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-People help, strangers give, miracles happen-
Random Kindness / Anonymous giving
DOOGOOD STORIES
THIS SECTION IS ALL ABOUT RANDOM KINDNESS &
HUMOR, HOPE AND INSPIRATIONAL STORIES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD
Ps. You might see that many of them are already connected :)
Megan Murphy
Cape Cod, Massachusetts, USA
"Authenticity,Vulnerability and Self Love:
These are my superpowers"
Foreword from DOOGOOD: The very first story October 2019 in these pages started with a heartwarming tale from Cathie "The Wizard" Grindler, who experienced 652 Random Acts of Kindness and turned into an Artist, painting thousands of rocks and giving them away.
Emily Rose "Incredimom" Winter told her story about finding a "JOY" rock from a Hospital and leading her to spread the power of rocks in Sooke to Sydney Rock Hunt and Vancouver Island Painted Rocks.
Ellen "Hearthstone" Brody had been collecting rocks and stones on the beaches of Cape May, NJ for 20 years, and after seeing Megan on Today show realized what she would do with her millions of rocks.
Megan Murphy started a movement Spring 2015 with The Kindness Rocks Project, creating a way for thousands of people around the world to express their random, unconditional love towards each other. We are all connected, just follow the (rock) ripples.
Thank you Megan!
1. What's your Superhero name and what powers do you have?
I truly believe that the Superhero's are those who quietly spread kindness in their communities, under the radar, and without looking for recognition or accolades. Everyone can be a superhero!
The power of kindness is truly super.
2. If you had $10,000 to give away, how would you use it for most impact?
I am in the process of opening a foundation where I will be giving away funding for schools and organizations who are doing great work spreading kindness but need funding to join The Kindness Rocks Project. I believe that helping those who wish to inspire others is a worthy cause.
3. What does your home town mean to you? What’s best about it?
My home town (Cape Cod) is wonderful.
The Kindness Rocks Project would not have spread as far and wide if it weren't for this beautiful community I live in.
Cape Cod is a place that people come to from around the world to vacation and our inspiration.
Kindness rocks gardens became an attraction for tourists who then took the concept home to their communities.
BONUS question
Who should be interviewed next, who has a story people should hear?
Suzanne Carter who founded Flower Angels USA a nonprofit on Cape Cod that takes discarded flowers from weddings and funerals and repurposes them into bouquets for nursing home patients.
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
Eduardo Brummel
Salida, Colorado, USA
"Brightest blessings" - Man-Kind
I think the biggest small little act I’ve ever done was sending a Facebook Friend request to Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer.
In the years since, our deepening friendship continues enriching and expanding my life in jaw-dropping and heart-mooshing ways.
I could tell many tales of Rosemerry’s kindness. This is one.
I live with clinical depression and general anxiety disorder. During one of my visits to a town near where Rosemerry lives, I’d sunken deep into the briar-patched hole. I sent an email to Rosemerry asking for help.
The next morning we went on a walk together, which did much to strengthen and solidify me.
A week or few after I’d returned home, Rosemerry posted a poem on her poem-a-day website, dedicated, “For X and E.” Here, is the poem:
Into the Dark Again
Dark and getting darker—
nothing to do but to make of the body
a home for darkness,
to open every secret drawer
where we hide our private darknesses.
Who knows what might happen then?
How immeasurable we are. It is only
terrifying until it becomes freedom.
Grace comes in the strangest costumes.
Did you really think you didn’t need help?
This night, stay awake.
Some things we can see no other way.
I still often return to this poem, either to shore myself up, or to keep myself so. Thing is, because she posted this on her public website, thousands of people had/have access to Rosemerry’s poem, each of them (not only, “X and E”) a recipient of this act of her kindness.
1. What's your Superhero name and what powers do you have?
I've been told my superpower is kindness (!); but I don't know what my name would be. Man-Kind, perhaps?
2. If you had $10,000 to give away, how would you use it for most impact?
Tough one. One option would be giving it to Torrey House press, an independent nonprofit book publisher doing incredible work. Ten grand would be a bit assistance to them, I think.
