Stories of Kindness from Around the World

Often we do little acts of kindness and can’t really know what happens next… the people who benefit from the act return to their lives and we return to ours!  Our paths may never cross again.  But that’s not the case when a member of HelpOthers does a kind act to another member of HelOthers!  Here we can chart the ripples as we guide the kindness on its way!  Here’s one such story.

You may have read Aurelia’s post about making Chex Mix for her family, or Bluebell’s post about receiving a snack from a friend in the US.  Well I sent some Karmabucks to Aurelia to find out more about her amazing snack and she offered to send some to me if I was based in the US.  Unfortunately I’m not, I live in the UK but luck would have it that I was off to America for a company event last week…  I gave Aurelia my hotel address and she kindly agreed to send some there for my arrival.

True to her word there was a package waiting for me in my room after I checked in.  The Chex mix was put lovingly into a tin decorated with kind words and lots of smiley faces stickers.  (I know now that it is delicious too, but at the time I resisted the urge to try some so my loved one and I could share it when I got home).  Inspired by such caring attention to detail and as I have always been a fan of smiley faces, I resolved to fit in an act of kindness while in the US.  But what could I do when I was in and out of presentations and meetings the whole time?

The perfect occasion came up one evening returning to the hotel when I went for a walk around the nearby plaza.  There in one corner was a dollar store.  I didn’t know what I would find, but after looking around I noticed they did helium balloons!  Now I love helium balloons, so this was an easy choice, but which one to choose?  There must have been 40 designs.  But that decision proved easy too… in one corner of the wall was a big yellow shiny smiley face balloon!  It was just meant to be, wasn’t it?

So I reached into my Smile Card supply and pulled out the fourteen cards I had on me and paid for 14 balloons.  The idea was to give a free smiley faced helium balloon to the next 14 customers with a Smile Card tied to each one.  (I would have given them out around the parking lot myself, but didn’t quite have the courage to hold 14 smiley faced helium balloons and approach strangers, not with over a hundred colleagues nearby!!)  I gave the first one to one of the ladies already shopping in the store to take one.  It turned out she had a children’s birthday party to attend the next day which was perfect!

The balloon fest did not end there.  I found some more Smile Cards and returned to the store when our conference ended.  They were also attached to ten more balloons and the lady behind the counter promised to randomly hand out to people buying things in her shop!

So that’s my story!  A quick insight into how an act of kindness can ripple and spread out; a snack beautifully, carefully and kindly created and packaged transformed into 24 helium balloons randomly gifted to customers at the dollar store!  (Thanks Aurelia!)
 

Oh yes, I did get one final smile before I came home.  As I was putting my case into the car to head to the airport I caught sight of a shiny yellow shape out of the corner of my eye.  There was one of the balloons smiling back at me from the back of a parked car!  :-)