nothing of it.  She thanked me and told me her back was hurting and she appreciated what I did.

I found that a few kind words can touch someone more deeply than you ever could have known. “Thank you” does matter and can make someone feel appreciated.  A sincere “I’m sorry” does make a difference and can lighten a difficult situation.  And a few thoughts from the heart grow larger when they reach someone else’s heart.

I barely thought much about it when I did any of these things. But I was reminded yet again that everything we do matters. Never underestimate the impact you may have on someone!

Secret Agents Spreading Smiles!

Today my champion-of-kindness daughter and I set out on one of our kindness missions.  A while back we did some random drops of envelopes filled with a dollar, Smile cards, and a note asking them to pay it forward. Today we tried a similar experiment and it was my little 6 year old’s idea.   We put a different spin on it this time. She wanted to watch people open them, as last time we loved the few we did see. So this time when we left an envelope, we watched from somewhere nearby. We made sure to only leave them when we couldn’t be caught.   The first one someone grabbed and walked off. We only followed them for a bit and then thought it best to move on to our next “victim”. The second one we sat across from and watched. It was a family who found it. The skeptical husband thought for ... Read Full Story >>

Changing a Tire and Teaching a Son

Last week as I pulled into the parking lot with my son for his baseball game, I saw a woman trying to change her flat tire. I told my son I would get him over to his practice field and then I was going back to help the woman change her tire. When I got back to the parking lot, nobody had stopped to help her. I went over and offered. She tried to be nice and said that she was fine, but I could see otherwise so I insisted. Besides, my mother as she watches me from above would have cut a deal to send a pigeon to deliver a “special present” for me if her son had walked by and done nothing.  Another woman parked nearby and said she had some wipes in the car, as I was getting dirty from the tire. She waited for us to finish ... Read Full Story >>

A Special Delivery to the Post Office

Though I am a little late in posting this, I would not want to miss sharing it. For my final day of World Kindness Week I wanted to do something in honor of all of the wonderful volunteers here at HelpOthers who ship Smile Cards. Their hard work and dedication help spread smiles and enable others to do the same. How could I best do that? I had a few things to send out so I needed to go to the post office. They know me there as the "Smile Card guy" because of some of the things I send out. They know about Smile Cards as they have asked me in the past. I decided to bring them a dozen donuts. The clerk did not notice the box as I set it down while she stamped my packages being sent. As she rang me up, I slid the box of ... Read Full Story >>

Spreading Smiles On a Father-Daughter Date Night!

At least once a month one of my little kindness kids Rachel and I try to have a father/daughter date night. Last night we were out for dinner together after doing some fun things. We talked about some of her kindness activities she did at school for their 100 Acts of Kindness challenge her class had. It was great to listen to the little things she and her classmates did to spread kindness. Many times on our date nights we try to do an act of kindness of our own, as she is often my sidekick on our kindness adventures. My latest Smile Deck card is one about anonymously buying a stranger's meal so I asked Rachel if we should find someone in the restaurant and buy their dinner. She loved the idea so we chose an older couple sitting behind us. I had a few Smile Cards on me (as always!) ... Read Full Story >>

Helping A Single Mom

Yesterday I heard about a single mom with two kids that I barely know. She was pleading for help to pay her phone bill so it wouldn’t get disconnected. I have seen her help many others over the past months. She struggles to make ends meet but puts on a smile so her children won’t worry. She has no family near her so if she loses her phone, her children or their school will have no way to get in touch with her. After reading her plea, I thought about it all night and it broke my heart. This morning I contacted her and told her I wanted to help. I called and paid her phone bill so that she would not lose it. She wrote me one of the most sincere letters I have ever received, telling me how thankful she was. She cried and said that I would never ... Read Full Story >>

Ice Cream Kindness On Our Date Night

One of my favorite things in life is my monthly date night with my daughter. We try to include some kind of Smile Card activity whenever we can. This time was no exception! It was 119 degrees today where we live so we thought we would make our kindness act something cool.  After eating we went to an ice cream shop. As we paid for our ice cream we told the woman behind the counter that we were doing a random act of kindness and we would like to buy ice cream for the next person who came to the counter. We handed her the Smile Card to give them and told her how we would like to remain anonymous.  She read it and told us she thought what we were doing was awesome. She said she would do it and we sat down at the table near the counter. My daughter wanted ... Read Full Story >>

From the Bottom of My Heart...

