guerrilla goodness: the great day of garbage gratitude
January 23, 2012
What do you think the most thankless job in America is? I had my own idea but decided to take an informal poll among friends, family, and of course Facebook. It turns out, garbage collectors won by a landslide. I can’t say I was surprised. From Thanksgiving to Christmas, we create an additional one million tons of waste, which is a whopping 25% more that our collectors have to pick up and haul away.
These are people that are part of our lives, in our backyards or front sidewalk, taking away all our decay, the stuff we don’t want or no longer serves us. Yet even though these guys are in my living space every week, I really had no idea what they might look like or what their names were. I started to wonder so I woke up early one Friday morning and waited for them to roll down my alley.
I must have looked like a total loon waving my hands and carrying my camera but they stopped the truck and hopped out at my back gate. I introduced myself while Vejay, Lionel and Joe pulled off work gloves to shake my hand. We chatted for a moment and I told them I was interested in doing a kindness project for garbage collectors. I asked them what kind of kindness they thought was needed.
Joe leaned against the garbage can and said, “You know, we just need a little respect.”
“Yep, pretty sure everyone needs and deserves that, huh?” I replied.
“Yes, they do. Yes they do.” Joe said.
The kindness mission was sparked. What could be a more lovely and simple message of respect than saying, “I see you, I value your contribution to my community and I thank you.”?
Sometimes it is the smallest act of kindness that makes the greatest impact on a person. Meeting a basic human need may be all it takes to make a change. All I could imagine was Joe lifting can after can with notes of gratitude attached, throughout an entire neighborhood, maybe even a whole city.
So I asked the kids in my daughter’s kindergarten class if they would like to join me in writing thank you notes since they had just been learning about community helpers. The kids were stoked to take the mission on and the kindness started moving. Word traveled and seven more schools wanted in.
awesome thank you note from the kids at Patrick Henry School of Science and Arts
Here is the kindness mission, if you would like to join us:
1. Write a note of thanks to your garbage collector sometime from now until February 3rd.
2. You may want to include a gift card for coffee from your local coffee shop or gas station.
3. Attach it to your garbage can on pick up day for your collector to find.
4. Take a picture and send it to patience@kindnessgirl.com or upload it to our Guerrilla Goodness Flickr pool.
5. Tell us in the comments what city you are from so we can see how far our garbage gratitude is traveling. If you invited your school to join us, let us know the school too. Some schools are including their custodians in on the thank you note kindness too!
6. Hit the Facebook or Twitter button below to share or like…we all know Facebook and Twitter rule the world!
Can you imagine if there was a wave of gratitude across an entire nation? Garbage collectors may get kicked off the top of that most thankless job list. I imagine Joe would be just fine with that.
guerrilla goodness: message to the world…
October 16, 2011
I want to think again of dangerous and noble things,
I want to be light and frolicsome,
I want to be improbable and beautiful,
as though I had wings.
-Mary Oliver
I love the idea that messages are left in the world for us to discover. I was reminded of this one via my friend Jaime, I’m not sure she even knows she passed it to me, but she did…that Mary Oliver gets my gut and heart every time.
I bought some register tape (about 2.5 inches, maybe less) for the kids as part of our art studio and stumbled upon it the other day. It’s wonderful when something can go on and on, even longer than you imagine. I realized the paper is also the perfect size for in between the chain link fence- my guerrilla mind exploded!
So here’s the mission:
1. If you could leave the world a message, what would it say? OR maybe you need to leave one for yourself? What would leave your heart full or give you courage to take a next step? (whatever that may be)
2. Buy some register tape- any old office supply place has them.
3. Write a quote or a message to the world, yourself, a friend…leave a few. They also work on wood fences but need more space for the words and are a little trickier to thread through.
4. This mission is a little harder to do with out getting caught because it takes time to get it securely weaved.
Plan it for some one when they aren’t home (and NOT on the neighbors fence!) or go early in the morning to a park, or other public space- night may get you in trouble. Also be sure to pick up your trash in a week or two, or after the rain.
5. Take a picture!!! Whip out that trusty iphone or droid, share your message with US!!! We wanna see and be inspired! You can post the pic on the Facebook Guerrilla Goodness page or send it to me and I can do it for you!! patience@kindnessgirl.com
Have fun!
Oh! and don’t forget, our Dinner with Jimmy Mission ends on October 18th! You can still e-mail me your pics to be forwarded on to Dolores.
ETA- I think the register tape would work around trees and poles!!! oh, the kindness ideas never end…
guerrilla goodness: back to school chalk love
August 23, 2011
It’s back! It’s time for the sidewalk chalk love again friends! You may remember when hundreds of folks ALL over the country headed out with sidewalk chalk to encourage the kids of their cities and towns on the first day of school. Well, we are doin’ it again and would love to have you join us!
