by Megan Moyer, senior marketing communications specialist, for our Random Acts of Kindness blog series
I was pretty excited when the Random Acts of Kindness challenge was offered at the end of last year. The majority of my “giving back” is through activities and opportunities that HRG offers us. This challenge sounded like another great chance to do something for others.
Once I got the $30, I was initially intimidated about how to distribute it. It was like when I get a gift card and I want to make the best choice of what to spend it on. I wanted to make good decisions about how to distribute the cash.
I was grocery shopping and thought about giving some money to a couple of fellow shoppers, but I overthought it and then was too shy to do it. Luckily, they had pre-packaged bags of groceries at the checkout for Feeding America so I bought one of those so I didn’t feel like I had failed in my mission.
I gave a little extra in tips to waitstaff at restaurants I dined at, and put a portion in a Salvation Army Red Kettle. My final donations were while I was Christmas shopping. One retailer was sending snack packs to our troops, so I paid for one of those, and another retailer took donations for St. Jude’s and I gave the last of the money to them.
As I read what my other coworkers did, I was impressed with all of the careful thought that went into everyone’s gifts to others. It was very inspiring!
I’m really glad I participated. It felt good to do things that positively impacted others. After the challenge, we had the chance to further assist a couple families my coworkers had helped as their random acts of kindness, and that felt even better when it was my own money.
When the challenge was over, I did buy another bag of groceries for Feeding America with my own money, and then I tried to take opportunities to be kind without the monetary aspect. I continue to try to do that on a regular basis – simple things like taking someone’s cart back in, complimenting them on what they are wearing, or letting those with only a few items go ahead of me in the checkout line. These may sound like no-brainers, but in our busy, over-connected world, sometimes we forget to do some of the most basic of “charitable acts.” This challenge was a great reminder that it doesn’t have to take much effort to make someone else’s day.