Today has been a great kindness day for me. I brought an extra banana on my drive into the office and gave it to the homeless man at the corner. I bought coffee for the hurried woman in front of me, who smiled and had a little bit better day if only for a few moments. I sent 5 thank you notes to people who have done simple things for me in the past few days. And my daughter and I made smile rocks and sent them to a special friend in need.

How does this pertain to you? Because every single one of my acts today was because of something I read here! A special friend made a difference for me today when she sent me a great note and some karmabucks. A special thank you to her for making my day today!

Your comments, stories and kind acts make all the difference, even when you don't know it. Your words touch more hearts than you know and cause others to pass it on. Keep it up everyone! I am a better person having had my life touched by you all. I plan to continue following your lead and look forward every day the inspiration you provide to me! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!!

My Daughter The Good Friend

When I dropped my 3 1/2 year old daughter off at day care yesterday, one of her friends was sitting at a table alone crying. She sometimes gets upset when her mom leaves. My daughter plays with her and they are good friends. When we were sitting down and saw the little girl crying, I asked my daughter if she might want to go and sit by her sad friend. She said "Yes, I don't want her to be sad", scooped up her breakfast and went and sat by her friend. I watched her share her cereal and talk to the little girl. As I walked to my car I was very happy to see that my little girl has a kind heart. When I got home last night, I asked her how her day was. She said it was good and that her friend wasn't sad anymore. She was proud to have ... Read Full Story >>

Love Without Words

A few weeks ago I was blessed to spend four days with some of the kindest people I have ever seen. It was an amazing experience on so many levels and I am a kinder person for having my life touched by them all. One of the great things I noticed with them was the power of some non-verbal techniques is sharing love and compassion. So much love was shared through warm hugs, deep gazes and attentive listening. It was a great reminder for me that those small kindnesses can be powerful and make a huge difference to others, many times more than anything I could say. So now that I am back in the real world I have been trying harder to incorporate those non-verbal kindnesses in my life. I can see it making a difference wherever I try them out. I have been hugging a little more and can see that it ... Read Full Story >>

A Box of Smiles With A Letter

A few months ago I posted a story about a woman struggling with alcoholism who reached out to me. I sent her a care pack full of smiles, encouraging words and some treats to help her out, along with a special letter I wrote to her. It has been almost 3 months and she is still doing great. She sends me updates and I send her encouraging notes. But, as I have said before, you never know how much something you say or do means to someone else. What happened next reminds me of how true that is. She read a story that another woman posted about being an alcoholic and how she needed to stop drinking, if only for her children. I read it too but she was quick to act. She e-mailed me and asked if I would put a "box of smiles" together for this woman and send ... Read Full Story >>

Reaching Out To A Stranger

Yesterday a woman struggling with her addiction to alcohol reached out looking for help. I don't know her but felt like I crossed her path for a reason so I asked her how I could help. She said that she was tired of being drunk all of the time and it is hurting her family and small children. I have known some alcoholics close to me and admire anyone who reaches out and tries to change their path in life. She was grateful for my offer to help and told me her story. She wanted so much to break the cycle that has plagued her father, grandfather and others. I offered to send her a care package to help her as she goes through this. Her husband is in the military so he is not around to help her as much as she could use. Last night, I bought a ... Read Full Story >>

My Smile Deck Adventure

I have received a few Smile Decks and decided I would use one.    I read through the cards and love all the different ideas. I try to make sure I do at least one random act of kindness each week and thought the Smile Deck could help me with that!   There are many ways you can use the cards. Each suite has a different focus and they get progressively more challenging the higher you go. Since I have been committed to practicing kindness I figured I would just shuffle the deck and every few days pull one out and do whatever it says.    So that is what I did!    Yesterday I had the eight of hearts, which asks you to acknowledge an act of kindness by someone else and thank them. I have been the recipient of an act of kindness in the past week so this was a perfect card!    I put together a ... Read Full Story >>

Helping a Neighbor Down on his Luck

We had a community garage sale this weekend. Early that morning a man who was staying down the street with his mother stopped by. He is a cabinet maker but there has not been much work for him lately. He has been doing lawn jobs and clean up to make extra money to keep going. He stopped by to ask us if we had any lawn equipment for sale. We didn't but upon hearing his struggles I pulled an extra yard blower/vac out of our cabinet and gave it to him. When he asked how much it was, I just told him he could have it and wished him the best of luck. 2 hours later he came back. He had gone home and tried it out and was happy that it worked great for him! He thanked us again and asked if he could clean up our yard to show ... Read Full Story >>