3. What does your home town mean to you? What’s best about it?
I'm guessing you're asking about where I live now, and have lived for the past nearly 17 years: Salida, Colorado. Salida is where I've begun to come into my own. I've lived here longer than anywhere else, and by a quite sizeable margin. In Salida, moreso than anywhere, I've been allowed to craft my own life, and celebrated for who I am, what I do. Some of what's best about it is it's size, roughly five-thousand and half people; it's location, smack up on the eastern side of Continental Divide, with 2 mountain ranges within gobsmackinly close view.
BONUS question
Who should be interviewed next, who has a story people should hear?
I nominate Wendy Videlock.
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
Colleen Gray
Eastern Métis Artist
"Every day I get to work at making a better world for me, for you and for people I might never meet."
I'm an Indigenous Contemporary Artist who uses the sales of my work to support my effort to put art supplies into remote Indigenous schools across Canada through The Art For Aid Project.
The kindness I'm exposed to and the difference I can make simply by sending boxes of art supplies
is what keeps me moving in a forward direction.
It's hard to give up when you have so much wind beneath your wings generated from the kindness of people who just want to help.
My favourite story - I was in a second hand shop one day picking up a few things. There were a few people in the store, several of them children. I run a program for students to teach them about some of the harsh conditions of life in a remote community, along with helping them understand the urgent state of our struggling planet. I use my art to both teach and fund my organization.
The logo of my organization is a 5 coloured bear; the 5 colours being the colours that represent our Indigenous communities across Canada. My bear is highly recognized in many communities and is powerful branding that appeals to all ages.
As I was chatting with a lady about my work, I handed her my business card, which has the bear featured prominently on the front. Immediately the youth exclaimed, "Hey! I know that bear! You're the lady that sends art supplies to native people".
He reached into his pocket and took out .65 cents - all the money he had on hand.
He offered it to me and informed me that he would like me to use this money to help send the art supplies. I was immediately humbled and deeply grateful for both the moment and for the kindness of the gesture. I shed some humble tears in my car at the earnest enthusiasm of my young benefactor, and thought to myself, "I'm making a difference".
I believe that people genuinely want to help our struggling Indigenous communities, but often don't know how, or feel they need to do something huge to make an impact. But many small drops of kindness create a large river of love that extends out to those in its path.
I've seen this steady flow of kindness over the 7 years that I've been doing this.
I have a constantly moving river of art supplies through my home.
Often I find donations to help with the shipping costs that get tucked inside little envelopes or between the pages of colouring books.
I get notes that offer encouragement and support and I cherish them all because of how kind it is that someone takes the time to write it.
Once I was pretty burnt out - really feeling low. Two friends showed up at my door to pack boxes of art supplies for me.
They brought homemade soup, a lovely blanket and the warmest hugs I've ever felt. They just took over while I rested.
It meant so much to me that they did that.
I have been a volunteer in my own organization for 7 years and have never taken a salary from the money that's raised.
1. What's your Superhero name and what powers do you have?
Name: Paints With Kindness.
Superpowers: To be able to sway policy with a wave of my hand and to heal our planet with kind thoughts.
2. If you had $10,000 to give away, how would you use it for most impact?
I would use it to purchase Indigenous Place Name Maps and put them in every First Nations, Inuit and Métis school across Canada.
The maps promote the link between land and language - an integral part of the very foundation of Canadian Indigenous culture.
3. What does your home town mean to you? What’s best about it?
My hometown has a small Indigenous population that is working hard to secure a place in local politics. Most recently, a small group of determined Anishinabe worked to convince our town Council to replace the name of a local area attraction. The original name of Squaw Point was not favourable to First Nations-especially First Nations women - and the group petitioned for it to be changed. I was very proud to be a small voice in that progressive action.
BONUS question
Who should be interviewed next, who has a story people should hear?
I'd say Carmel Whittle would be a good person to speak with. She is one of the founding members of the No Borders Art Festival and a very kind woman. She can be found on Facebook.
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
Ellen "Ellen Rocks" Brody
Toms River, New Jersey, USA
"Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. -Oscar Wilde
DOOGOOD wanted to comment this story before Ellen tells it next: It's rare to find a person who has so much history with smileys, even a tattoo of one! I consider it an honor to hear the story of the lady whose smiley is a symbol to what DOOGOOD does, as well.
