A good deed creates a ripple effect all over town. These days
it’s easy to get the idea that more bad than good is happening in
the world.
“Love is when you go out to eat and give somebody most of your French fries without making them give you any of theirs.”
-Chrissy, age 6
A good deed creates a ripple effect all over town.
These days it’s easy to get the idea that more bad than good is happening in the world. But there’s a synergy I have found here at the core of Gilroy, the hub, the heart. When people hear about the good deeds of others, they are anxious to pay it forward with goodwill towards someone else who needs it.
By pay it forward, I mean the doing of a good deed with no expectation of anything in return, simply because someone has been kind to you at some point in your own life.
Take Bunny, a 75ish lady, barely 5 feet tall, who bounced through the church door a little while ago after reading my March 5 Dispatch column on the $14,000 plumbing problem at the Methodist pastor’s residence.
“I read about the parsonage plumbing problem,” she said. “Will you take my check? I’m a lapsed Methodist, but I want to make a donation.”
But Bunny was not alone. Another donor – a parishioner from St. Stephen’s Episcopalian Church – made a point of stopping by the Methodist Church to drop off a mint condition train set for the church to sell at its rummage sale. Then, in a jaw-dropping move, a certain local Catholic priest also made a $200 donation to the church.
But the gifts just kept coming, even on the day of the rummage sale, which was being held to raise money to fix the plumbing problem.
“I have some things out in my car,” a man said breathlessly as he came into the church. “I read the about the need here.”
I went out to his car where his wife was waiting with a very cute koala lamp and numerous theological books. As I helped carry them in, I couldn’t help but be amazed that someone would drop what he was doing on a Saturday afternoon in order to bring a donation to total strangers.
When author Catherine Ryan Hyde’s novel Pay It Forward was adapted into a movie by the same name in 2000, the idea really caught fire. There is even a foundation which has been established for sharing and promoting the inspiration of the Pay It Forward concept.
“I didn’t write the novel expecting a social movement,” Hyde said. “But it’s certainly been exciting to watch it grow.”
And growing it is in Gilroy.
At the Gilroy Museum, volunteer Bill Faus said he enjoys joining the efforts of what has grown to be a corps of 42 other volunteers, who are keeping the doors open to the public. The museum was in danger of closing after budget cuts at City Hall left it without paid employees.
“When I heard that funding had been cut, I had to do something to help,” Faus said.
Thanks to their volunteer efforts, Claire – an Eliot Elementary School student – was able to participate in a three hour tour there recently.
“They told us so much,” Claire said. “I learned all about history and Gilroy.”
Similarly, when my April 9 column went out, mentioning that Relay for Life organizers were looking for more people to sign up, volunteer coordinator Mike Sanchez reported, “This article has already resulted in one woman contacting me today who wants to be involved and also register her mother and mother-in-law.”
By the way, I want to apologize to thirteen-year-old Justin Jeske, who has singlehandedly put a team together for the Relay. In the column, I mistakenly said he was only 11 years old. Justin, who is actually 13 years old, is a great example of how you’re never too young to take on a role in making the world a better place.
Inspired by the kind acts of an Episcopalian, a mysterious priest, a teenager and a little old lady named Bunny, I am challenging myself to find new ways to pay kindness forward in everyday life.
Carry someone’s groceries to her car, hold the door open for someone at the post office, or serve a hot meal to someone who is grieving. As ripples of kindness spread outward, your faith in human nature will be renewed, just as mine has been by the readers of this column.
Thursday was international Pay It Forward Day, when people all over the world shared stories of how a good deed done by one person had been a springboard for acts of kindness by many others. But it’s never too late. Why not start today?
Any day can be Pay It Forward Day.
To learn more, go to: www.pif.org.uk/
