It was a cold November morning, one of the first really cold days this winter. The biting wind made it seem even colder. As I stood in the grocery store parking lot, loading my groceries into my van, I noticed a woman doing the same, but struggling. She was trying, but simply unable to lift her heavy grocery bags into the car by herself. At that moment, a man happened to be returning his shopping cart and came to her rescue. Without being asked, he loaded her car, two dozen grocery bags or so, and put her cart away for her, not wanting anything for his effort, except maybe a thank you. I was able to witness all this, and thanks to KIND snacks, I was able to give this man a small “thank you” for his generous actions.
You see, recently I began working on a campaign with KIND snacks. Since its inception, KIND has been on a mission to inspire and celebrate kindness, so this recent campaign shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone familiar with their brand. The basic premise is as follows.
1. See someone doing something kind.
2. Give them a #kindawesome card that’s redeemable for a KIND snack pack.
3. The #kindawesomecard is passed on again and again to more people doing more kind things.
I’ve spent the last few days passing out cards, in person and online, all the while thinking about truly KIND people that I know. In addition to the man at the grocery store, I passed out cards to my kids’ bus driver for the awesome things he does for them on a daily basis like sing songs to them on days the radio stops working and happily listening to my son’s constant updates about the weather each day. I gave cards to friends that did volunteer work, friends that started and worked for nonprofit organizations, mentors, former teachers and people that helped me throughout my life.
During all this giving, I kept circling back to one kind person. It might sound weird, but someday I hope to be as kind as my oldest daughter. I don’t know if it has to do with her being first in the birth order and the mom type of role she plays as the oldest child, but she has many qualities at the young age of nine I’ve yet to possess the age of 39.
She is constantly working out disagreements (granted some of them she starts) with her younger siblings in a much more mature way than ever before. Often times if there is a shortage of something in the house whether it be a certain snack or a specific toy, she will offer it to her younger siblings instead of taking it for herself. Same goes for when it’s time to choose movies, or if we decide to let the kids choose where they would like to go out for dinner, 99% of the time it’s her making that sacrifice and letting her younger siblings decide.
When I told my two oldest kids that they could give their bus driver one of the KIND cards, it was my oldest daughter who, without hesitation, gave the card to her younger brother so that he could give it to the driver and have that special feeling of doing something nice for someone else.
To find more examples of her kindness I only had to go back as far as 24 hours. Over the weekend a stomach bug made its way through our family the way those things do in the winter months with small children present. My wife and I were not feeling so great and our daughter was one of the few that had not been struck by this unfortunate illness. She happily agreed to make dinner for the family. The meal she made was a pile of tasty grilled cheese sandwiches, and what made them even better was the thoughtfulness, generosity and selflessness of this kind act for her family.
I know I have taken a bit of a turn with this post and it’s come off a little more selfish because it is about a member of my own family, not about the acts of kindness around town, but sometimes we look at kids and think, well they’re just kids, what can we learn from them? But, more often than not, we should instead look to kids and think, if we all act a little bit more like them, a little bit less selfish, a little bit more giving, maybe the world would just be a better place.
Learn more about how YOU can be a part of the program at howkindofyou.com and by checking out @kindsnacks and #kindawesome on social media. I have partnered with Life of Dad and KIND for this promotion.
-Pete