Thank you Ellen Rocks!
I started using smiley faces way before you (DOOGOOD) were born- like I said, in the early 70’s when I was a teacher. I still have some of my smiley stuff from back then. Basically, my story is simple- I have been collecting rocks and stones on the beaches of Cape May, NJ for about 20 years. I especially love ❤️ heart rocks. Over the years, I just put them in my gardens.
When we retired, I took all the big heart rocks with me and put them around my garden down here.
I had bags of smaller rocks from my collection as well.
I was at my daughter in-law’s a couple of years ago and noticed a cute rock on her table. She told me that people paint rocks, hide them, etc. When I was in Cape May a year or so ago, I found my first rock made by Vickie Pais of OB- S rocks and was soooo excited!!!!!
I just happened to be watching the Today Show one day and saw an interview of Megan Murphy who started The Kindness Rocks Project and it was then I knew what I was going to do with my millions of rocks!
So, I went to Home Depot, bought some acrylic paint, and the rest is history! I started rocking this June and LOVE it. I have a Facebook page- Ellen Rocks and belong to Cape May Rocks, Kindness Rocks, Vickie’s site, Love Rocks and Toms River Rocks!
If you have any other questions, just ask.
1. What's your Superhero name and what powers do you have?
Superhero name is Hearthstone. I love spreading happiness, kindness and love ❤️
2. If you had $10,000 to give away, how would you use it for most impact?
If I had $10,000 to give away, I would donate more to the charities I already partner with, give my sons each $1000 and randomly hand people $100
3. What does your home town mean to you? What’s best about it?
My hometown means a simple, safe and fun place to have grown up. Things were so different then. My older son asks me what life was like when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I told him - nice, very nice!!!!!
BONUS question
Who should be interviewed next, who has a story people should hear?
Any of the women who run: Kindness Rocks, Toms River Rocks, Cape May Rocks, OB-S Rocks- the groups I belong to.
They all promote happiness, kindness and love and that is my goal when I rock.
Random Acts of Kindness 937
Ohio, USA
"We rise by lifting others"
My husband, son, and I have always adopted families at Christmas but what did we do during the rest of the year?
Sad to day not a whole lot. I think we all think about kindness around thanksgiving and Christmas but the rest of the year it seems to get forgotten.
In October I decided that I was going to show my son that it’s not just at the holidays that we should be spreading kindness, but we need to do it everyday, even if it’s just a small gesture.
Him and I started doing one big RAOK (random act of kindness) a week sprinkled with kind gestures the rest of the week.
I believe our first RAOK was we have elderly neighbors whose bushes in front of the house hadn’t been cut all summer. So I went and cut them and my son helped clean up.
Our neighbor was so appreciative and wanted to pay us. I told her absolutely not, we just wanted to be a blessing to her. I think seeing the look of appreciation on her face is the moment that the lightbulb went off.
If I could make her so happy with just taking 30 mins to cut her bushes, imagine if I put some real thought and motivation behind it what I could do. From that point on I’ve been trying to spread kindness as much as I can.
After a month of doing RAOK I thought, what if I started a Facebook page and tried to get my community involved and inspired to do their own RAOK.
This is how Randomactsofkindness937 was created.
I do it anonymously because I don’t want anyone to think I want praise.
I do it cause I want to inspire others.
I share things my family has done, ideas of ways they can do RAOK, and hopefully people will share their experiences with giving or receiving RAOK also.
It honestly has been so personally rewarding for me,
what started out as a lesson for my son, has turned into a lesson for me.
1. What's your Superhero name and what powers do you have?
The Giver and my power would be knowing when people not a little kindness.
2. If you had $10,000 to give away, how would you use it for most impact?
If I had $10,000 it’d use it to get the most impact by.
I like getting $5 or $10 Walmart, grocery, coffee, or fast food gift cards and giving them out randomly. It’s not a large amount but it’s enough to get a coffee, lunch, or a little dent in their shopping. It’s just that little RAOK that puts a smile on someone’s face without costing you a large amount of money.
