Day 242: Ride

I live about 45 minutes away from my work.  To help save gas money, the environment and boredom, I am in a carpool with three other people.  Today was my day to drive and we ended up only have only three total people in the carpool today which turned out to be a lucky thing because one of my coworkers ended up asking me halfway through the day if I could give him a ride home.  He lives pretty close to my house so it was no problem at all and I was just glad I could help.  So today, for my act of kindness, I gave a coworker a ride home.

Day 241: Free Rice!

I stumbled upon a really cool website today,freerice.com . Freerice.com is a website that is owned by The United Nations World Food Programme and because of the genoristy of the sponsors who advertise on the site, the group makes it possible for anyone to donate rice to people in need, as well as getting an education at the same time. Basically, how it works is simple. All you need to do is go to freerice.com and answer the questions on the page. For every right answer that you get, 10 grains of rice will be donated. This is what I did for my kind act today. I ended up answering 53 questions correctly in a row which totaled out to 530 grains of rice donated....all while sharpening up my vocabulary schools.

Day 240: Good Luck Card

My grandpa is having hip surgery later this week.  My wife and I tried to make it down to visit him this past weekend so that Emma could help him keep his spirits up, however my grandma wasn't feeling well so we had to call off the trip.  Nonetheless I wanted to make sure my grandpa knew I was thinking of him so today for my act of kindness I sent him a card in the mail to wish him luck and to let him know we would visit with Emma after his surgery to help with the recovery process.

Day 239: Foosball Table

Well todays kind act was sort of bitter sweet.  I bought a foosball table a couple of years ago and I had visions of playing it every night.  Unfortunately this never happened.  In fact I probably only played it around five times.  Because of this, plus the fact I am in some need for some extra money, I decided to sell the table.  Today a stranger emailed me that he was interested in coming to look at the table.  I noticed in his email signature he had a quote pertaining to the Marines.  When he stopped by the house and looked at the table he decided he wanted to buy it but mentioned he had a pretty tight budget.  Long story short, after finding out he is a Marine, I cut him a deal as a small gesture of kindness to thank him for his service.  I basically went $50 lower than I had originally anticipated being willing to go.  Hopefully they will get much more use out of the table than I was able to.

Day 238: Packing Groceries

Today went I got in line at the grocery store there was an older woman in front of me.  Typically there is a cashier and then also an employee who helps bag the groceries.  Well today there was just the cashier.  So instead of having to wait until the cashier was done ringing up the food I asked the woman if she would like help with bagging her groceries. So that is what I did for my act of kindness today. The lady was very happy and actually said it was one of the nicest things someone has done for her in a long time. It was kind of funny the woman's reaction because I didn't feel like this was a grand gesture by any means. Part of the reason I helped was for selfish purposes....I wanted the line to move faster.  However it just goes to show even the small acts can go a long way!

Day 237: Act of Kindness Gets Rewarded

I came across a very cool story yesterday. A homeless man, Glen James, found a bag that contained $42,000.....and he promptly turned it in to the authorities.  I think if anyone, regardless if they are homeless or not, found this amount of money it would take a lot of courage to decide to hand it over.  When I learned that a homeless person did this I was at first completely shocked and then I got to thinking that this just goes to show that regardless of what hand you were dealt in life, or how tough of a situation you are in, it does not need to compromise the person that you are deep down.  This man kept his morals even though it would have been much easier for him to pocket the money.

What's really cool though is that a stranger decided to start a donation page to reward Glen's kind act.  I don't think he expected it to take off as quickly as it has however the donation page went viral and in two days has raised over $110,000, and ALL of the proceeds are going directly to Glen.  Today, for my act of kindness I decided to chip in and donate to help Glen!

If you would like to learn more about the story or chip in yourself, just click on the link below!

http://www.gofundme.com/4by2as

Day 236: Small Donation

Today at work, one of my coworkers put a jar on a desk and asked for donations that would go towards paying for some gas cards for a couple families that are going through some tough times. I only had a few bucks on me, but it was a very easy decision that donating those few dollars was going to be my act of kindness today.

