how i see it

Last Friday I was walking into Kinko's to do some work on a book proposal that is due at the end of this month. I walked in with my Starbucks in hand and was greeted by one of the Kinko's employees, George who joked, "Hey where is mine?" I immediately said, "What do you want...I'm buying!" I looked around and there were two other people working in the store that morning and I felt prompted to buy everyone at Kinko's the Starbucks of their choice. When I got back with their favorite drinks in hand you would have thought they won the lottery! They were super grateful and it was just a fun and spontaneous random act of kindness. After I settled in behind my computer I decided to post my experience on twitter and remind the people who follow me how a small act of generosity can make an impact. That is not where the story ends. The next thing I know Scott Couchenour took the idea and set up a facebook group 365 Club. The premise of the 365 Club is simple: it is a group of people that are committed to doing 365 acts of kindness in 2009. This all started on Friday. It is now Sunday night and the 365 Club already has over 240 members who have committed to doing more than 78,000 acts of kindness in 2009.

Michelle Thomas is one of the first members of the 365 Club and here is what she posted yesterday: "Yesterday, I waited until around 2:30am and I gathered up a bucket of hot, soapy water and took it down to the parking garage in my condo building. I found the dirtiest car on my floor, washed it, dried it, and left a note card in an envelop on the windshield with the words, MAKE THIS WORLD A BETTER PLACE, PAY IT FORWARD on it."

If you want to join the 365 Club on facebook, click HERE.