People
Kindness
Mental Illness Awareness
Animals

Lately, my heart has been bursting with love for Zoe the Dog. Zoe is my roommate Vivian’s dog. {You know Vivian. She’s my Number Two.} When Vivian and I moved in together back in February, Zoe the Dog, of course, joined us. I grew up with a dog when I was a child, but I hadn’t been able to have my own since I moved away from my family’s home many years ago. Zoe has changed my life. I love her, plain and simple. We snuggle in the morning, she helps me pick out the day’s outfit, we have a belly rub language, and, of course, oodles of hugs and smooches throughout the day.

When the amazing Pittsburgh Pit Bull rescue organization, Hello Bully, contacted me recently to help them spread the word about a special fundraiser they’re doing, I knew right away that I wanted to help. Hello Bully is a non-profit 501(c)3 corporation focused on the rescue and rehabilitation of the American Pit Bull Terrier. Hello Bully’s all-volunteer staff and supporters are driven by their hearts and passion to help Pit Bulls.

Once again, Hello Bully is pairing up with another awesome Pittsburgh company, The Cotton Factory, to bring you the incredibly successful limited edition of PITSburgh t-shirts and aprons during the month of May. Designed as a fund- and awareness-raising campaign for Hello Bully, portions of each sale are donated to the local Pit Bull rescue group.

I got mine last year.

This time around, the PITSburgh pride design is available on both the t-shirts and aprons with your choice of gold or pink ink. $5 from each t-shirt and $3 from each apron sold will be donated directly to Hello Bully. The t-shirts and aprons are available for sale online through The Cotton Factory through May 31, 2012. The promotion ends May 31, after which the t-shirts and aprons will no longer be available.

Summer’s just around the corner, so you’re going to need t-shirts to help you stay cool. And with summer comes  cookouts, which means you’ll need an apron to wear while you’re rockin’ your outdoor BBQ skills.

So, that’s your mission, should you choose to accept it.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

Zoe the Dog agrees.

And it got me thinking. For some people, a lot of days are like that. Hard. Heck, for most of us at some point or another, life is just that: hard. So I wanted to do a mission where I made sure that I congratulated the recipient on simply keepin’ on. Putting one foot in front of the other. It takes courage some days. Sheer strength. We should all be congratulated, yes?

DATE:
Sunday, 13 May 2012

OPERATIVE:
Secret Agent L

LOCATION:
Whole Foods
Pittsburgh, PA

TIME:
7:19 p.m.

My refrigerator was pretty empty, so I figured I’d make a trip to our local Whole Foods and pick up some groceries.  I also thought it’d be the perfect opportunity to complete a drop.

I decided to make my mission a simple one: a card with words of support, a gift card to Target {who doesn’t love Target?}, and a spot on a shelf at the grocery store.

I have to admit, it took some serious courage of my own to do a mission in Whole Foods on a Sunday night when there were a lot of people doing their shopping  for the week. I mean, the parking lot alone was packed! But I put on my Cape of Courage {okay, not really, but it sounds good, right?}, and headed straight in the front door, ready to get my groceries and spread some kindness.

After I puttered around the aisles of the grocery store, making sure to pick up plenty of organic veggies and fruit, some gluten-free pasta and cereal, and Italian soda, I finally found an aisle that was empty. Luckily, I had my phone out and the camera app open and ready to go.

The trick to completing a mission successfully is committing. Commit to the act, don’t waiver, do it in one smooth action. And that’s just what I did. I just pulled the card out of my purse, put it on the shelf where there was an empty spot, snapped the photo, turned around, and left. The entire act took less than 5 seconds. {Although, I do need to get some sort of anti-shaking app for my iPhone’s camera.}

All in all, it was a fun and easy mission. I hope that whoever finds it knows that I’m rootin’ for them in this life, especially when they’re feeling rainy and yucky inside.

Today’s mission is perfect for a day like today. And even though this mission is from quite some time ago, its message is timeless.

DATE:
Wednesday, 1 September 2010

OPERATIVE:
Affiliated Agent S

LOCATION:
post office parking lot
South of Houston, Texas

TIME:
not specified

Hi Laura,

Being disabled I don’t have much money to do what I would like for people. But, what I do have is a lot of time. So, I spend a lot of time doodling. Today I decided to put that doodling to some good and hopefully bring a smile to someone’s face.

I live just South of Houston and it has been quite some time since we have had any good rainy days. Although the rain doesn’t bother myself, it seems to put many people in foul moods. Knowing I was going to have to go to the post office today I figured there would be people who didn’t want to be out in the rain so I decided to make today’s trip to the post office my first mission.

