On the list of things in Concord that elicit ear-to-ear grins, parking meters tend to rank near the bottom. But there’s a group actively trying to change that, one minute of donated parking at a time.
The Random Acts of Kindness movement is afoot in Concord, thanks to an anonymous Facebook page encouraging people to surprise their neighbors with anonymous moments of generosity. Quarters left on parking meters for the next visitor, Dunkin’ Donuts and Subway gift cards slipped under windshield wipers, orders paid for in coffee shops before they are made – these are the hallmarks of a project designed to accomplish one thing: put more smiles on more faces.
It’s already become infectious. Jessica Fogg started a similar program at Girls Inc., encouraging the girls to write compliment cards and give them to five different people. The group is now working on completing 100 collective random acts of kindness, at which time a celebration will be held.
“I think it’s the pay-it-forward result (that makes it so positive),” Fogg said. “You can make somebody’s day, and then they will be inspired to pay it forward to someone else. Knowing sometimes people are having an awful day, if they find a random act of kindness, it can just brighten their day. I’m hoping this instills those values (in the girls) to think about doing that stuff and being better people.”
Helping old ladies cross the street is so yesterday’s news when it comes to random kindness (note: please continue to help old ladies cross the street). Grand chivalrous gestures from yesteryear will of course always be welcome, but improving the afternoon for an anonymous neighbor doesn’t have to require more than 10 seconds of thought.
The Facebook page (facebook.com/kindnessinconcordnh) is there as a guide, offering suggestions, such as cleaning up graffiti in your neighborhood or a neighborhood near you. It also keeps an eye on community projects and encourages people to contribute, recently noting the library’s quest for used book donations.
But it’s also a place for people to post the results of random acts of kindness to help encourage others, like Fogg did in January when she paid for the person in line behind her at Dunkin’ Donuts.
“If someone did it for me, I would pay it forward,” Fogg said. “I’ve introduced my kids to it, just to get them feeling good and thinking about doing nice things. There’s just so much negativity out there.”
Michele Horne feels the same way. She has worked on the Girls Inc. project, as well, and is also a contributor to operationbeautiful.com, which she said involves “leaving random notes around town centered on eliminating negative self talk.”
“The most important reason for me to be involved in the random acts of kindness movement is, admittedly, my three daughters,” Horne said. “I am a firm believer that you need to model values that you want to instill in your children.”
That’s why Horne and her children spend time cleaning up trash on walks around the block and paying tolls for cars behind them in line on the highway. It’s about imagining how you would feel if someone did the same for you.
“The impact is simple . . . it brings smiles,” Horne said. “So many people have struggles in life, from the minor to the catastrophic. Having a random stranger pay $2 for their coffee may just be the be best thing to happen to them all day. And kindness has a snowball effect: smiles beget more smiles. The person on the receiving end is almost always going to tell people. Those people are engaging in a conversation that gives them a bit more faith in humanity and are most likely inspired to pass on a bit of kindness themselves.”
The recipients of the kindness are not necessarily all local, either. In fact many are out-of-towners by design; one of the acts noted on the Facebook page involved putting notecards under windshield wipers on out-of-state cars thanking them for visiting Concord.
But it was Concord’s sense of community that sparked the movement, and also what led Fogg to take the project to Girls Inc., as she was confident the initial movement would have no problem taking hold and wanted to expand the reach to as many people as possible.
“I’m in love with Concord anyway. We have such a great community, a very welcoming community,” she said. “So many people in this community want to make a difference and are already involved in so many things. But it’s so easy; it takes little to no effort and it makes such a big impact.”
