Act One of #26 acts

I joined Ann Curry's 26 acts last month. If you haven't heard of it, Ann Curry of NBC News asked her viewers to do 26 acts of kindness in memory of the 20 children and 6 teachers killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut.

I've been thinking about it and trying to decide how I can best honor those 26 lives. I've been following #26acts on Twitter and getting ideas from other participants. I thought I should do something to benefit children and I wanted it to be a New England organization.  I'll share the other things I do as I do them but this post is just about act one.

The photo above is of a birthday box or a birthday IN a box. I have created a birthday party in a box for a homeless child. I am donating this box with the Hello Kitty theme, of course, to Birthday Wishes. Birthday Wishes is a Massachusetts organization that brings birthday parties to children living in homeless shelters. They bring parties to nearly 100 shelters in the state.

The donor wraps a box in birthday paper and fills it with everything needed for a party. You can pick the gender/age and theme or chooses to donate based on gender and theme. I decided to do a party for a 5 year old girl and I chose to go with Hello Kitty paper goods. I went to Target and got 3 gifts for "my" little girl. I got her some Moonlight Fairies (so cute, they glow in the dark), a bracelet making set ( you can make and decorate little bracelets) and a sticker book with tons of stickers and reusable pages. I also bought her a little Hello Kitty purse filled with more stickers and a card game for her party. I know a 5 year old me would want these gifts and this theme.

With the box you must include party hats, decorations, tablecloth, plates, cups, napkins, balloons, candles, and juice boxes.  If the shelter has kitchen facilities, you donate a cake mix and can of frosting. Some of the children live in hotels and in this case the donor buys a gift card so a cake can be bought from the grocery store.

Today I dropped the box off at the church where Birthday Wishes has an office.  I donated the party box to a safe shelter and this means I could not hand deliver to the actual facility. Courtney who communicated with me via email to arrange everything, accepted my donation and asked me if I wanted to see the operation.  Of course I did.

There were shelves of toys, paper goods, empty wrapped boxes, and cake mixes.  I thought they really didn't need my help but Courtney told me they can be wiped out of everything at any time. In fact, she had an emergency call for 20 boxes for tomorrow. She said sometimes they receive a call from a case worker who has a client in an emergency shelter.  An emergency shelter client is someone who has fled their home because of a safety/domestic violence issue. Sometimes the case worker finds out that the child's birthday was the day before. How sad, I can't imagine it.

Courtney told me that they have a group of women that meet at the church at night and they wrap the boxes with birthday paper. It's a big help for the staff when the box is already wrapped.

I am going to ask my company to get involved, just think of how many more birthday parties we could do! If not, that's ok because I will definitely do this on my own or with a few friends and coworkers who are already interested. You get such a high from knowing you did something special for someone, even if it is a stranger. Don't you think? I think the 20 children and 6 teachers I am honoring with this act would love the idea of giving a homeless child a birthday party.

I can't wait to do the remaining 25 acts of kindness. It's going to be as good for me as for the recipients!

So here's the link again to Birthday Wishes, there's lots of volunteer opportunities if you are interested. Be sure to watch the video entitled Joy.

Harvard Square epiphany

I had a vacation day from work today and my plans got cancelled so I offered to help my sister with her Christmas shopping. She had made a list so it seemed like an easy task. She wanted me to go to one store in Harvard Square, Joie de Vivre, a small very quirky shop on Massachusetts Ave or Mass Ave as we natives call it.

The forecast was for wind driven rain but not too cold temperatures. I wore a light rain coat, blue jeans and snow boots. It was steadily raining but the monsoon had not arrived yet.

Parking was a nightmare. It usually is in that area but it was exacerbated by those doing Christmas shopping. I could not find a space near the store so I circled around to the opposite side of this busy street. I found one, not real close and the meter was for a mere 30 minutes. I hoped the meter maids did not want to go out in a nor'easter and I could be spared a ticket. I rushed out of the car and hurried to the store.

What a great store, Joie de Vivre. Lots of retro stuff, many low priced items, wacky stocking stuffers, and hilarious cards. Of course, 4 of the items on the list were sold out. So I improvised. Got some great stuff. My sister said if I found something I liked to get it because she needed a gift for me too. I bought a lamp for my new downstairs office. Photos to be posted later.

