Small acts make a big difference. How one Bucks County Facebook group is spreading kindness
The phrase “a little bit of kindness goes a long way” has always been a motto to live by for Joanne Petrun.
She constantly is thinking of small ways to improve someone’s day, like paying for a person's coffee behind her in line at Dunkin’ Donuts, or leaving a $5 gift card to cover a stranger’s to-go order.
She doesn't do it for the recognition, but knows the simple gestures have a big impact.
“My hope is that it gives people hope. I know what it's like when you're having a really bad day, and you're so in your own world and then a stranger does something for you. It just gives you hope and sometimes that's all I think we need,” said Petrun, 38, of Buckingham.
She never thought her random acts of kindness would grow to something more, but an interaction at Borough Bagels in Doylestown a few months ago changed her mind.
“I paid for somebody's to-go order. The person happened to be there at the time. She came up to me and my kids and made such a big fuss about how grateful she was. And I thought, what an impact a stranger can have on another stranger. You could see it lifted her spirits,” said Petrun.
Thinking of all the division and turmoil in the world, Petrun was inspired to expand her acts of kindness on a community scale. The idea was simple: hand out cards that encourage random acts of kindness.
She took to a Doylestown Facebook page and through an anonymous post asked if any businesses would be interested in joining her project to spread the cards throughout the county.
“The response was overwhelming,” said Petrun.
In April, Petrun created a Facebook group called Bucks County Kind, calling on people to share their random acts of kindness. Now the page has over 400 members, and over 20 businesses in the county give the group's kindness cards to their customers.
Connecting through kindness
In the beginning, Petrun needed help to launch the project. She saw a Facebook comment from Edie Weinstein, of Dublin, wanting to join in on the random acts of kindness. While the two had never met, kindness brought them together.
“I agree with Joanne that we live in a world right now that is so divided by religion, by gender, by politics, by culture, and one thing that can bring us together is kindness. Kindness costs absolutely nothing,” said Weinstein, 63.
With the goal of spreading kindness, Weinstein volunteered to be an administrator of the Facebook group with her friend Thomas Brunt from Doylestown. Weinstein also enlisted a local artist named Eric Labacz to design the kindness cards.
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The cards read, “Please accept this thoughtful gesture from your neighbor and pay it forward with a random act of kindness for someone else.”
The acts of kindness are intended to be small gestures, such as holding the door open or putting coins in a random parking meter.
Beyond bonding over kindness, Petrun, a mom of three, and Weinstein, a grandmother of two, agreed that a motivator for their project is the younger generation.
“For me, it's all about my kids. It's terrifying to think of what their future may look like. They're our future. So I'm determined to raise kind, good people. The hope is it will have a ripple effect on this generation and future generations,” said Petrun, whose children are ages, 8, 6 and 3.
Weinstein, who has worked in the therapy field for over 40 years, said she has seen how acts of kindness greatly affect people’s well-being. She and Petrun hope that Bucks County Kind inspires other communities to start similar projects.
“I've seen a lot of darkness, I've seen a lot of fear, and trauma and depression in people's lives. But when people experience an act of kindness they feel like they matter and that lightens them,” said Weinstein.
This article originally appeared on Bucks County Courier Times: Bucks County moms encouraging random acts of kindness to boost spirits