If I had $10,000 I could give 1,000 people $10 gift cards. That would be amazing.
3. What does your home town mean to you? What’s best about it?
My hometown. I live in a small town in Ohio. My town has about 11,000 people and or county has 38,000.
We have a lot of farms in and around or county. We all rally around people that have bad stuff going on in their life.
I love where I live, it’s large enough to have things to do, but small enough that we kinda all know each other or know of everyone.
I’d say the best thing about my town is how everyone rally’s around those in need.
It’s heartwarming to know that the town has your back.
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Telluride, Colorado, USA
"twelve-armed love— two arms to hold you,
ten to let you go." -Word Woman
“Bring me some poems,” he said. “I’d love to read them.”
That was the beginning of my relationship with poetry legend Art Goodtimes, a man with a booming laugh and a grizzled gray beard and an old truck painted red with white polka dots.
After twenty-five years of friendship and collaboration with Art, it’s fun to pinpoint that specific act of kindness that changed my life.
Such a simple request: bring me some poems. I don’t think he would even acknowledge that it was an act of kindness—it’s just what he does. It’s just who he is. It’s intuitively how he engages with people
—letting them know he sees them and that he’s interested in what they have to say.
The next kind act? Art not only read the poems, he gave me important feedback: “I wonder what would happen if you relaxed.”
Can criticism be kind? In this case, it was. He didn’t pick apart the poems. Instead, he related them back to the whole person and extended an invitation. With his encouragement, I came to see poetry as something vital, something communal, something to serve.
Years later, and inspired by many other folks, too, I find myself sending out a poem a day into the world, poems that typically focus on gratitude, kindness, and cultivating awareness.
One of the outcomes of that: A few years back I received a letter from a woman who DOOGOOD has already interviewed, Sherry Richert Belul. Sherry had been receiving my daily poems and sent me a card with five dollars to thank me for the impact they’d had on her. Another amazing random act of kindness with an immediate ripple effect.
That card led to a phone call that led to the creation of Secret Agents of Change. Twice now Sherry and I have executed Operation Love: seven days of spreading love in curious and fun ways. The missions, should participants choose to accept them, leave traces of kindness is unexpected places. Every day our secret agents receive a poem and two prompts—one to inspire kindness in the world, the other to inspire kindness in ourselves. We plan to offer Secret Agent missions as long as we live!
It thrills me to notice how all this loveliness links back to that afternoon in Elks Park in 1994. One invitation to share part of myself, one simple kindness, changed everything about the way I now meet the world.
1. What's your Superhero name and what powers do you have?
Word Woman! But to be clear: I’m in service to words and to poetry, it’s not the other way around.
I began referring to myself as Word Woman in the late nineties, though at that point I had a superficial understanding of the real power of words. I thought words could contain us, could offer us a way to exert control over the messy world.
Ha. Now, I believe in the exact opposite power. I believe words, specifically poems, help us lean more intimately into vulnerability and uncertainty. They help build the bridge between our internal life and the world around us. Poems insist on authenticity, call our stories into question, and wrestle against what we think we know. Poems thrive on opposition and help us find beauty in struggle. Even at their most serious, poems invite play. And perhaps most importantly, poetry invites us again and again to fall more deeply in love with the world.
2. If you had $10,000 to give away, how would you use it for most impact?
I would pay poets to put life-affirming, heart-opening, mind-widening poems into accessible public places.
Years ago, I began to write very short poems on river rocks and leave them around town. It’s a bit like being the Easter Bunny—hiding small treasures for people to find. Over the few years, I’ve left many hundreds of poems in public stairwells, bathrooms, lobbies and back alleys and on fenceposts, bookshelves, windowsills—anywhere a small rock with a poem will fit.
Though most people would say that they don’t like poems, these little invitations are always picked up and taken home in someone’s pocket. The poems find the people who need them.