Day 235: Raffle Ticket

I remember when I was a kid, I used to absolutley dominate raffles. You might be asking yourself, how could one "dominate" a raffle? Well I don't have a good answer for you except that to tell you that I literally won every raffle I entered into as a kid. It was comical. I won bikes, video games, candy...you name it, I won it. Fastfoward to adulthood, I win nothing in raffles. It is almost to the point that I don't even enter them anymore. I'm not sure where my luck went...but I defintely do not have it anymore. That being said, one of my cowrokers today was attempting to sell some raffle tickets. I, at first, rejected because of my afermentioned adulthood luck, but then he told me that he had 15 left to sell and not much time left to sell them. So, I decided that for my act of kindness today, I would roll the dice one more time and buy a raffle ticket to help out a coworker. Fingers crossed.

Day 234: Shipped A Phone

My brother made the trip down from Minneapolis this weekend so he could take part of the Alzheimer's walk.  It is always nice when I get to see my brother and I wish he could have stayed longer than just a day.  Unfortunately though, he had to go back yesterday.   Even more unfortunate, about 30 minutes into his trip back, we realized he had forgotten his phone at my place.  Instead of him turning around I told him that I could just mail it back to him.  So that is what I did for my act of kindness today, I went to the post office today and expressed shipped my brother's phone back to him.  

Day 233: Walked for Alzheimer's Research

Today, for my act of kindness, I walked to raise money for Alzheimer's research.  In total my team, "Team Mickey" raised $795.  As most of you know, this disease hits pretty close to home with my grandmother passing away from it, and my father recently diagnosed.  The picture above is of my dad and daughter right before the walk. Even though it rained and I wasn't feeling well it still was a great day!  Thank you to all who had a part in this day.

Day 232: Goodwill Drop-off

We recently moved to a different house.  It was the first time I have ever moved from a house to a house.  I guess I underestimated just how much stuff we really had in the old house.  Towards the end of packing I found myself just moving boxes that had never even been opened in the three years we lived there.  Because of this there are a lot of boxes and clothes I want to go through to get rid of the clutter.  Today, for my act of kindness, I looked through all my clothes and was able to fill up two big garbage bags of things I don't really wear anymore and dropped them off at Goodwill.  I know they will be put to better use now compared to at the bottom of my closet.

Day 231: Helped Around the House

My wife and I have a pretty good routine down for handling the workdays, both for mornings and nights.  There are times however where that routine kinda gets thrown out the window.  Today was one of those days.  However, because of this I was able to find an opportunity for my act of kindness.  My wife was running around trying to get Emma to bed, so I decided to clean the kitchen and make dinner while she was doing that.  I'm sure she was half expecting me to be on the couch when she came downstairs, but I am glad I could help make her day a little bit easier.  See above picture for what I made....taco casserole.

Day 230: Just a little Extra

I have made an effort to bring a lunch to work everyday to try and save some money. I made it everyday so far this week and am pretty proud of myself. However today, while I was heating up my lunch, I overheard a person attempting to pay for their lunch comment that they were a couple bucks short.  Although I am trying to save money I couldn't pass up the opportunity so today, for my act of kindness, I gave a stranger/co-worker some money to cover her lunch.

Day 229: Never Forget

I think we all remember where we were when the news first hit twelve years ago....I was a senior is high school and I was at my friend's house during lunch.  I remember disbelief was my first emotion that I experienced.  As the news kept coming out and the second plane hit my emotions turned into horror...then sadness...and then anger.  

It definitely does not feel like it's been twelve years.  Even with all the time that has passed I still have those range of emotions about that tragedy especially on 9/11.  Today is also a day that I wanted to express how grateful I am for our armed forces so, for my act of kindness, I went to any soldier.com and wrote a letter to a random soldier overseas to let them know how much I appreciate them.  I hope it makes their day a little bit better.

Day 228: Left Some Change

Today's act was a very simple act.  There is a vending machine at work that I go to pretty often.  About half the time I try and get something from the vending machine I never seem to have enough money. I always seem to be a few cents short of what I need.  Well today I had more than enough, however I decided to leave the 90 cents of change for the next person. It's not a big act of kindness but I know that on those days that I find myself a few cents short, I would really be happy to find the spare change!

Day 227: Took a Pledge and Shared

I don't think there is anything dumber than drinking and driving.  Not only do you put your life in risk, but the lives of innocent strangers on the road.  It is one of those things that people just think it won't happen to them....until it does.

I was browsing Facebook yesterday and I stumbled on the video below.  I have mixed reactions on the video, however the message is clear....DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE, IT IS NOT WORTH IT. So today for my act of kindness, I wanted to share this video with my readers in hopes it would have the same affect as it did on me, as well as make a pledge to never drink and drive.

