Random Acts of (Purple) Kindness

Imagine someone handing you $100 and asking you to go do some good with it.

Sounds easy enough doesn't it? How complicated can it be given all the good one can do when it comes to performing random acts of kindness?

It happened to me recently, when I had the opportunity to participate in Yahoo!'s inspirational You In? campaign. Kicked off earlier this month, about 100 Yahoo users like me (and about 250 Yahoo employees) were given the money to go out and perform random acts of kindness. Our only other requirement was share our stories with others via their website. (See other photos from the campaign, below.)

Grateful patrons at a bookstore in Mountain View, Calif. show off purple cards and new books that were given to them by another You In? participant. Photo by MasterWu via Flickr.

It turns out doing good can be bit more complex than one might think. First, I’m big on eeking out as much ‘good’ when it comes to tasks like this, and in this case that clearly meant making every penny and act count, both on the giving end and the recipient’s side.

And that led to some serious thinking. Do I take the bucks and make a big donation to one person, or a family or one charity? Or, do I break it down into smaller offerings and spread the goodness as far possible?

My first decision was to involve my children. The life lesson offered in doing random good, especially during the holiday season, couldn’t be wasted so I enlisted my 13- and 17-year-old daughters to help.

While both have done a fair share of community service through honor societies and scouting programs, most did not involve a personal one-on-one interaction. I wanted them to experience the amazing feeling that comes by just being good to someone out of the blue.

We initially set out to surprise people as they paid for groceries, but realized the supermarket was an awkward setting given crowds and the decision on how much to give.

Still, our first act was paying for groceries for a woman in her 30s. First, she was quite taken aback by the idea, but then very grateful. Best of all she promised to do something good the next day for someone else.

The three of us then huddled outside the store to brainstorm how best to be random, but spread the goodness and yet avoid the uncomfortable feeling that can come when someone thinks you view them as a "charity." We decided we wanted to eliminate that, and we came up with a plan.

We trekked into a nearby Chinese takeout restaurant and after explaining our quest to the owner, had him randomly select a few take-out orders we could pay for anonymously.

The proprietor was excited about being involved and happily stapled one of our purple Yahoo "You In?" cards about the program on an order we paid for. He also promised to relate the story to other customers to spur more random acts of goodness.

And that’s when we realized that while 100 bucks is nothing to sneeze at, the value of spreading the word on why we should all be doing good every day was much more valuable than the bills in hand.

So we headed to a local convenience store and took turns getting in line and surprising the customer behind us by paying for their items.

This led to animated discussions with nearly a half dozen people for over a half hour about what we were doing. All promised to try to do their own kindness acts on a regular basis.

One customer we surprised was down to her last few dollars of her weekly budget and was spending it on milk for her sisters’ kids. She just kept shaking her head in amazement as she left the store, grateful to have saved what she came in with.

The store employees, like the Chinese takeout owner, also promised to share the experience with customers during the week.

We got into our car, with just about 20 bucks left, and decided to surprise someone buying gas — just like how people pay toll fees for the car behind them at bridge entrances. The gas attendant thought it was a great idea, and the driver behind us joked he wished he had asked for a full tank. We gave the attendant a card and the last $10 bill to do the final act of good for the next customer after we left.

Our last stop was to refuel ourselves, and we huddled around a table at Sal’s, our favorite local pizza place. We agreed we had spent Yahoo’s donation well, calculating that we had spread the news to do good to about three dozen people in just two hours.

We were laughing about how surprised the Chinese food patrons must have been to come in and find their meals paid for, when we noticed an older gentleman at the counter. He sported a white beard and very familiar red pants cuffed with white fur.

I stood up, and after he ordered his dinner and stepped away to wait, I quietly paid for his meal and then approached him. I handed him my last Yahoo card, explaining why I treated him to dinner. At first he shook his head No, telling me he didn’t need the help. I said it wasn’t help, but just an act of kindness on the part of people who just want to do good things. And just guess what he replied?

“Well then, since that’s what I’m in the business of, I thank you.” No joke.

Even Santa understood that even those who do good all year also deserve an act of kindness.

Front/inset photo by MasterWu via Flickr.