Birthday Random Acts of Kindess ~ Pass it on~
The Youth Life Center
Ever have a day so fabulous that you have to share it with every human that you know and then some you don’t? Well, I had one of those days and my hope is that you will be inspired to have the exact same kinda day too.
So my friend and the star of the day Jaime Swingley says to me, “I have this idea and I need help with this (all excited and almost out of breath in a cute way). My birthday is coming up and I just read about this woman who did 40 Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) for her 40th and I want to do something similar. Get thinking and lets do this. My response: “Hail yes!”
She then sent out a group email to her besties asking for ideas and donations and I think it’s safe to say that they poured in. This wasn’t just something thrown together either. Everyone involved brought something to the table. People baked, donated money, time, supplies, ideas and ultimately the day was, to put it simply, an amazing success.
Thank you to the Hair Theater
Jaime’s first mission of Birthday RAK was bestowed upon three of us girlfriends and it involved a trip to The Hair Theater. Owner, Liz Andrews was in on the BRAK and had two wondeful stylists, Lauren and Drew arrive three hours early to to give us three ladies a wonderful pampering scalp 
massaging shampoo followed by stylying and straightening our hair like celebrities. Jaime footed the bill and payed for the next unknowing lucky lady along with a card saying: “pay it forward”.
Next stop: Starbucks where gift cards were purchased for handing out to brighten days of coffee-loving fools like ourselves.
We then headed back to her house for what looked like a party, and felt like a party, but was really a mass assembly. Jaime had baked cookies, purchased supplies, candy, M&M’s were bagged with ties, lasagna ready to go, and we were left to address 72 Valentine’s Day cards for seniors.
In the other room were the slackers mixing a homemade sugar scrub (courtesy of another friend’s blog for deserving St. Mary’s nurses. I call them slackers merely for fun since they claimed to work harder than us card-writers.
We sat around the table and cut up, laughed and told stories while addressing those cards. It was awful I tell you… just torturous. The starbucks cups everywhere and the laughing was just criminal.
St. Mary’s ER nurses.
Once we were all set to go, everyone loaded up where the group went from about nine down to 4 and we hopped in the car and set off on a mission. Our first stop was St. Mary’s where we delivered the homemade sugar scrub along with bagged M&M’s. The drop at the ER was received with big, huge, contagious, incredulous smiles that filled our hearts.
We then took off for the Fire Department #1 where we dropped cookies and lasagna for a bunch of eager and happy recipients. I don’t think they minded the interruption in their day either.
We didn’t mind a firehouse full of handsome firefighters either… nevermind that part.
We stopped and had lunch at Station 2 which was just part of the fun and we were off to Jaime’s faithful dryclearners/seemstress who has saved her during times of clothing distress. See it seems our good friend Jaime is a candy pilferer. Okay, not really, but she enjoys their tasty counter treats and she stocked them up on candy and cookies with a big fat thank you for all you do.
Then we dropped off 72 creatively decorated Valentine’s Day cards to some of my favorite people on the earth! The seniors over at Christian Village in Mechanicsville, where the daily highlight is the mystery in the mailbox. I’ve watched them for years head to those mailboxes in anticipation of something good in there and from I what I hear they think they got hit by cupid. Who doesn’t love a Valentine?
Our day continued on as we went to the Youth Life Center at Delmont where an after school program was in need of supplies and snacks. We all walked through through the door during quiet time and the lights were dim. There were a few little voices whispering “thank you” as we piled things in the corner.
I wanted to run to the store right then and by cuties and bananas and all kinds of stuff. One of our BRAK participators, Brooke Abrahamsen, Artistic Director at Christian Youth Theater knows about this foundation because of the relationship CYT has with them. Their young thespians go once a month and do a theater class, volunteer their time on “FUN FRIDAY” for Youth Life. They also donate tickets to see the performances and this just reminds us once again what a very connected small world we live in.
The day was fun, full of laughs, overflowing with purpose, bonding with complete strangers, inspiring for those of us who were fortunate enough to participate and those who were receivers and in my case…both. Be inspired!!! Take the opportunity to not only enjoy some RAK’s yourself, but do it with some of your favorite people because it’s too wonderful to enjoy all by yourself. Thank you Jaime Swingley for passing on your inspiration and instead of self celebrating… let’s celebrate each other.
We have decided to continue our RAK’s with the senior facility, Christian Village and maybe after my person BRAK in April we might have added something else to our monthly contribution. You don’t have to do much to make a big difference for others and ultimately yourself.
If you decide to have your own BRAK, feel free to contact me for the sticker design, created by the lovely Jeanne Nugent, also of CYT.
