Unselfie: The Random Acts of Kindness Contest

It’s the busiest day of the year for the U.S. Postal Service. So we bought them 6 regular hot drinks at J’s place. Just a little pick-me-up for the carriers on their routes. I dropped by the post office to tell them, and they seemed really appreciative. – Submitted by G.L.

We have lived in the Lexington area for three years now and I can’t count the number of times we’ve driven through the stop light at Richmond & New Circle. This man has brought a smile to our face and brightened our day every single time. His name is Darrell and he holds a sign and waves at cars for the Mr. Sparkle car wash. Every time you drive by, regardless of the weather, Darrell has a huge smile on his face as he works his hardest to be sure to greet every single one of the thousands of cars that pass through that intersection each day. Yesterday we decided to let Darrell know how much we appreciate the smiles by giving him a Christmas card. Darrell could not have been more appreciative of the fact that we simply stopped to say hello. He is just as full of energy and joy is person as he is from the other side of your windshield. God bless you, Darrell. Keeping doing you. – Submitted by W.M.

As you see the time is 12:25-Jesus’ birthday and what just happened is nothing but God. I started my adventure at 12:25 p.m. I wanted to do a #RAK (random act of kindness) and help out a woman I had never met. I was able to get some extra clothes for her nieces and nephew she has in her care. Well, we were to meet up and kept missing each other at different locations. We met at Speedway and as I was walking out to meet her a man started seizing in the parking lot. She was a nurse. She was able to help and care for the man until the ambulance got there. This RAK brought us to a place where God needed us to be. We did not accidentally miss each other. God planned it. If you ever need encouragement God is listening!! Open your heart and eyes. He is always right there!!  – Submitted by M.M.

Our police officers constantly put their lives at risk in an effort to guard our community. So the least we could do is bring them some coffee, right? It’s also a great opportunity to support a great local coffee shop J’s Place. – Submitted by G.L.

When I learned that a little girl at my daughter’s preschool did not have a winter coat (nor her sister or her mom), I cried! It’s really cold in Connecticut! After talking to my husband, we decided to get our children involved & go beyond just making sure they had winter coats. We bought them coats, hats & mittens but also gave them some homemade Christmas decorations (I made a rag garland & a few Christmas ornaments, my children made paper snowflakes, & my oldest daughter made the snowman jugs). My husband & son hung lights outside for them, we brought dinner over, and we also gave each of them several gifts to open on Christmas morning. These were all things this single mother was unable to do on her own. This was something we had planned to do anyway before hearing of this contest, but maybe it will inspire others to take care of others in their community. – Submitted by S. K.

I met a lady through an online website that people look for assistance or guidance and call “Pay it Forward”. I read that a lady needed clothes for her nieces and nephew who are very young that she took in from her sibings who could no longer take care of them. I messaged her and asked her sizes. She took a leap of love and faith and took them into her home. She has two older children and is starting all over again. She could not afford Christmas gifts and clothes. I went to Walmart and got them some clothes. I can not wait to give her these clothes for those precious children. God is good!!! – Submitted by M.M. 

Few days ago, I was eating subway in downtown, Lexington and I saw one elderly lady with her dog who was digging for some food in the trash can. It was really cold and rainy that day and my heart just melted how much she was struggling to find some food for her and the dog. She told me that she and her dog did not get to eat much for these past few days and had just been eating dumpster food if she got lucky. I went inside subway and bought the lady a sandwich and a drink and some bread for her dog. She was just so happy to just to get to eat and I just thought to myself how blessed I have been my whole life. I will never forget her smile and the excitement in the dogs eyes after he saw some bread in my hand. For few days I always thought about that elderly lady, if she ever manage to get some more food for her and the dog. I thought may be I could make some lunch bags for some homeless people so they can at least have one proper meal. I know Christmas is not all about presents but sharing and giving what you can. – Submitted by A.S.

We went ice skating this weekend where we saw a gentleman named Tom sitting beside the rink alone. We could tell he wanted to give ice skating a shot, so we paid Tom’s admission and invited him to join us! After we finished skating we enjoyed hot chocolate together and Tom was all smiles! – Submitted by S.M.

