Week Four: Wool Socks for a Homeless Person.

As I was coming back from work the other day in -25^oC weather, I noticed a homeless and also sockless man walking in front of me. I felt so bad for him and his lack of socks - so much that I was contemplating of taking off my own feet warming gear and handing it to him. I didn't, however, it did spark an idea for my fourth week gesture. The next day, I decided to change my usual morning trek to work in order to pass in front of the Ottawa Mission. I brought along a pair of warm wool socks because I figured that someone might put them to good use, especially since we were expecting even colder weather later on in the week. I approached an older gentleman who seemed to be chilly in front of the Mission and I asked if he was interested in accepting this small gift. The man looked at me for a moment, with kindness in his eyes, and said "Oh yes please", followed by many thank yous. I asked how his day was going so far and he responded: “It just got that much better.” Seeing the gratitude that this man was expressing had made my day that much better in return.

*Side note - a local radio station from the County of Simcoe will be talking about my project on air at 6pm on Wednesday, January 30th! A friend from my hometown, who is now a radio host for the francophone station Vague FM 88.1, was following me on Twitter and noticed what I was up to. She sent me a message asking if she could talk about it on her show because she thought that it was such a neat concept and felt like sharing it. Listen to the coverage here: http://vaguefm.ca/lecteur/.  

This is truly amazing. I feel good about this thing. 

Instagram: geneseguin. #k4kproject

G.

Week Three: Food Delivery for a Sick Friend of a Friend.

This week’s adventure is a tad different than the last two. Last Thursday, an out-of-town friend reached out to me and asked if I could spare her a favour. Ashly, a lovely mademoiselle whom I had the pleasure meeting during my student association years at the University of Ottawa, sent a distressed Facebook message to some specially chosen pals. In a nutshell, the message read that one of her dear friends in Ottawa became very ill during the Holidays and was rushed to hospital where he had to stay for 2 weeks. Now I won’t share all of his medical details, as it is not my place to do so but to my knowledge, her friend was quite sick. 

She mentioned that some of his loved ones did take some time off work to be there in the hospital with him, but now that he's returned home for a mandatory 1 month rest, they unfortunately can't be by his side anymore. So Ashly, being the wonderful person that she is, decided to send a message to some people she knew in Ottawa to drop in and check up on her friend and perhaps bring him some tasty dishes to help the poor lad out. I agreed to to her request without hesitation. I thought that this would be a great thing to do for Ashly as I knew that she was probably heartbroken about the fact that she couldn't be there herself to look after him. So I got cooking and decided to make vegetable lasagna. (Thanks to my friend Emilie for the recipe! I altered it a bit by using spaghetti squash and zucchini instead of eggplant, but it was still very tasty!) 

When I made my way to the Glebe area last night to render the meal, I was greeted at the door by a very grateful young gentleman. He took the time to explain to me what had happened, despite the number of times that he had to repeat it to every other goody-bearing friend of Ashly's. He said that as he is often very tired and weak, which makes it difficult for him to cook. He expressed his deepest gratitude and appreciated the effort and time that I dedicated to prepare something for him. This genuine heartfelt thank you was all very touching and moving. 

On my walk back home, after saying goodbye, I felt myself light up inside. As this was the first time that I actually witnessed a reaction, I realized how much of an impact that a simple gesture can really have on someone. I was also glad that I was able to reignite a bit of this sense of community that our younger generations seemed to have lost with the years. As everything seems to be getting more and more impersonal these days, it felt good to resort back to good ol’ human interactions. Maybe it is just my small-town mentality making its way to the surface here, but nonetheless, it never hurts to be kind to your neighbours.

Instagram: geneseguin. #k4kproject

This is how I feel at the moment.
G.

Week Two: Ticketing by Mail.

For week numéro deux, I wanted to exploit this “random act of kindness” concept. At work, since we have recently been organizing events with the Museum of Nature, they have been very generous in return. As a way of thanking us for doing business with them, they have been offering a lot of free admission tickets for some of their upcoming events. I had received tickets for their Nature Unleashed exhibition back in October but I never had the chance to actually go check it out. So I decided to share the love with some random person whose name was picked by my hovering finger after opening the phonebook instead. I’m a mail person. I always love to send things by mail to my friends and family, internationally or not, because I find that it means so much more than just sending a letter or an item. To me, it represents dedication and time spent writing and reflecting on the relationship you hold with this person. In this case, it was a slightly different scenario, but I thought it would add a personal touch that someone might appreciate. The idea was to encourage the recipient to create a new experience with someone they like spending time with; an experience that would possibly not have happened were she/he would not have been given that extra push. Here's a chance for someone to be a tourist in their own city. 

Instagram: geneseguin. #k4kproject

(And for those of you who are wondering; no, I did not add a return address for the simple fact that I didn’t want in any way make the person feel obliged to send anything back. I felt like it would have defeated the whole purpose of the gesture.)

