Day 181: Volunteered for Mikayla's Grace

On day 49 I made a donation to the group Mikayla's Grace.  They support families who have lost babies during pregnancy or labor.  Today, for my act of kindness, I volunteered at the hospital to help prepare care packages for these families through the group Mikayla's Grace. My wife (pictured above) also helped! I can only imagine how difficult something like this would be to deal with and it is great that there are people/groups out there to help with the process.

I also didn't get a chance to document my kind act for yesterday so I did an extra act today to make up for it.  For my make up act, I bought lemonade from the neighbor kid's lemonade stand.

Day 179: My Favorite Shirt

I think I have mentioned it before but I tend to wear the same few shirts when I go out.  The one in the picture above is one of those shirts.  Being that I wear it so much, my dad has gotten accustomed to seeing it and every time I wear it he mentions how much he wants one. These shirts are actually really tough to get.  They go on sale a few times a year and usually sell out in minutes.  Earlier this week they went on sale and I was able to get another one that is slightly different.  My original plan was to add this to my two shirt rotation however when my dad made another comment yesterday about how much he liked the shirt I knew what I should do.  So for my act for day 179 I gave my new shirt to my dad.  I can guarantee you this will be one of the only shirts he wears in the future.

Day 178: Gatorade

Today was a very long day.  Towards the end of it, on my drive home, I stopped to get a Gatorade. I noticed on the corner of the gas station there was a homeless guy holding a sign that said "anything will help."  So today for my act of kindness, I grabbed two Gatorade's instead of one and I gave on to the homeless guy.

Day 177: Appetizers

Today I had a work event that was an all day affair.  I had about 12 other people who also worked this event and really helped me with making sure it was a success.  After we were done for the day we decided to go out to dinner as a team.  To say thanks for the help and to show appreciated I bought a round of drinks and all the appetizers for the group.  It was the least I could do for all the hardwork they had put in for the day.

Day 176: Rented a U-Haul

This morning I rented a U-Haul.  I will be driving it around over the next couple of days and since the hog only gets like 6 miles per gallon I felt like it might be appropriate to center my act of kindness around helping the environment.  Good thing U-Haul had thought of this situation beforehand.  When I went to checkout I was asked if I wanted to make a small donation to "Go Zero," a company that helps offset people's carbon footprint.  So that is what I did for my act today.

Day 175: Letter to a Soldier

So far, over the course of this year I have done a few things to help the people who risk(ed) their lives to protect this Country.  On day 72 I donated to a charity who supports veterans.  On day 80 I bought lunch for an active member of our armed services, and on day 128 I sent a care package of beef jerky to a soldier overseas.  A couple of weeks ago on got a letter from that soldier I sent the care package.  I thought that was pretty cool.  He was very appreciative of what I sent and that he let me know how nice it was to know people were thinking of them back in the states.  This gave me an idea for another act of kindness.  I wanted to let another soldier know that they are in our thoughts.  So today, for my act of kindness, I wrote a letter to an active soldier serving overseas.  I found a really cool website www.operationgratitude.com that makes it very easy to send some thoughts over to our soldiers.

Day 174: My Grandparent's Graves

This weekend I was in Chicago to see The Book of Mormon (hilarious musical). My hometown is Racine, WI and Racine is right in the middle of Chicago and where I currently live.  When we left Chicago this morning I decided to make a quick stop in Racine to do something I should have done a long time ago.  My Grandma died 11 years ago and besides the day she was buried I have never gone to the cemetery to visit her.....until today that is. Today for my act of kindness, my wife and I walked around the cemetery for a solid hour trying to track down my grandparents.  With the help of my Aunt over the phone we were eventually able to find them.  I never met my Grandpa (he died six years before I was born) but I was very close with my Grandma. She was the Grandma who never said "no." I just remember having so much fun whenever I was with her.  And, of course, she always had candy in her purse!   She was such a great woman and I miss her very much. It was more emotional than I thought it would be to be around their graves.  I guess being so close to them made me realize how much they are missed.  However, I was very happy that I went to see them.  I definitely won't be waiting another 11 years before the next visit.