If I paid 100 poets (of diverse backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, geographies ) $100 each to put 10 poems onto rocks or leaves or ??, then that would be 1,000 poems going into coffee shops, hospices, hospitals, parks, intersections and alleyways to meet the people who don’t yet know how much they need a poem. We could take pictures of all the poems in their various places and load them into a wordpress site for Random Acts of Poetry so that other people, too, might virtually stumble on these poems and let them in.
Part of the thrill would be paying poets—affirming that their voices matter, that the world needs us to share our gifts.
Poems are small, but they’re like strands of saffron, potent enough to transform everything they touch.
3. What does your home town mean to you? What’s best about it?
Telluride, Colorado, is a place that supports dreams, that pushes people to excel, that encourages people to educate themselves and show up. Located in a box canyon high in the San Juan Mountains, it’s surrounded by National Forest. It’s both peaceful and a playground for skiing and hiking.
The community itself is hugely supportive of the arts, and we have an incredible arts school (Ah Haa School for the Arts) arts council (Telluride Arts) and library (Wilkinson Public Library), all of which host programs and classes and readings that help people explore their own voices and listen to the voices of others.
What’s best? The connectedness of the community, the way we’re directly informed and inspired by the land.
BONUS question
Who should be interviewed next, who has a story people should hear?
Some people bring enthusiasm, kindness, gratitude, awareness and mindfulness to everything they touch. Augusta Kantra is one such woman. It’s literally her business—she and her husband created the Center for CALM Living in Fairhope, Alabama. What a crazy leap of faith! She is a motivator, an instigator of joy, a generous spreader of compassion, a cheerleader for humanity.
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
Sherry Richert Belul
San Francisco, USA
"When we take the time to celebrate, it's like a deep wellspring of love gets "uncorked." - Sherry Richert Belul
Meet Sherry Richert Belul, the founder of Simply Celebrate.
She's a writer, a gift maker, and happiness coach who gets excited about people find creative, intentional, and impactful ways to celebrate life and to express love for family and friends.
That's what her own bio says, but the best way to find how someone really is like is through close friends, and Ellen Fondiler unlocked part of Sherry in this beautiful story.
Ellen describes Sherry as "one of my dearest friends, and one of the most inspiring human beings I've ever met."
DOOGOOD lets her answers below speak for themselves. Thank you Sherry!
1. What's your Superhero name and what powers do you have?
My Superhero name is Simply Celebrate and my powers are celebrating everyday life and the people we love.
In the midst of our lives, we can forget to celebrate the taste of lime, ginger, or coconut.
We can forget to celebrate pine trees, dahlias, the surprise arrival of a monarch butterfly, the charming sound of bells in the distance, or all the shades of greens in our backyard.
We can forget to celebrate hot water pouring from the faucet or that our legs carry us from place to place.
We can forget to celebrate what a miracle it is that our minds remember names and numbers and create ideas and inventions.
Sometimes we even forget to celebrate our mother’s laugh, our child’s glee, or the warmth of a lover’s hand in ours.
Sometimes we forget to celebrate how much we love our lives, ourselves.
My powers are reminding us all that our lives are fleeting and it is crucial to wake up to the beauty of the world around us and inside us.
My superpowers are supporting us all to seek celebration — even in the dark corners and even where it seems the most unlikely and rare.
To celebrate our grandma’s quilt around our shoulders when we are sick. To celebrate a hot bath with eucalyptus bubbles when we are sad. To celebrate the beautiful stories of someone’s life when they have died. To celebrate the warmth of a friend sitting beside us when everything feels hopeless.
My superpower … thank you, Life! … is remembering every single day that this could be my last day on earth. Or it could be the last for someone I love. And having this knowledge lends an urgency to how I live and love.
My superpower is living and loving out loud — and inviting you to do the same!
2. If you had $10,000 to give away, how would you use it for most impact?
OH! What fun I would have. I know exactly what I would do!
I love writing letters to strangers. I have a birthday project every year in which I write as many love letters to strangers as years I’ve been alive. I invite people in my Simply Celebrate community to tell me someone in their life who is grieving, lost, lonely, or depressed.
Someone who needs a boost of love. The person requesting the letter will tell me reasons the recipient is so lovable and I weave those things into the letter. I send the letters rom the Universe.