Prior to leaving I put together a couple of cards on my own. When I arrived at the parking lot I spotted a car that was parked where no one was likely to see me complete my mission. After pulling into my space I got out of my car and placed my cards (which were in a baggie because of the rain) under the windshield wiper of my unsuspecting target’s car. I then walked back to my truck to grab my package to be mailed and my phone so I could take a picture very quickly while dodging the raindrops. I sure hope it was a day brightener for someone.

Just…

I mean…

Speechless.

DATE:
Monday, 2 April 2012
Friday, 13 April 2012

OPERATIVES:
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 006 from Granada
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 025 from Fuenlabrada
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 003 from Murcia
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 016 from Cuenca
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 005 from Cuenca
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 777 from Sevilla
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 096 (secret place)
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 001 from Madrid
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 004 from Zaragoza
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 009 from Badajoz
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 079 from Pontevedra
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 007 from Barcelona
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 410 from Barcelona

LOCATION:
various
throughout SPAIN

TIMES:
between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m. each day

Dear Laura,

I’m so very pleased to inform you that our Scrapbook Group has accomplished its Kindness Mission.

As I told you in my e-mail some weeks ago, we are a Spanish Scrapbook Club who decided, together, make a mission through Spain. We decided to make, each one of us, a handmade card and enclose a small present, as you told us in your e-mail below. Then, we decided to leave our presents early in the morning, on April the 2nd. This was really fun because we did it all around Spain! We only have contact through Facebook, WordPress or through E-mails and making it possible to organize us through the country by talking through these communities and also making a one day chat, was very exciting.

Then we took our pictures and they sent them to me and my boyfriend Rafa, who made a wonderful video.

It makes us feel so very well, to have done this all together.

Here a resume from our missions, so you can post it into your blog:

Secret Agents Involved:

Secret Agent L (Ñ) 006 from Granada
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 025 from Fuenlabrada
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 003 from Murcia
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 016 from Cuenca
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 005 from Cuenca
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 777 from Sevilla
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 096 (secret place)
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 001 from Madrid
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 004 from Zaragoza
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 009 from Badajoz
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 079 from Pontevedra
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 007 from Barcelona
Secret Agent L (Ñ) 410 from Barcelona

Mission accomplished: April, 2nd, 2012 between 8h and 10h
April, 13th, 2012 between 8h and 10h

Report:

We are a Spanish Scrapbook Club who knew about the wonderful idea from SECRET AGENT L, so me (secret agent 007) got in contact with secret agent L in order to know what we had to do. We got this funny e-mail in return, with the information we needed to organize our mission. It was funny how people, as we told about the idea in our wordpress blog, did react so good to it and asked to participate. So we informed them about the details and decided to make a greeting card with our scrapbook materials, ad some funny and positive messages + a little present. As we don’t know personally each other (for we have contact through Facebook, the WordPress and e-mails) we said it would be fun if we could make an appointment and leave our presents of kindness the same day. So we took April the 2nd for our mission.

Secret Agent 410 had to collect all our pictures and reports and make a small movie with it and the result is fantastic as you can see.

Here are some of our comments to the mission:

“I decided that this common project of kindness was a wonderful idea. I knew, from a relative, that there was a couple who just lost their baby, and I know what it is, because I lost my babies when I was near to give birth. It’s hard because sometimes, your closest friends and family try to cheer you up, but they can’t understand what it is like. I think, if someone who knew what it was to loose a baby would have gave me a present like that, with the correct words you needed to hear, that would have helped me a lot. For that reason, I decided to give my present to this couple, through a friend, so they wouldn’t know who I was…”

“I knew what I wanted exactly to say in my positive message, because these words are the ones who would make me happy. When I think about “happiness”, I think of butterflies, so I wanted that this message would fly to the person who would find my present…”

“The oncology plant in the hospital I spend a lot of time in is one of the saddest places I’ve ever seen. For that, I chose this place to leave my mission. I hope my present will make someone happy and make him regain hope and faith and that this person will spread this feeling of hope to family and friends. This act of kindness made a change in me. I’m no longer living in a cold and sad city, today I’m smiling. I will make soon a new mission.”

“The babysitter I leave my small kid, recently lost her father. Even working with children normally cheers you up, I can see that she has a very sad look in her eyes and decided to make my present to her.”

“Despite being this a small gesture, I felt excited through this experience, alive, I regained feelings I though forgotten. The feeling of being involved in a common project. I would like to extend this experience to other areas of my life.”

