We received a note in the mail a few days ago from Claudia. In it she explained that what Leon would like for his birthday was for everyone to do five acts of kindness. We were to write them down on the card she provided along with a birthday wish for Grandpa/Dad. He will be turning 72 next month and if each family member does 5 acts of kindness that would add up to 72. We are going to meet for dinner at Golden Corral on August 2 to celebrate together.
Only Taylor, Estelle, Sarah and I were home when the invitation arrived, but we had a brainstorming session and watched a video on facebook about a group of college students that got together and did 21 kind acts. We got a few ideas from that as well. We discussed later with the other folks and we decided that we would do four things together as a family and that we would each do one thing on our own. We also did them a week earlier than suggested because Taylor will be at scout camp the week just prior to the birthday party.
Here's what we did:
1. Bake cookies for each member of the bishopric--this was fun and everybody helped with cookie baking and thank you note making.
2. Bake cookies for the mailman--we put three cookies and a note in a Ziploc bag and put it in the mail box for the letter carrier to find.
3. Send notes and a small treat to the 5 missionaries serving in the United States from our ward and send an email to Joey Wallace who is in Mexico and for whom we didn't have an address. (He, by the way, responded the day after we sent it; how sweet).
4. Take sandwiches and water bottles to homeless people in Salt Lake City. We filled up a cooler and distributed 18 sandwiches and 21 bottles of water. The kids were humbled and thankful for the lives they live. Estelle said that she was glad that we did not live in a city. None of them said that they would request doing this again, but that they would if we asked them to. Destry was the first one to hand out the food. I joined in and eventually the older kids did too. We just got off the train and didn't have to go far before we found our first benefactor. We had a couple of people follow after us and request a sandwich too. A couple of people requested another one for a loved one. We continued walking and handing out the food until we had only one sandwich and two bottles of water left. Sadly, we came upon a man, a woman and a little girl. We decided that one sandwich and two bottles of water was better than nothing so we gave it to them. Destry and I decided that we should do this every time we were in the city, even if we just filled up a backpack rather than dragging around a cooler. Everyone was gracious and thankful. One man who had already told us thank you, came back again to tell us that we were doing a wonderful thing and again, "Thank you." Even though my children will not be asking to do this now, I hope that they will remember this small service that meant so much to a few people. The hardest part was not having more to give. In fact, we avoided one particular corner because there were more people gathered we had food. We turned down a nearby street instead and emptied our cooler.
5. For my fifth activity, which was not planned, I helped an elderly woman carry a package off of the train that we had both just disembarked. We rode FrontRunner to Salt Lake to do hand out the sandwiches. She was struggling to carry a box and a cane in one hand and a bag in her other. I took the box and she said she was fine with the bag. I could tell she didn't want to impose, she walked rather slowly. I assured her I was not in a hurry. Another elderly woman approached us who was not as slow and not carrying anything so she took the box from me. I asked her if the other woman and the man she was traveling with were here on vacation since I could see that he was carrying luggage. She informed me that they were here from Jacksonville, Florida to attend the funeral of her husband. In the box was a hat that had belonged to her husband, but fit her brother perfectly so she would be giving it to him. I offered my condolences, grateful I had stopped to help and that I had asked about their travels. Estelle wants to use her own money to tape $1.00 bills to treats in the dollar store for shoppers to find. Sarah is planning on using her own $6.00 to purchase a bunch of flowers to hand out at the entrance of Smith's grocery store. Taylor said he will do something at scout camp next week. Emma wants to serve her grandfather whom we will be visiting in Panguitch later this week and the others are still deciding on what to do.
I am thankful that Leon gave us the inspiration to serve a little more. It was fun and rewarding as well as humbling. I hope we will do this again!
Only Taylor, Estelle, Sarah and I were home when the invitation arrived, but we had a brainstorming session and watched a video on facebook about a group of college students that got together and did 21 kind acts. We got a few ideas from that as well. We discussed later with the other folks and we decided that we would do four things together as a family and that we would each do one thing on our own. We also did them a week earlier than suggested because Taylor will be at scout camp the week just prior to the birthday party.
Here's what we did:
1. Bake cookies for each member of the bishopric--this was fun and everybody helped with cookie baking and thank you note making.
2. Bake cookies for the mailman--we put three cookies and a note in a Ziploc bag and put it in the mail box for the letter carrier to find.
3. Send notes and a small treat to the 5 missionaries serving in the United States from our ward and send an email to Joey Wallace who is in Mexico and for whom we didn't have an address. (He, by the way, responded the day after we sent it; how sweet).
4. Take sandwiches and water bottles to homeless people in Salt Lake City. We filled up a cooler and distributed 18 sandwiches and 21 bottles of water. The kids were humbled and thankful for the lives they live. Estelle said that she was glad that we did not live in a city. None of them said that they would request doing this again, but that they would if we asked them to. Destry was the first one to hand out the food. I joined in and eventually the older kids did too. We just got off the train and didn't have to go far before we found our first benefactor. We had a couple of people follow after us and request a sandwich too. A couple of people requested another one for a loved one. We continued walking and handing out the food until we had only one sandwich and two bottles of water left. Sadly, we came upon a man, a woman and a little girl. We decided that one sandwich and two bottles of water was better than nothing so we gave it to them. Destry and I decided that we should do this every time we were in the city, even if we just filled up a backpack rather than dragging around a cooler. Everyone was gracious and thankful. One man who had already told us thank you, came back again to tell us that we were doing a wonderful thing and again, "Thank you." Even though my children will not be asking to do this now, I hope that they will remember this small service that meant so much to a few people. The hardest part was not having more to give. In fact, we avoided one particular corner because there were more people gathered we had food. We turned down a nearby street instead and emptied our cooler.
5. For my fifth activity, which was not planned, I helped an elderly woman carry a package off of the train that we had both just disembarked. We rode FrontRunner to Salt Lake to do hand out the sandwiches. She was struggling to carry a box and a cane in one hand and a bag in her other. I took the box and she said she was fine with the bag. I could tell she didn't want to impose, she walked rather slowly. I assured her I was not in a hurry. Another elderly woman approached us who was not as slow and not carrying anything so she took the box from me. I asked her if the other woman and the man she was traveling with were here on vacation since I could see that he was carrying luggage. She informed me that they were here from Jacksonville, Florida to attend the funeral of her husband. In the box was a hat that had belonged to her husband, but fit her brother perfectly so she would be giving it to him. I offered my condolences, grateful I had stopped to help and that I had asked about their travels. Estelle wants to use her own money to tape $1.00 bills to treats in the dollar store for shoppers to find. Sarah is planning on using her own $6.00 to purchase a bunch of flowers to hand out at the entrance of Smith's grocery store. Taylor said he will do something at scout camp next week. Emma wants to serve her grandfather whom we will be visiting in Panguitch later this week and the others are still deciding on what to do.
I am thankful that Leon gave us the inspiration to serve a little more. It was fun and rewarding as well as humbling. I hope we will do this again!
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