This week Sudbury.com and Northern Life unveiled our biggest Act of Kindness yet.
Thanks to the generous financial support of the Fortin Foundation, we were able to surprise the Sudbury Food Bank with a cheque for $10,000, an amount of money that ensures the organization can keep its 44 member organizations stocked with food well into 2017.
When I saw Dan Xilon, the executive director of the Sudbury Food Bank, rock back on his heels, tears springing to his eyes, when we revealed the surprise last week, I couldn’t help but get a little choked up myself.
That moment perfectly summed up what we want to do with our Acts of Kindness (from here on out I’m using our AoK shorthand). This new video series we kicked off in October has been months in the planning. We’ve had countless meetings about what it should be, what it should look like, what we could do.
And while around the conference table we may have had some different ideas about the answers to those questions, we were all on the same page about one thing: Whether we were doing a small act of kindness like handing out gas cards to good drivers, a slightly larger one like giving out free turkeys at Thanksgiving or a big one like finding $10,000 for the Sudbury Food Bank, we wanted to ensure each AoK made some kind of difference in a person’s life.
That difference might be as simple as putting a smile on someone’s face by giving them enough money to fill their gas tank (for some people, that made a big difference in their day).
But even putting a smile on someone’s face can make a big difference.
That person will carry that smile with them through the rest of their day. Smiles really are contagious. We like to paraphrase that great Greek tragedian Sophocles, who once wrote, “Kindness gives birth to kindness.”
Smiles elicit other smiles, and that ripple effect means even one real smile can bring a bit of pleasure to hundreds of people.
Sounds kind of cheesy, I know. But that really is what we hope to do. And by making AoK a video project for Sudbury.com, we hope to spread those smiles even farther.
In case you haven’t seen the three AoK videos we’ve done, head over to our YouTube page and look for the videos stamped with the AoK logo, or click on the links above. You’ll see what I mean.
Some of our Acts will be big, some will be a little smaller, but all will make an impact and a difference in someone’s life or in someone’s day.
Here’s the thing though, for kindness to spread it needs to be a community effort. We need your help.
We want you to join us in this community push to put smiles on people’s faces. We have a huge initiative planned for December to coincide with the Christmas season.
We're calling it "12 Days of Kindness." Sudbury.com and Northern Life want to perform 12 AoKs over the course of the month and bring a little kindness to 12 worthy groups, 12 worthy people, 12 worthy causes or any combination thereof.
But we need your help to do it. In short, we want your ideas.
Maybe you know a neighbourhood hero who works tirelessly to make his or her community better in some way, but does so quietly, in the background, never seeking or wanting recognition.
Perhaps you someone who hasn’t let a debilitating illness get them down, but still needs help in some way.
Maybe you know someone buried by financial difficulties who could really use a hand. Perhaps you know someone who has suffered a terrible loss or is facing multiple challenges.
Or maybe you know a person who deserves to have their courage, compassion, generosity or self-sacrifice recognized by the community.
I think you get my point. It could be an individual, a family, a group or a team — doesn’t matter. Share it with Sudbury.com.
Here’s how you can help. Head over to Sudbury.com/AoK. There, you’ll find a video explaining Acts of Kindness.
You’ll also our nomination form. Fill it out and send it in. Be a part of this movement to honour Sudbury’s most deserving people.
Let’s start putting smiles on faces, folks.
Mark Gentili is the managing editor of Sudbury.com and Northern Life.