“With the current situation we are living today in Spain, I have chosen some positive personal messages. We are breathing negativity and sadness all day long, and I wanted, even if it was only for a moment, to get a smile on a face I won’t meet, to encourage this person to keep fighting and stand up in difficult moments. I attached to my card some earrings, for I don’t know if it will be found by a woman or a man. If it’s a man, this would be perfect because he could extend my present to another human being, and give it to his wife, girlfriend or mother.”

These and some more messages were collected and can be read in our scrapbook blog.

And that’s it, from the SECRET AGENT L – Spanish (Ñ) Scrapbook Connection.

Thanks so much for giving us the idea and the opportunity to make other people happy.

I love them more than shoes and handbags. I love them more than chocolate. I love them more than, well, almost anything, really. And Affiliated Agent A, who completed this mission, is a super-duper dog-lover, just like me. This one came right from her heart, for sure!

I. LOVE. DOGS.

And I LOVE this mission.

DATE:
Saturday, 14 April 2012

OPERATIVE:
Affiliated Agent A

LOCATION:
San Francisco, CA

TIME:
6:05 p.m.

The location of the drop off was at a dog-friendly place, so what better way to share the love of dogs than to give a gift about a dog!

We attended a work-in-progress documentary screening called Guarding Dogs. When we entered the building, we did not realize that the entire lobby area was on camera. This was going to be a challenge at best.

Almost everyone at the screening brought their dog and it was an enclosed area open to all. So this was not a good spot either for a drop because someone would surely see. What to do?

It was decided that the best place to drop off the book would be in the bathroom. Not the most original place but it’s the easiest place to not be seen. Our hope is that whoever found the book enjoys it and spreads the love of dogs.

I love that.

DATE:
Wednesday, 11 April 2012

OPERATIVE:
Affiliated Agent R

LOCATION:
doctor’s office
Oakland neighborhood
Pittsburgh, PA

TIME:
not specified

I did my mission at my doctors office where I check in with an acquaintance every time I’m in for meds or checkups. She is a young woman from Britain and she had recently told me she had lost a relative at home. My husband is from the isles and lights up like a Christmas tree when he gets anything from home, so I took some British stickers and candy from our Easter baskets and popped them in an envelope and left it in her door jamb. I took pictures of the envelope before leaving it, not in the space because of the confidentiality of the other patients in the area. And let me say, doing it made my day! I thank you because I’ve been going through some stuff over the last few months!

YOU GUYS.

This mission? EPIC.

Now, I’m not a gamer, but I have some dear friends who are, and let me tell you: they do not mess around. And when I got a tweet last week from one of my top Affiliated Agents {who happens to be a serious gamer}, indicating that “pounds of something” had been delivered to him in order to complete a special mission on Easter, I thought to myself, Oh, now this is gonna be a good mission.

And I was right.

DATE:
Sunday, 8 April 2012

OPERATIVES:
Affiliated Agents M, K, C, R

LOCATION:
Penny Arcade Expo East
Boston Convention and Events Center
Boston, MA

TIME:
10:00 a.m.

The Penny Arcade Expo, or PAX, is a three day convention celebrating gaming of all types. Video games, role playing games, board games, table-top games, you name it, you can probably play it at PAX. The convention has gotten so big that there are now two a year, in Seattle (PAX Prime) and Boston (PAX East), each bringing in over 70,000 people over a 3 day period.

This year’s PAX East was where Affiliated Agent M, along with Agents K, C, and R decided to strike.

All the credit goes to Agent K, who came up with the idea. Since PAX East was over Easter weekend, she had the idea to get some plastic Easter eggs, fill them with candy, which everyone loves, and dice, which gamers love, as well as a label in the theme of an XBox Achievement. The group would then hide these Easter eggs everywhere they could at the convention hall, so those gamers who gave up spending Easter Sunday with their family to spend it with their gaming family would have at least a small bit of the Easter tradition.

Agent M, as he is wont to do, went a little crazy with Agent K’s idea. It is possible to order bulk eggs in 100 packs online, as well as order dice by the pound. He did both, as well as printed out sticky labels with art provided by Agent K. The Thursday night before the convention started saw all the agents as well as others who were sharing the rented condo that night filling enough plastic eggs with chocolate, Sweet Tarts, Reese’s Peanut Butter cups, dice, and friendly Achievement labels to fill a carry on suitcase.

That was about 200 eggs. While that seems like a lot, and even with Easter Sunday driving the crowd size down, there were still about 20,000 attendees at the convention center that day, along with hundreds of Enforcers, the volunteer staff who give up their PAX time to assist with the convention and make sure everything runs smoothly.

