Image Credit: 44 for Bill

Dr. B. holds a special place in my heart. I only took one class with him during my time at Longwood. Sadly, he passed away at the age of 44 on September 9, 2012.

Every year, on September 9th, the #44forBill movement takes hold. The idea is to spread random acts of kindness throughout our communities, neighborhoods, and even our world.

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From the 44 For Bill event page on Facebook:

“We are honoring Bill Stuart’s life by performing random acts of kindness to help others. September 9, 2016. Please join us.

Random acts of kindness are great because they can be anything, big or small, anonymous or credited, for someone you know or a stranger … the possibilities are endless.”

For me, I was at a loss this year. I wasn’t sure what to do for 2016.

In the past few years, this is a few of the things I’ve done on September 9th:

• Paid it forward in the Starbucks drive-thru
• Handed out individual candies with little notes of love and encouragement to strangers during the day
• Written notes of encouragement to my co-workers and others in my office
• Supported local school supply drives
• Donated to a local diaper bank

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So, in frustration and desperation, I turned to the good old Internet.

I was flooded with ideas – Literal information overload.

I really enjoyed writing notes of love and encouragement in the past, so I focused on that idea.

Here’s what I found:

• Wonderful Mail – Write uplifting notes to strangers and mail them to people in the phone book.
• Give A Stranger A Gift – Find a public wish list on Amazon.com and send a gift to a stranger.
• Love For The Elderly – Founded by an amazing 13-year-old, this nonprofit sends love, gifts, and sunshine to seniors and the elderly.
• Operation Gratitude – Writing letters and cards to our troops and soldiers.
• 22 Ways to Support Our Troops – Brad Aronson created this amazing list to help our troops!

After mulling my research, I decided to give to two organizations.

Throughout the day today:

• I planned out 22 “Letters of Love” for Love For The Elderly
• I planned out 22 letters for Operation Gratitude
• I wrote 12 out of 44 letters in a span of a few hours tonight – My hand gave out!

This was the best $10.00 I ever spent – Markers and colorful paper!

The six of 22 letters for Operation Gratitude.

The six of 22 letters for Love for the Elderly.

I’m so excited about this!

As soon as the rest of the letters are finished, I’ll be sending these to their destinations!

Until the next headline, Laura Beth 🙂