I love Chick-fil-A…but I love blessing the person behind me in the drive-thru even more by paying for their meal. The cashier smiled and told me I was the second person on his shift that had done that. Yay for RAKs! Merry Christmas! – Submitted by S.R.

On my way into the grocery store, I saw an older lady putting the last of her groceries in her car. It was cold and drizzly, so I asked if I could take her shopping cart for her. It was a small gesture, but she really appreciated it. She told me that when her husband was alive, they did everything together, including grocery shopping. When he would return the cart, he would round up all the stray carts and put those up too. Her smile showed how happy the memory of him made her. I am so glad I could share that moment with her. – Submitted by K.M.

Just put this in the break room at work! No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted. – Submitted by B.R.

Our Random Act of Kindness is a tradition in my husbands family. The family gets together and has a Christmas Cookie Day. Since we have moved out to the West Coast we have decided it’s very important for us to keep family traditions. Whether it’s with the family or just the 2 of us. We have recently realized the true meaning of “Southern Hospitality”. The little things that you think are normal and polite are not shown as frequently in California. To us this is disappointing. It takes very little effort to open a door, let someone cut in line, mind your p’s & q’s, wave, pay it forward, etc….We bought a house in August and have barely met any of our neighbors. Only one couple has come over to greet us. We live in a nice neighborhood with a lot of families, we were surprised by this. So, we thought we should greet them with some of our Southern Charm. We decided we would continue Cookie Day by ourselves. We spent hours in the kitchen making homemade Sugar Cookies & Chocolate Chip Cookies, decorating and packaging them. We went door to door to introduce ourselves and wish our neighbors a Merry Christmas and hand out our cookies & a card. They all had very surprised looks on their face and some didn’t answer their doors. We enjoyed spending our day together, continuing one of our family traditions and showing our neighbors a random act of Southern Hospitality. – Submitted by K.E.

I Stopped in Speedway morning for my daily shoot the bull session and grab a 24oz coffee. As I was clowning with the guys working there a 30 something lady pulled up in a car that was looking torn up with a car seat in the back. She chatted with the little one a bit and came in to the cashier and asked for $5 of gas. Being the joker guy…I said…hun that won’t get you too far. In what seemed to me to be a sad little voice she said, “I know.” But I have to get my little one to the sitter…Then get to work…and that is all I have. I told the guy working there to just set it as a fill up and I would take care of it. I thought the lady was going to cry. I told her to have a much better day and wished her a Merry Christmas. After she filled up she looked back in at me…standing there sipping my hot coffee…and gave me a thank you smile. I had a much better morning. ..I hope she did as well. Pay it forward. – Submitted by J.G.

My boss is the best! I simply mentioned to get that if she heard of anyone wanting to sponsor children for Christmas to please add my foster children who are 1 & 9! She simply said “I will.” With those two words I had the world lifted off of me. They are siblings and I never realized how expensive a 9 year olds Christmas wish list could be. – Submitted by J.H.

RAK Day 1: Sending my brother and nephew to a UK game (nephew’s first ever) with some tickets I won in a competition. Can’t wait to see photos of the game! – C.B.

I just added an hour to a random meter downtown as my RAK today! Thanks Reel Special Productions for inspiring us to make the world a better place! – Submitted by B.R.

I recently had the opportunity to be woken up by the chatter of my wife cooking and loving on a homeless woman. Earlier that week, my wife had been commenting on the fact that she has seen a woman walking great distances across the streets of Lexington and mentioned that the next time she saw her, she would give the woman a ride. This did not surprise me because she has done this so many times with others that she has seen. My wife was nearing the entrance of our neighborhood after dropping our daughter off at school, when she saw the lady walking on the side of the road. Not only did she eventually take her across town, but she brought the woman into our home and cooked her breakfast. The cool thing about all this is that I get to see the effects of my wife’s selflessness in the lives of our children. I love it when my girls ask me if they can give strangers hugs, hear them compliment people in stores, or ask if they can buy food for a guy and his dog outside McDonald’s. All this because of the amazing example that they see from their mother :0) Thanks for the opportunity to share the good in our lives and how it is being played out in our community! Merry Christmas!! – Submitted by C.Z.