Now, Agent M has done many SAL missions in the past, and he was actually not equipped to handle being stealthy in a mass of so many people. He ended up being rather gun shy, waiting for the right moment to hide an Easter egg on a chair, in a potted plant, or next to the sign. The other Agents had no such compunction, and were giddily placing eggs next to statues of Sonic The Hedgehog, inside vending machines, asking vendors if they could place an egg on their tables for someone to find, even asking an Enforcer if they could hide one in their hat, to which the Enforcer agreed. Agent C did what he referred to as a ‘reverse Easter egg drop’ when he gave one to someone dressed up as the Easter bunny (Wearing a PAX shirt, of course).

This also shifted a change where the Agents would hand out eggs just as much as they would hide them. Agent K handed an egg to children when ever she saw one, in one case turning a grumpy 5 year old boy into a beaming, smiling bundle of joy. In all the chaos it was hard to take photographs of every hiding spot, but I was able to grab a few. The first was when Agent K hid one on someone’s Hanar hat. (A Hanar is sort of a purple space jellyfish). The person wearing the hat did not notice, but her friend sitting next to her saw everything and silently grinned and nodded to Agent K as she deftly placed the egg. I should mention that at the time Agent K was wearing a bright pink wig and yellow wings, and is also four months pregnant, but moved like a bunny ninja. The second picture was the result of a game Agent R and Agent K starting playing, placing eggs on someone’s chair as they were leaning forward playing a game.

Agent M thought the eggs would last the entire day, slowly but surly placing one egg here, one egg there. The entire group ran out of eggs in less than an hour, the last delivery to a group of hard working Enforcers who deserved something for their good work. The attitude of the group was, for the most part, childish happiness. Agent K event went so far to say playing Easter Bunny was her favorite experience of PAX, which is tall praise given how much awesome is usually packed into a single PAX.

The coda to all of this is that this group of Agents were not the only one handing out Easter eggs. Agent M talked to an Enforcer later in the day and heard that others were doing the same thing, independent of the Agents. Gamers get a bad rap sometimes, being labeled as antisocial and violent, but good hearted people are everywhere, in large convention halls or standing in line right behind you.

DATE:
Saturday, 7 April 2012

OPERATIVE:
Secret Agent L

LOCATION:
Family Dollar
Garfield neighborhood
Pittsburgh, PA

TIME:
7:19 p.m.

On Saturday, my boyfriend {The Ross-a-tron as he’s affectionately known} and I spent the day together just re-connecting and relaxing at Command Central. He’s finishing up his graduate coursework next week, and we hadn’t really had a chance to spend much quality time together lately as a result. So being able to be together for the day on Saturday was extra special, especially since it was Easter weekend, which is a very special time for us. 

I knew I wanted to do a mission, especially during Easter time, and with the beautiful weather we’ve been having in Pittsburgh lately, it felt like the perfect thing to do. So I went to Starbucks last week and grabbed a beautiful springy gift card for $10 to use as my mission of kindness.

I love going to Starbucks during the warmer weather and getting iced mochas and other delicious treats. They’re like little extra rays of sunshine during my day, especially when I’ve got a lot of work to do at my desk in my office.

I decided to make the mission clean and simple: put the gift card in a note card, enclose a short little message, and let the recipient know that there were no strings attached to this act of springy kindness. I included the SAL business card, of course.

I made sure to put a clear message on the outside of the envelope as well, letting the recipient know that it was safe and fun.

I’ve been trying really hard to drink less soda these days, but I LOVE it so much. And since The Ross-a-tron and I were having sort of a special day together, I figured it was okay to splurge and get a 2-liter bottle of Coke to enjoy. I live a block from a Family Dollar store, so I stuck my secret mission in my back pocket, grabbed my wallet, keys, and phone, and then headed down the street. I thought I’d just complete my mission in the store. Easy peasy.

When I entered the store, I headed straight back to the soda aisle. Luckily, there weren’t a lot of people in that section of the store. In fact, there wasn’t anyone. Lucky me! So I stealthily set the envelope on the shelf in front of some bottles, grabbed a 2-liter of Coke for myself and headed to the registers. I’m sure my secret mission was caught on the security cameras, but I’m not too worried. I was doing something nice, after all!

When I got to the register, I was fortunate enough to be able to complete a second yet not-so-secret mission of kindness. The woman in front of me didn’t have enough money to pay for the food she was trying to buy. I could sense her embarrassment, especially since there were several of us in line behind her. To my surprise (and joy!), the cashier actually opened up her storage drawer by the counter and pulled out her own wallet, saying, “Would you like me to pay it for you?” {I think she and the customer sort of knew each other a bit.} The customer was hesitant, so I jumped in and said, “I’ll pay for it.” The cashier replied, “Are you sure?” I nodded and said, “Absolutely. I’m happy to. Just add my 2-liter of Coke to the order, and I’ll pay for it all.”