I don’t know about you, but I could never sleep the night before school started. I wondered what my teacher was going to be like, who I would sit next to, what the work would be. It can all be a little overwhelming. Everybody could use a little encouragement, just a little reminder that you are loved!
So here’s the mission:
1. Grab some bright sidewalk chalk.
2. You head out with friends, family, kids, dogs, grandmothers, artists, whoever…and write positive messges to kids on the sidewalks in front of the elementary schools (or any schools, universities, etc.) in your neighborhood, or even your own sidewalk for the first day of school. Here are some things you can write:
Have a GREAT first day of school!!
It’s going to be a awesome year!
You look fantastic!
We believe in you!
if you want more ideas, check out the pictures of what other people have done here.
3. Go home blissed out with the kindness high!
4. If you are a kindness kid, be super quiet when you are walking to school the next day and everyone around you is talking about the cool art out front… and smile.
5. If you are a Richmonder and want to participate, reach out to your local school administration and send them a link to this post for permission. If just the idea makes you tired or sweat, contact me and I’ll do it for you! patience@kindnessgirl.com
6. If you decide to do this project or blog about it, please leave a comment so we can highlight your kindness work and watch it grow! Don’t forget to send me pictures and I’ll post them or simply add them to our GG Flickr Pool.
Also, if you want to learn about school kindness trees, my friend Chris had this awesome idea!
*go at your own risk…be safe, go to familiar places and with others, ask permission if needed, be smart and respectful. It’s more fun that way!
guerrilla goodness: library love
July 16, 2011
Jack’s message to the next Harry Potter enthusiast
Can I tell you I am the world’s worst library citizen? …I almost always have a late fee, I lose a book at least once a quarter, and I’m never sure exactly where my card is. Even still, the library, in all her grace, continues to let me try again. and again. and again.
We had a full day of kindness adventures, a marathon if you will, while working on a big kindness project for the fall (which I can’t wait to share!) and we found ourselves at the library. (with a gaggle of kids, dear friends and neighbors) This little outing was after the free slurpee day which meant it was almost impossible to be quiet, but we did our best- there was just mass amounts of excitement over red and blue frozen drinks and new books!
So here’s the mission:
1. Take your trusty little post-it note pad to the library.
2. Leave encouraging notes on the covers and inside of books. (my friend Jen and I couldn’t get out the self-help parenting section!)
3. Trust the universe to send the right book and message to just the right person!
The best part is, you don’t even have to have a library card, or check anything out for this mission, perfect for a library slacker like me!
If you decide to do this mission, leave us a link to your blog or pictures in the comments…or upload the pics to the Guerrilla Goodness Flickr Pool!Check out more Guerrilla Goodness missions here!
fields of kindness…
May 11, 2011
berries from Gallmeyer Farms
it’s the field…
it’s the wind…
it’s the beauty of growing…
it’s someone’s hands in the dirt…
it’s labor…
it’s bold red peeking out from a green leaf…
it’s the harvest…
it’s the Marlboro man, watching over his dog and field…
it’s long and late afternoons dancing with the sun…
it’s feeling as if the earth is conspiring to love me with her bounty…
it’s sweet, nature’s candy…
it’s memories of swollen bellies, and carrying babies on my back…
it’s my soul revived…
it’s spring returned and promises of summer…
I can’t tell you how all of me gets rearranged and made right when I go for the first day of picking berries. Because I know, it is just the beginning of a long, wonderful season. I sing the in field, I watch my children play, I feel close to the earth and my truest self, I can barely wait to give them away, I feel so connected to everything…it is the ultimate kindness to me and one I have no trouble receiving.
*sigh* I can’t even TRY to not be cheesy about it all…I am totally smitten. Here are the little giveaway boxes from the first pick. You can find the origami tutorial here. I use heavy cardstock like you use for scrapbooking- works fantastic!
If you are in Richmond…and you need a little something extra this week. Write me at patience@kindnessgirl.com (include an address) and I will Ding Dong Ditch you a small box of strawberries from the fields of kindness…for reals!
May your ultimate kindness, whatever it is for you, find you today!
i love my mom because…
May 2, 2011
So these were some of my favorites from the weekend that made our GREAT Wall of Motherly Kindness!
Feel free to leave your I love my mom because… comments below and I will add them to the kindness blackboard at Franklin Goose! Look for Franklin Goose’s #motherlykindness tweets too!
….and also, in other kindness news, thank you to the very kind people of Richmond that voted to include KindnessGirl in the Best of Richmond issue from Style Weekly. I have this dream that my dear middle sized city will someday be known for its’ kindness, and I am so excited that the joy of kindness is spreading in the world…and that I get to be part of it! (you too!) So THANK YOU to all who voted!