Day 226: Helped a Homeless Couple

Today while I was driving, I came up to a stop light.  I saw a homeless person holding a sign at the intersection. I always try and help out when I see a homeless person asking for help, but I usually do not like giving money in the fear that they will go spend it on alcohol.  However today, it wasn't just one homeless person asking for money, it was a couple and the woman was pregnant.  This was pretty difficult to see and I really hope they are able to find some help and get a roof over their head very soon.  And although I couldn't do that for them, I still wanted to help out in someway, so today for my act of kindness, I gave some money to the homeless couple.  I know it is not a lot but hopefully it helps.

Day 225:Tough Mudder

Today's act was one I've been looking forward to for a long time.  It's one where there are many kind acts performed during one big event.  For my kind act today I participated in Tough Mudder Wisconsin 2013.  I'm happy to be writing this, because it means I made it through this 12 mile obstacle course alive.  My team consisted of 6 guys, through out the race we not only helped each other we also stopped and helped other strangers along the way.  It was a fun experience and all for a good cause.  Also a portion of the proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior Project. I'm looking forward to repeating this kind act again next year

Day 224: Donated to "Team Mickey"

With the Alzheimer's Walk being about a week away I decided (with help from my brother) to get started looking for donations.  I then thought that if I am asking for people to donate to my team, then I should also donate to get the ball rolling.  So today for my act of kindness I made a contribution to my Alzheimer's Walk team, "Team Mickey."

If anyone reading this would like to chip in for a great cause it would be greatly appreciated!  All you need to do is click on the link below and enter in the information! Thank you!

https://act.alz.org/site/Donation2?idb=124997305&df_id=16192&FR_ID=3817&PROXY_ID=8098477&PROXY_TYPE=20&16192.donation=form1&16192.donation=root&PROXY_ID=8098477&idb=290891409&FR_ID=3817&PROXY_TYPE=20&df_id=16192

Day 216: I'm Back!

Remember me?!

So in my last post was titled, "Going Dark." I originally had planned on this only being for the weekend however, as I'm sure most of you had noticed, it turned out to be quite a bit longer than that. I apologize! I have had some personal issues to go through along with closing on a new house a couple of weeks ago so I had to take a little break with the acts.  However, I am back now and excited to get going again!

Now some of you might be wondering....well what went on as far as kind acts over the past 30 days? I am glad you asked! Since I wasn't writing about my act each day, I ended up taking a little more of a reactive approach with performing kind acts.  When an opportunity presented itself, I made sure to act, however there were many days when kind opportunities didn't come up.  Because of this I am behind for my acts compared to the calendar year.  I have decided that regardless I will complete 365 acts of kindness.  Now that might mean some days will include multiple acts, or that my journey is going to go into 2014.  Whatever the case, I will make sure that 365 acts are completed! I am very energized and motivated to get this going again!

Below is a list (along with brief description) of acts that were done while I was away from the blogosphere!


Day 216: Left camping materials for next guests.

• When we got up to the cabin we quickly realized there were some essential items that we would need. i.e. Charcoal, playing cards, fire wood, garbage bags etc.  When the weekend was over I decided to leave everything leftover behind so the next group to rent out the cabin wouldn't need to get so much!

Day 217: Started recruiting members members for the Alzheimer's Walk

• The walk is next Sunday the 15th in Madison.  My dad is battling this disease currently and I wanted to walk for him along with anyone else who has been affected by this monster. If you are reading this and want to walk with me just send me a message and I will get you details.

Day 218: Let woman go ahead of me in line at Target and helped her put her items in cart.

• She seemed in a rush and I was not.  She thanked me 5 separate time.  It just goes to show that it can be the little things that make a difference sometimes.

Day 219: Was an usher in a good friend's wedding

Day 220: Brought a runaway dog back to it's owner

• The dog's name was Fergie.  It weighed about 3 pounds and although it's legs were moving quick, it's body wasn't. The dog was very easy to wrangle in and return to the owner who was running out of her house.

Day 221: Brought a housewarming gift to new homeowners

• As someone who just bought a house, I can attest that gifts are always welcomed!

Day 222: Left a generous tip for my haircut

Day 223: Donated to a local park

• Contributed a few dollars to a park in my town.  This park contains a splash park which seems to be one of my daughter's favorite places to go!