Was in the checkout line today and as this sweet girl was waiting on me. I grabbed a treat and after she was done checking me out I paid and told her it was for her. The people in line behind me thought that was cool! I told them about the challenge so hopefully they will pass it on. – Submitted by M.A.

I hope one sweet angel enjoys her gift! – Submitted by A.S.

Taking these to the volunteer fire fighters tomorrow! I Am thankful for what they do and I want to show it! – Submitted by R.M.

I run a small childcare center for 3-5 year olds. Every year the children carol to the residents of a local nursing home. We spend a couple of weeks preparing for our trip by making cards and ornaments for the residents. The children work hard practicing their Christmas carols throughout the month of December. They are so excited to go this year. Everyday they come to school asking-“Do we go to Rosewalk today?” I love their enthusiasm! We will be going this year on December 19th. – Submitted by J.L.

Incase you haven’t heard, fellow videographers from Lexington, @reelspecial, are doing a Random Act of Kindness challenge. They are GIVING away $500 & a FREE video (which will guaranteed be awesome considering the producers). All you have to do to enter is commit a Random Act of Kindness {RAK} & submit your story to them via social media. DO IT! Today, I decided to participate. This morning I pulled in Dunkin Donuts to get my morning dose of coffee… I really needed it after a long night of finishing papers and preparing for presentations. While waiting in line I decided I would buy my classmates donuts & surprise them with some breakfast before class. My teacher ended up having the same idea, only she brought Panera. Needless to say, we all feasted this morning before giving our presentations! It always feels so good to make others smile. The best gift is giving! Thank you to Reel Special for encouraging others to spread love & kindness this holiday season. Because of you, a bunch of college kids were blessed with donuts this morning. Because of you, many others are giving and receiving RAKs! It doesn’t matter how big or small, they all matter. – Submitted by M.A. 

As I looked in our fridge full of leftovers upon leftovers that I knew would NEVER get eaten tonight…I told my husband that we needed to take a break from being cooped in the house working on videos, etc. We decided to do something about all of the food that we knew would quickly go to waste in our household. We warmed up every single leftover side dish/all of the leftover turkey/ham/ we cut up the rest of my mammaw’s homemade pumpkin pie into slices on plates/ and tied together silverware. We had purchased a case of waters for us the day before at Kroger and decided that we could pass waters out, as well! We loaded everything up in our car and decided to head out to various places around Lexington searching for ANYONE in need of a warm meal or two or three or ten. We were so excited. We had this picture in our minds that we would find huge groups of people needing a hot meal and they’d be super thankful and everything would be super easy! …nope. Things never quite work out as perfectly as they do in movies…we’ve come to learn. 🙂 We set out to downtown Lexington looking for just one person in need of a meal and it seemed like we couldn’t find one single person. We quickly became a little saddened and started talking together in the car about how it seems like when you set out to help someone in need…it somehow never works out. And when you’re least expecting someone to need you…there are so many opportunities. I silently prayed that if we could just help ONE person tonight…that it would be more than enough. If we could give 10 meals to one person in need…that would be enough. Shortly after that we saw a man holding a sign on the side of the road that read “homeless.” We stopped and asked him if he would like a meal and he immediately said yes. He was super thankful and sat down right there in the parking lot and immediately began eating. There were instant tears of sadness and thankfulness. It’s so easy to take a single meal for granted. To lose sight of the fact that there are SO many this season who don’t have a choice of eating those leftovers that we’re so quick to throw out. By the end of the night….we ran out of meals. YEAH. Those same meals that we probably would have thrown out. People started popping up in our paths left and right. Right when we had started feeling down and disappointed. God’s timing is always the best timing and He always provides. We’ve decided that this is something we need to be doing more often. We feel so challenged to help the needy. It’s as simple as Thanksgiving leftovers and a short drive down the road. – Submitted by A.B.

A sweet lady working at @target was talking to us and helping us. Sis wanted this @toms sweater and the lady was saying how much she wanted it but didn’t want to spend the money on it. We just bought it for her and took it to her. Sis had tears in her eyes!” If you’re going to shop on Black Friday, why not go out of your way to show some love to others?! – Submitted by H.T.