The customer sighed a huge sigh of relief, wrapped her arms around me, kissed my cheek, and said, “Oh, God bless you! Thank you, thank you!” I looked at her and said, “You’re welcome. And I’m sure you’ll pay it forward in some way.” She said, “Oh, yes! Yes, I will!” And then she hugged and kissed me again.

Her bill was for $3.51. In these tough times, our neighbors are struggling to afford even the smallest amounts. I felt that I’d been placed in just the right spot at just the right time so as to be able to help this neighbor, this fellow Garfield community member. Now that I’m sharing an apartment, my rent is lower, my bills are lower, and I have money to spare for occasions such as this. And I feel so rich as a result. Not because I have some extra money in my wallet these days, but because I’m able to use that money to help others, which is all I really want to do. That moment in line at the Family Dollar was a tremendous Easter blessing for me.

This mission was definitely one of my favorites.

This mission from Affiliated Agent Shiny really touches my heart. I think it will touch yours as well.

DATE:
Friday, 21 January 2012

OPERATIVE:
Affiliated Agent Shiny

LOCATION:
Nursing Home
Fort Worth, Texas

TIME:
4:53 p.m.

I’ve taken a really long time trying to plan this mission, and finding the right opportunity/place for a drop. I just recently got over being sick and on one of my first days out of the house I was able to complete this mission.

My family and I visit a nursing home every Friday to meet and pray with the elderly. It is so wonderful to get to meet new people there and hear their stories. They have such wonderful things to share. I got together a little goodie bag containing a deck of cards, a pencil, a bottle of bubbles, a confetti popper, and a pack of Fun Dip. I wanted to put in things that anyone could enjoy; something simple that someone would appreciate.

I had to be extremely sneaky when setting up my mission and taking pictures, hiding it in my bag and trying not to act suspicious. My family isn’t good at being subtle or keeping secrets, so I had to make sure they wouldn’t notice me making the drop as well!

As we were leaving the nursing home after our visit, I lagged behind as we made our way to the car. I placed my package on a bench at the front entrance and snapped a quick picture with my phone (pretending I was texting, of course.) If anyone walked by the front door or brought a resident out to the bench to chat, as I’ve often see people do, they would see the gift. I hope it helped start their weekend off on a good note.

This mission was so much fun, I can’t wait to complete another one!

One of the most amazing organizations around today that focuses on encouraging individuals to be conscious of the words they choose is Best Buddies. Best Buddies is a nonprofit that advocates for social inclusion for children and adults with Down syndrome, Autism, and other intellectual and developmental disabilities through school based one-to-one friendship and leadership development programs. My dear friend Jen’s Best Buddies story is pretty powerful:

A few years ago my daughter Riley came home from school one day full of her usual (non-stop) chatter.

Suddenly she stopped and said, “People can be so mean.” Uh-oh, I thought. Someone called her “french fry” again. “What happened?” I asked. She went on to tell me about a younger “special needs” student who walks around the lunch room and the playground asking people, “Will you be my friend?” That day when she got to Riley’s table, Riley’s friend snapped at the girl, told her “NO” and told her to go away.

“I was so mad!” Riley told me. “She looked so sad and she can’t help it. So I told my friend she was mean and got up and told the girl I’d be her friend and played with her.”

From that point Riley took an interest in making sure this girl was not abused by the kids on the playground.

From the mouths of babes. I was so moved by this event and by Riley’s genuine generosity of spirit. When I went looking for organizations to volunteer for as board members I imagined participating in progressive organizations much like I generally support. But then I found Best Buddies, and inspired by Riley, and in honor of her, I joined the board.

She’s also {bravely!} agreed to run a 5K for the organization. Each participant in the 5K commits to raising money for Best Buddies.

This is where you come in.

If you’re in Pittsburgh:

1. Come have a beer with me and Jen at Church Brew Works on Wednesday, March 21st, from 4:30-6:30 p.m.! A $10 donation at the door gets you complimentary appetizers, drink specials ($3 beers!), and raffle entries! Here’s the Facebook event page.

If you’re not in Pittsburgh or can’t come to the March 21st event:

2. Just go to her page and donate.  Follow this link to visit Jen’s personal web page and help her in her efforts to support Best Buddies International. A $5-10 donation would go a long, long way!

Regardless of your geographical location and/or schedule:

3. Tell 2 friends–or 10!

Together we can actively choose to use our words to heal. And have fun doing it!