Next year I turn 56. I will send 56 letters to 56 strangers in 56 days. Most of these letters are sent anonymously, so I infuse the letters with as much love as I can and put them in the blue postal box, with hope that they reach their destination and offer a moment of light and love. I like to think that when the recipient opens the envelope, they can feel all the love that is nestled between the folds. I like to think that hummingbirds hover outside their window and neighborhood dogs amble over to lick their hands. I like to think that the love is palpable. That it truly is healing, as if it did in fact, come from the Universe.
SO … IF I HAD $10,000 to give away, I would start a second love-letters-to-strangers-project. I would ask people if they know someone who needs some extra money. I would find out what makes that person so lovable. I would send anonymous letters and enclose the money they need, saying, “The Universe wants you to have this $100 to pay the gas bill. The Universe sees how much you love your children and how you give away your art to people to raise their spirits. You warm people’s hearts. We want your hands and feet to be warm.”
AND … I would also give $200 to the person who requested the letter. SURPRISE!
They would receive $100 to use however they like for themselves/their family … and $100 that they are encouraged to pass along to a stranger in need. So that person would experience the joy of receiving and also of giving.
The reason strangers play a large role in this is because our hearts open in a new way when we allow ourselves to love someone whom we do not know. When we gift a stranger, it is an experience of expanding our container of love. We start to learn that we are all connected. We learn that we do not have to know someone in order to care about them.
We don’t have to know someone in order to wish for their happiness.
Love is everywhere. When we are lonely, all we need to do is reach out to someone with love — + we are filled with love.
That $10,000 would keep on rippling out because more and more people would be tasked with giving it to more and more strangers.
Around and around it would go, creating a sense of abundance and delight everywhere!
3. What does your home town mean to you? What’s best about it?
When I first stepped foot in San Francisco, I remember thinking, “This is a place where a girl could wear hats.”
You see, I’d always wanted to be a woman who could wear hats, but I never had the courage. (It felt like bravery to express myself!)
San Francisco seemed to whisper in my ear, “You can be yourself here.”
I moved here, with complete trust in those small whispers of hope.
Soon thereafter, I heard someone say that this is a city of misfits. I loved that! I’d never felt like I fit in.
But I could fit in here — where no one fit in!
I did start wearing hats. And they became a symbol of me-being-me.
And then, I started looking around in all kinds of places to see what ELSE I would find that felt like “me.”
This is the city where I found my family and learned to feel safe/loved. This is the city where I found a creative group of friends who helped me experience myself as a writer and artist. This is the city where I learned to dance. This is the city where I stopped matching my clothes and starting playing with color. This is the city where I scoured thrift stores for treasures — and found them. This is the city where I learned to meditate and come home, moment by moment by moment. This is the city where I fell in love with poetry, cafes, and orange bicycles. This is the city where I discovered 1,000,000 pinpricks of light — and thus, stopped fearing the dark.
This is the city where I grew up.
This is the city where I grew happy.
This is the city where I grew in love — one thousand fold — and am still growing.
BONUS question
Who should be interviewed next, who has a story people should hear?
Poet Rosemerry Trommer spreads kindness and joy every single day with her gifts of free poetry.
Oh, but it is more than that. Rosemerry has the biggest most generous loving heart. She looks for beauty and kindness everywhere and consciously gives them to everyone she sees.
She surprises people — friends or strangers!— with love and gifts and delight. She is vivacious and gives her energy freely.
Her presence is a gift. Her childlike wonder is a gift. Her words are gifts.
P.S. She is also a Secret Agent of Change!
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
Kate Lyness
Pepeekeo, Hawaii
A story of random kindness I have experienced:
I feel like I experience acts of kindness quite frequently, as it is not so random here in Hawaii, but more baked into everyday life.
We call it Aloha, and you see it everywhere.
The man who was sitting near my parking spot at the beach and walked over to hand me a few lemons and an avocado - I didn't know this man and he didn't ask for anything in return, just smiled and said "here you go!".
The young woman working at the small post office in my neighborhood who made a point to look out for an important piece of mail I had been waiting for that was addressed to me but with the wrong address - when she found it she put it in my PO box so that it wouldn't be returned to sender.