World Kindness Day - Started It Off With Gratitude

Hello my kind friends! Happy World Kindness Day! As today starts World Kindness Week I have dedicated myself to doing at least one kind act each day. Today I decided to focus on sharing my gratitude with many of the folks I appreciate. So I spent most of the evening sending out notes around the world to people who have helped shape my kindness character. There are some groups behind the scenes here at HelpOthers that work so hard to spread smiles. I sent notes to them, as I do not even know all of the wonderful people out there but I know what they do matters to me! As I wrote each one I felt an enormous amount of gratitude and love for them. It made me feel great and I know will matter to them too. Many individuals along the way (many of you included) have touched my life in ways ... Read Full Story >>

For A Little Superhero

I was talking with a woman in my office who has a son near the same age as my little 5 year old boy. I was telling her how much my son loved his Superman pajamas with a detachable cape. She laughed and told me how much her little boy would love something like that. She looked for weeks and then asked me again where I got it. She was not able to find any more there.

She loves her son so much that I decided I would find another one somewhere! Sure enough, in the age of the internet, I was able to find one on-line and have it shipped to me. The other morning I put in on her chair so she would find it when she came in to the office. She was so excited and touched that I found one for her son. I was so happy to make her and her little boy smile.

I get updates all the time on her little superhero. I'm just glad I was able to find the outfit and make them both smile!

Smile Cards are a 'Super Cool' Thing

Hello my kind friends! Every so often I like to post adventures of one of my little kindness kids. Little Rachel (6 years old now!) is a kind hearted little girl who often accompanies me on my kindness adventures. Well, this week she is a 'Top Cat' in her 1st grade class. It is her special week at school and she gets to have lunch with the principal and teacher. She is very excited. But although I am proud of her, that is not why. Part of her being Top Cat is that she has to complete a big poster about herself. She colors it, answers the questions about herself on it, etc. There is one section that asks her to name 3 supercool things about herself. Well bless her heart, one of her supercool things that she wrote is that she gets to hand out Smile Cards! :) We taped a Smile Cards underneath where she ... Read Full Story >>

The Helpothers Comment That Created a Life Long Memory

I know I have said this before, but please don't ever think your comments or stories don't matter. You never know when your words may make a huge difference to someone else. If you follow the kindness ripple from one comment, you will see what I mean... It started with a comment from someone on one of my stories. Her words were simple, "It reminds me of the song Cinderella by Stephen Curtis Chapman." One of her favorites but one I have never heard. I thought I would give it a listen. Sounded good. Thanks to the internet, I not only found the CD but it turns out there is a small storybook that goes with it to tell the story in the song. I ordered it and let her know that I did. She was very excited for me and that I would get to share this with my 4 ... Read Full Story >>

A Heartfelt Way to End the Year

There is a family in our neighborhood that moved here from Sri Lanka. Their daughter goes to the same school as my children so we see her at the bus stop often. They have had a tough time since they came to America. They had some medical bills last week that made Christmas gifts not possible.

I told my wife that we needed to help her. We got the family a gift card and two toys for each of her two children. When my wife called her mom and told her what we were going to do, she wanted to help too. She bought a few gifts for each child as well.

We took over the gifts, some cookies and wrapping paper for the gifts. The woman was so happy and excited that the kids would have some things to open for Christmas. We couldn't be happier ourselves that we had spread a few smiles.

Some friends and I are doing 10 kind acts for the last 10 days of the year starting today. I thought this was a great way to start it off! It was six years ago today that I joined HelpOthers. It has changed my life in the BEST way, causing me to do more things like this than I ever have! Day one down, nine to go! :)

MSS

Awarding Compassion

My daughter Rachel won an award at her school for compassion a few years ago.

Her school recognizes one student each month for a specific trait. When the Caring pillar was recognized, Rachel was selected by her school. She was happy she won a bike. The principal read the reasons she had won.

It was so special to me to hear the many kind things she does at school and how she demonstrates kindness and compassion often. We work hard to instill kindness and compassion in our children and it is a wonderful thing to hear how it goes when we are not around.

It was a precious moment full of love. One of my top 5 biggest hugs ever was given was that day. Seeing my daughter’s kind heart in action is one of the most precious memories I will ever have!

