by Steve Brester, director of information technology, for our Random Acts of Kindness blog series
I was so excited when the Random Acts of Kindness challenge was presented to the employees at Hamacher. As soon as Dawn announced that I was getting $30 to pass on to other people during the holiday season I knew right away who I was going to give this money to. One of my wife’s co-workers was going through some hard times and had very little money to get her two children presents for Christmas. I had my wife give her the money the next day at work and she was immediately brought to tears to think that other people were thinking of her and were there to help her out.
The reason I gave this money to her is that I have been blessed throughout my whole life with a wonderful family and plenty of resources to provide for myself and them. I am always reminded that there are so many people that are not this fortunate, and we need to do our part to help out as many families as possible. The world would be such a better place if we heard more stories on the news about people doing random acts of kindness instead of the dismal stories we hear every day.
I would encourage you to try to do one random act of kindness each week. This does not need to be as gracious as giving people money each week, but could include helping an 
elderly person across the street, helping a friend with a project, or saying a kind word to someone to cheer them up. Place a sticky note somewhere in your workspace on Monday morning – this will be your reminder. When you do your random act of kindness during that week take the sticky note down and take a few minutes to think about the nice thing you did. Repeat this each week and you will be amazed at how you will feel about making a difference in people’s lives.