I love chalkboards, I love them so much! (and we know how I feel about the magic of chalking!) I love writing on black, that nothing is permanent, how bright or simple or strong a message can be. I keep a small chalk board on my front porch, and every month I leave a message for myself and for whoever else might be strolling by.
It is good to see over and over again, to pass by and soak in the things I am hoping to know, trust or live. So Mother’s Day is quickly approaching and I started to wonder about the messages you most need to know when you are a mom.
Some years you really need to know all you are and have held are seen…appreciated and loved, other years it’s light and celebratory, some times reflective and hard, it can be all kinds of things. Truly.
This got me thinking…I love eavesdropping on kid’s conversations, the way they talk to other kids, how honest they are . You laugh and know whatever it is, it’s the truth.
So I had an idea, I wondered if together as a kid to some mom some where, WE could write our messages to our moms or to any mom, when they read it, they will know which message was for them, no matter who wrote it. It would be a community art/kindness project- The GREAT Wall of Motherly Kindness.
I reached out to my friends at a local retail store here in Richmond, Franklin Goose and asked if they would like to partner with me. I was so happy Sheri was down with the idea, but not surprised, she is kind like that!
So here’s how you can be part of the the GREAT Wall of Motherly Kindness:
1. If you live in RVA, please go do something nice for yourself in Carytown, drop by Franklin Goose and write your message on the wall or chalk the sidewalk! Kids are invited too- kid art is the best kindness to mothers! The wall will be up from now until Mother’s Day! (May 8th)
2. If you aren’t local, leave a message in the comment section or on my Facebook or Twitter pages and we will add your message to the wall! Don’t worry, I will friend or follow back! 
3. Start your own wall! Do you have a place in your community where you could put a blackboard? I bet the friends in your city or town would love to share the love! We can also use your twitter feed as our virtual blackboard by using the hashtag #motherlykindness. Or add your blackboard, sidewalk message pictures to the Guerrilla Goodness Flickr Pool. …OR even head over to your mama’s house, grandma’s house, or some one that has been a mother to you and leave a chalk message for her!
4. Check back for pictures- yours and ours, we’ll be posting them all week!
Check out the wall and the all the buzz to love:
Behind the scenes: the real kindness story
Sheri so graciously got one blackboard going and then I started working on finding an old school rolling blackboard. It is at this point I must share with you how crazy kindness things unfold in my life. I was late for an appointment and school pick up, babysitting fell through, one huge chaotic event after the other, life as usual. I knew we needed the GREAT wall (i.e. blackboard) but had NO idea where I was going to find one or get it to the store. In the chaos of the tardy pick up, I quickly asked my dear friend Jean (L’s preschool teacher) if she had one we could borrow.
2 minutes later, she rolls this bad boy out in the parking lot! I start to laugh, there is no way I could take it. I don’t know what I thought I was going to do when I asked. She so kindly offered to bring it to my house for me. When she got to my house, she let me know the church just happened to be getting rid of some things that very day and the blackboard was mine to keep! My kindness brain was exploding with ideas. After all that, she asked all the right questions to reveal I had no way to transport it and she and Don took it to the store for me.
I can’t tell you how touched I am EVERY time, it is like this over and over again…and every time I am just as amazed by the power of kindness. SO thank you, THANK YOU Jean and Don…for such kindness to me.
Can’t wait to read your messages….much motherly love to you all!
chalk kindness+community=love
September 8, 2010
1. mary munford sidewalk love2, 2. tim callender sidewalk love6, 3. mary munford sidewalk love6, 4. by Jess Lucia 5. swift creek elementary3, 6. by Jess Lucia 7. Side Walk Chalk Geurrilla Goodness, 8. IMG_2495, 9. DSCN1292, 10. DSCN1269, 11. herbert’s kindness bush, 12. DSCN1255
Some went into the night all stealthy-like, others gathered in large groups but Sidewalk Chalk Love was all about community this year. Hundreds of kids, parents, teachers, administrators, lovely photographers, artists, even kind friends in the neighborhood, people all over the country left notes of love and encouragement for students everywhere!
I was amazed by how some schools had 30, 40 and even 50 people show up to chalk, teachers asked and their administrations took on the project together, kindness trees were popping up everywhere, there just seemed to be a special togetherness this year. The pictures are still pouring in and you can check some of them out at the Guerrilla Goodness Flickr Pool. You can also e-mail me with your photos at patience@kindnessgirl.com. Be sure to let us know if you participated so we can add your kindness work to the ever-growing list.
Thank you, thank you everyone for making this year so very special!