The neighbor who I had never met but saw that I had a flat tire and promptly took the tire off my car, patched it himself, and put it back on again.
I am reminded daily of how blessed I am to live in a place where these acts of kindness are so frequently shared. I only wish the rest of the world could experience the same Aloha we do here in Hawaii.
1. What's your Superhero name and what powers do you have?
Above & Beyond! I have the power to help people see the beauty and love and connectedness that is all around them
2. If you had $10,000 to give away, how would you use it for most impact?
I would pay for a group of young native Hawaiians who have never left the Big Island to tour all of the islands and learn about their history and culture.
3. What does your home town mean to you? What’s best about it?
I live on the island of Hawaii (also known as the 'Big Island'), in a small town called Pepeekeo. Living on Hawai'i feels like a gift every day and everything about being on an island and in a small town constantly teaches me about patience and gratitude. The best thing about living here is the expression of Aloha everywhere.
BONUS question
Who should be interviewed next, who has a story people should hear?
My friend, Ellen Fondiler!
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
Children's Wish Foundation of Canada and Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Canada are joining forces with the goal of granting the wish of every eligible child across the country.
"No one has ever become poor by giving" - Anne Frank
After a total of 33,000 wishes granted over the course of 35 years in Canada, Children's Wish Foundation of Canada and Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Canada are joining forces with one mission:
To provide children with life-threatening illnesses the opportunity to realize their most heartfelt wish, giving them the strength to endure their treatments and build resilience.
They both have made an incredible impact to the society, with lasting effects before and after the wish as study led by Nationwide Children's Hospital showed November 2018.
Make-A-Wish Foundation also conducted their own Wish Impact Study 2011-2013 where they surveyed wish parents, past wish kids, health professionals and volunteers for the impact of a wish.
Children have had their wishes granted from "Meeting Alex Burrows from Vancouver Canucks" to "Being the Prime Minister of Canada" all the way to "Spending a night in the Sahara sky."
Ask any child, they know:
Dreams COME true.
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
Alexandra Franzen
Hilo, Hawaii
Alexandra Franzen is a writer based in Hawaii. She is the author of several books, has written for many major magazines, writes a newsletter and inspires people with her stories. Alexandra wrote a Random Kindness story "50 ways to be ridiculously generous - and feel ridiculously good" about behaving generously, and that inspired DOOGOOD to contact her for bit more info on her outlook on life.
Thank you Alexandra!
1. What's your Superhero name and what powers do you have?
ALX. I always thought my name ("Alex") would look cool in ALL CAPS with no "e." Just ALX. I have no idea why. It just amuses me!
Superpowers I would like to possess:
1. Being 10 minutes early for all appointments.
2. 100% effective birth control / pregnancy prevention abilities - no pills, shots, implants required.
3. Orgasms upon command.
4. Flight.
2. If you had $10,000 to give away, how would you use it for most impact?
Free fitness, yoga, and meditation classes for the whole town. I think if everyone could carve out 30-60 minutes a day for deep breathing and movement, everyone would feel so much better.
The whole world would exhale and relax and smile just a tiny but more.
3. What does your home town mean to you? What’s best about it?
I currently live in Hilo, a tiny town on the Big Island of Hawaii. What I love most is how cozy and "small-town-y" it feels. I head outside and within moments, I bump into three or four people I know.
Everyone drives slowly. Everyone waves. Everyone knows your name. There's a strong feeling of community and connection. As someone who grew up in a huge city (Los Angeles) this is such a welcome and refreshing change of pace. I love it.
BONUS question
Who should be interviewed next, who has a story people should hear?
I nominate: Sherry Richert Belul, founder of Simply Celebrate, and author of Say It Now.
A beautiful woman whose mission is to encourage people to write more love letters, express their feelings to loved ones,
and celebrate the gift of life--every day!
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
The Story Of Hee Ah Lee
“Do not compare yourself to others. Try hard to become whatever you want to be.” - Hee Ah Lee
When you are born, what do you do then when you have 2 fingers in both hands, mild brain damage and your legs are amputated under the knees at age 3? If you are Hee Ah Lee, you become a concert pianist.