After visiting a second store, the Paper Source, for wrapping paper and a few small gifts, I took a mochaccino break at Rosie's Bakery.  At this point, the wind driven rain had arrived. I could not see my car and I figured the parking ticket was a certainty. I added a Mediterranean omelet to my drink order and I settled in to enjoy my breakfast.

Afterwards, I ventured out into the wild and wooly weather. You know, the kind of weather that if you were driving on the highway you would pull off because you couldn't see two feet in front of you. Umbrellas were virtually useless as they immediately blew inside out. I was having a hard time holding on to my 3 parcels. It took forever to cross the street, traffic, puddles, yuck!  I was not amused.

 I walked up the street a couple of blocks and could not find my car. At this point, the paper shopping bags were saturated and so was I.  One of the paper bags was starting to rip. I thought I would try to find a shop that had plastic bags and so I entered City Sports. The nice clerk said he would get me a plastic bag but came back with clear trash bags for me. He said he brought me the clear trash bags so I wouldn't look like a homeless person. Mmm, ok.

Continuing up the street, I still could not find my car. I turned and started walking in the other direction. The rain was coming down sideways and the winds were kicking up. My jeans were soaked and sticking to my legs. The water was dripping off my hair and rolling down my neck. I was getting chilled.  My bangs were so wet I had to slick them back and then the rain was hitting my face and eyelashes so hard I could hardly see. Plus when it is raining that hard it actually hurts. Real nice on my broken nose.

I walked into a store named Nomad just to get out of the rain and catch my breath. My arms were hurting from carrying my packages awkwardly so they wouldn't drag on the ground. The store had beautiful handcrafted items from all over the world. A young woman came up to me and said she would take my packages and put them behind the counter. She saw they were trash bags and then she told me she would just leave them by a display that she couldn't put them behind the counter. I told her no, she would not leave them out in the open and I took them and left the store. I am convinced she thought I was a homeless person and that's when her attitude changed.

I realized my car was not on this end of the street so I backtracked again. While I walked, I planned out all the wonderful things I was going to do when I found my car. A hot shower with my favorite Philosophy salt scrub and shower gel, a hot cup of tea and a gingerbread cookie while relaxing on the couch under my soft plush blanket. Aw, yes that will be wonderful but then my thoughts turned to the homeless. What if I were homeless and I got caught in the rainstorm and had no other clothes but the ones I had on? How would I ever get dry or warm? And how would people treat me? Would anyone help me? The temperature was scheduled to drop after today. How would I survive? I don't think I would.

Finally I found my car and I was never so happy to see it. I immediately turned up the heat to the max and I drove straight home. Christmas music on the radio and out of the rain, my mood immediately improved.

I arrived at home to see the entire contents of my recycling bin strewn across the driveway, lawn and the neighbor's property. Cat food cans everywhere, water bottles, plastic take out containers. and a Tidy Cats Kitty Litter container. As I picked up the debris it was still pouring. This discomfort is temporary I told myself.  You are minutes away from a hot shower, clean clothes and that cup of tea.

And finally, after the hot shower, I had my cup of tea and gingerbread man. While I was in the shower the sun came out!

Today's trials and tribulations had an impact on me. Just yesterday I had decided to join the 26 acts of kindness movement when a friend posted about it on Facebook. The 26 acts idea was created by NBC News' Ann Curry and was posted on Twitter at #26acts. Last night, I was thinking of doing things that the victims of the Sandy Hook shooting would have cared about but now I think my random acts of kindness will be centered on the homeless.

I found a non profit organization called Birthday Wishes and I am going to volunteer.  Their mission is to bring birthday parties to children living in shelters. Some of the shelters allow volunteers to come in and interact with the kids.  Other shelters are called safe shelters and the volunteers put together birthday boxes of gifts and supplies but they can't attend the parties. I am excited about this opportunity and I am going to round up my own group of volunteers.

So how about you? Are you in for #26acts? I did my first one today, Christmas shopping for my sister.  I have 25 more opportunities for kindness.