Sunday Night Kindness Deliveries

Last night was date night with my little girl. She wanted to conduct another Kindness "Special Ops" Mission for our evening. That afternoon, we made up some kindness envelopes full of a smile cards, a few dollars and a special note. She decorated the outside of the envelopes with smiley stickers and the words "Open me, I’m a gift for you!" She wanted to go to the mall and secretly place envelopes around to spread some Christmas smiles. When we dropped our first one and walked off without being seen, the look on my daughter's face was priceless. She was beaming and had a joyful kick in her step. I love how she loves our kindness missions! For the next one, we sat down at a table for a minute, ready to scurry off and leave our envelope behind. The heavy sea of people around us made it challenging. My daughter is ... Read Full Story >>

The Gift of a Special Dinner Together

My wife and I went out to dinner this weekend since we have had crazy schedules and have not had much time to just sit and relax. We went to a nice restaurant and were having a good time. We saw a very young high school age couple who looked like they were on one of their first dates. We smiled and talked about how scary that is when you are young. My wife noticed that the couple only ordered a chicken breast and water, which was a little unusual for this steakhouse. We guessed the young man wanted to take his date to a nice place but might have had some sticker shock once he saw the menu so they ordered what they could and skipped the side dishes. We had a gift card we were going to use for our dinner, but decided they could use it more. When our ... Read Full Story >>

Thanks To My Kind Friends

Today I took the time to say thank you to five people I do not know who have made a difference in my life. Their words and stories have made me smile, brought out tears of joy and caused me to pass it on to others. It cost me nothing to do except 5 minutes of my time, all of which made me smile.

Though I do not know any of them, I am connected to them all and they have made a difference in my life. Thank you friends for touching my heart as well as the hearts of so many others.

You never know when you make a difference in someone's life with a kind word or deed. Thank you to all of you here who take the time to share your thoughts. They matter more than you know and cause a ripple of kindness throughout the world!

An Extra Hug

    This morning when I dropped off my daughter in her day care class, I had the chance to make a difference for her best friend, if only for a bit. Her friend comes to our house and I play with them both, giving them “horsy rides” and chasing them around. Her dad is not around very much so I know it means a lot to her.      My daily ritual is that I always give my daughter a big hug and kiss, tell her I love her and wish her a great day.  While I was hugging her today, I noticed that her best friend who, was sitting at her table, had gotten up and was right behind us watching closely. I could tell by her face that she really wished she could do what we were doing. I quickly pulled her in for the “hugfest” and squeezed them both. ... Read Full Story >>

Enjoy The Gap

    I was reminded today while sharing my heart with a dear friend how moving silence can be. In today's world, people often feel they have to talk. My conversation today, as well as a few stories I have read on this site, reminded me that it is also good to sometimes not talk. Words can be great but some of my favorite conversations are those done by the heart, not the mouth. Silence gives words or feelings a chance to penetrate the heart and soul. The gap of silence, however tiny, allows us to reach each other in different ways, whether it be meeting through our eyes, through our touch, or through our smiles. A warm embrace that comforts and often speaks affectionately to another louder than words or the simple presence of being around a friend's loving heart can reach and heal the heart of another. Yet what I like most about silence is that it lets the heart talk without ... Read Full Story >>

You Can Change The World

There is a poem out there about how to change the world. I couldn't find it exactly so I put what I could remember here. Everyone here IS changing the world with their focus on kindness. Thank you all very much!

Let Your Voice Of Kindness Be Heard!

Have you seen the news off to the side on this website here about the extra $100 to spread kindness in the community?

Paying Forward Parking Spots

Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2014

The Imperfect Act of Kindness

The Road To Acts Of Kindness

An Inspiring Personal Journey in Helping Others

Kindness Ripples

Today You, Tomorrow Me

My Daughter's Noble Sacrifice

A Bank That Pays-It-Forward

Top 10 Stories of 2012 Countdown - Story #10 - 177 Messages of Kindness

Reverse Birthday Gift

Celebrate World Kindness Week!

Top 10 Kindness Stories of 2011

In Memory of our Son

Overwhelmed By My First Random Act Of Kindness

30 For 30: A Birthday Wish

30 For 30: A Birthday Wish

Walking Away with an Open Heart

Smile Stones, Mile Stones

Instant Pay It Forward!