Hee Ah Lee’s mother became suddenly pregnant while being married to a handicapped man. The doctors told her due to her medication the child would not become normal, but she decided to continue pregnancy. On July 9 th , 1985 in Seoul, Korea, Hee Ah Lee was born with severe disabilities, and doctors told her mother she might not live long. Hospital also told her she would not be able to care for the baby, and relatives wanted to send Hee for adoption to another country.
Her mother, on the other hand, thought that the child was beautiful and decided she would live a long and prosperous life.
When she was 7, her mother started her on the piano to train her hands, which at the time couldn’t hold a pencil. 1 finger didn’t even have joints. Her mother had 2 reasons for starting piano training: To train her hands to hold a pencil, but also that if she could master piano, she could master anything in life.
For 6 months, schools denied teaching her to play piano, until 1 piano instructor agreed. That instructor soon lost motivation and wanted to quit. This started a battle of wills between the mother and daughter, finalizing in a situation where mother threw Hee to the floor, frustrated. Hee got up to the piano, and played a children song she had practiced, for the first time. This became the turning point.
Soon she diligently practiced piano for hours at a time trying really hard to improve. For example, she worked on one passage from Chopin’s Fantasie Impromptu for five years. She wanted to quit many times but finally succeeded.
“…The piano has provided me with many benefits - consolation, courage, gratitude, and compassion are just a few. It has also given me the added opportunity to meet many world-wide friends."
In 1992, she won the First Prize at the Korean National Student Music Contest, and has since won many more contests and has also played in many solo-concerts along with playing with many well-known artists. She was even awarded by the then President of Korea, DaeJong Kim, for Overcoming Physical Difficulty. She has also been recognized as one of the best students in Seoul by the Korean Education Department.
“I hope people are inspired by the idea ‘Yes, I can do anything’ while listening to me play.”
“In my life, I have experienced many difficulties and have struggled hard to overcome some of my obvious disabilities. I continue to struggle daily, but I am comforted and feel deep consolation in being privileged with the opportunity to express my appreciation for life by using the talents that God has blessed me with and sharing them with you.”
Hee Ah Lee is inspirational because she is highly diligent and patient. She is an example of what can be done when one put one’s mind and heart to it. From her we learn about patience, hard work and believing in one self.
“Do not compare yourself to others. Try hard to become whatever you want to be.”
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
Phil Bolsta: Triumph of the Spirit
Finding Peace and Purpose in a Troubled World
Phil Bolsta is a freelance writer in Encinitas, California who is an author for Through God's Eyes and Sixty Seconds: One Moment Changes Everything. He is also the creator for Catalyst, a free biweekly newsletter created for Shift Network where people share their stories for simple 1 question: What is the nicest thing a non-family member has ever done for you?
Most importantly, to DOOGOOD Phil is an inspiration who encourages and inspires people to lead more positive, loving lives, while being the best version of themselves for others around them.
Phil is also the person who brought the story of Hee Ah Lee forward, also shared in these pages.
His blog page has a lot of inspiring material, including free chapters from his book.
Thank you Phil!
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
The Story Of The Tiny Frog
There once was a group of tiny frogs who got together to arrange a competition to reach to the top of a steep cliff. When they started their race a group of people saw frogs climbing that steep cliff and gathered closer to see them. They were curious how high they could climb, yet no one really believed any tiny frog could climb all the way top. After few moments the gathered crowd started worrying for the tiny frogs, climbing that cliff: No was they will succeed! The cliff is too high!" Look at them, tiny legs CAN’T hold onto much longer.”
As the competition continued, some of the tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one… tired… exhausted… But the race continued… as those who still had the fight left, passionately continued to climb higher and higher… “It is too difficult, they’ll all get injured; someone has to STOP this madness. Stop them!” More tiny frogs got tired and gave up. They all continued to give up one by one, until there was only ONE little frog left in the competition who continued to climb higher and higher and higher…looked like it didn’t even notice the noise coming far from the bottom.
That tiny frog reached the top of the cliff after a long climb.
Turned out that frog was deaf.
DOOGOOD stories: Meet the Team
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