I hope Anonymous will enjoy the exhibition! 

G.

Week One: Box of Bottles.

I decided to start with one simple, yet meaningful gesture. After cleaning out the apartment with my roommate, an idea came to mind. I thought of bringing out all of the empty wine and alcohol bottles that were leftover from the Holidays’ Festivities in the back of our apartment building. As there are occasionally some people that are less fortunate than us that scavenge around our neighborhood in search of empty bottles to bring back to the LCBO in order to get a modest return money for food and other necessities to survive, I figured that it would not nearly have as much of an impact in our lives if we were to cash it in ourselves. After explaining my project to my lovely roommate, Renée, (who is also a wonderful artist - you should check out her blog, just sayin’) and suggesting this to her, she was more than willing to help me bring out the bottles for a person in need to stumble upon. I will be making sure to check up on the box of bottles so that it does not get mistakenly be picked up by the kind recycling folks. I hope that this will positively impact someone's day. 

Instagram: geneseguin. #k4kproject

G.

.:Updated:.

Monday, January 7, 2013
It seems like someone came across the boxful of empties. 

Week One: accomplished. 

G.

Introduction

What is this all about?

I have made a New Year’s Resolution for 2013. This year, I have committed myself to accomplishing one random act of kindness per week for the next 52 weeks. In other words: complete 52 gestures that will hopefully make a small impact in the lives of the people around me. A Pay It Forward kind of thing, ya dig?

I will be documenting everything on this blog every Sunday in order to make me more accountable and to motivate me to fully carry through with this commitment. I will also tweet away: @genseguin and Instagram it all for your viewing pleasure (yes, friends, I have finally given into the world of Instagram):  geneseguin. As this is also a sort of a personal, social and at some degree, a spiritual experiment, I will also try to document (whenever I can) if I feel like I am myself getting somehting in return. Just for added fun, ya know?

Not only would I ideally wish to make this a collaborative project in which some people can take part in, by either suggesting ideas or by even helping to accomplish them if they want, but I would also like to potentially create a sort of Pay It Forward snowball effect. If this motivates some people to accomplish even the littlest of things in their daily routines, like holding the door for someone, or to simply smile to a stranger, then I will have achieved my goal. So if you do end up deciding to yourself do an act of kindness, please do not hesitate to share with me and I will add it to this blog!

How Did It All Start?

While I was at the gym (on December 30^th, 2012 to be exact), I was watching CBC News when Saint John’s, NB Pay It Forward Campaign came to be the headline. I was so interested and inspired by this Campaign that I started thinking… what could I do in order to have that positive impact in some people's lives. I have always loved and have been fascinated by the Pay it Forward concept: how one simple gesture put forward by someone can mean the world for someone else and how it can potentially inspire others to do the same. I also loved the selfless and anonymous aspect of it as well – of how one can do this favour without having any expectations of having it be returned. After giving it some thought, I didn’t want to do one simple thing and call it a day. I wanted it to be bigger than that and have something constant but that was also achievable. So I decided to merge my New Year’s Resolution of being more kind to this idea and this project was the result.

Learn more about the PIF bracelets here.

I have to say that another big inspiration for this idea was Sonja Adcock’s incredible story of completing 52 marathons in 52 weeks at 52 years old in order to raise money for Ottawa’s The Snowsuit Fund. Listen to the story here at 9:15 minutes or read about it here. I had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Adcock when I was working as a Publicist to reach out to media to cover this amazing challenge that she put forth for herself. After hearing her talk to the media about waking up at 3:30am on every Sunday of every week to complete her runs, on days where it was snowing, raining or not, I thought this woman personifies the “if there is a will, there is a way” proverb. As a busy woman, wife and mother, she still managed to complete her goal. This meant that anyone could do it. And so I decided to do so – with my own personal touch.

Ms. Adcock completing one of her 52 marathons.

Lastly, I would be lying if I were to say that some of my motivation for this did not come from being a Project Leader for Katimavik earlier in 2012. Living in a house with 9-11 volunteers who very unselfishly gave their time to organizations in two communities across Canada over the span of six months makes you realize things. Things such as that there are some amazing people in the world, that there is a way to positively impact the people around you if you set your mind and heart to it. So yes, some of this has been inspired by my 19 volunteers who have graced my life. It was very much a two way mentorship/teaching position that I was in.  

Cupcakes that my dear Katimavikers prepared
for me on my first day. 

As this is also a sort of a social, and at some degree, a spiritual experiment, I will also try to document (whenever I can) how I feel the universe is “thanking me” in response of these random acts of kindness. Just for added fun, ya know? 

So voilà, that is my story. Here’s to a happy and prosperous 2013 for everyone!


G."I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you'll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you'll make something that didn't exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, br wise, and that you will always be kind."- Neil Gaiman