Moorestown resident Holly Myers with Mayor Quinton Law at town hall in February, when council proclaimed Feb. 17 as Kindness Day and Feb. 15 through the 21 as Kindness Week.
Moorestown’s 250 Acts of Kindness Challenge, an initiative sparked by resident Holly Myers, invites families, schools, faith communities, businesses, senior centers, scout troops and organizations to track 250 acts of kindness – offered, received or witnessed – between now and the 4th of July.
Myers saw an ad in 1996 about a grassroots movement for kindness. She called the number listed and received information about how she could do the same for her community. But it wasn’t just that movement that inspired her to bring the challenge to Moorestown years later.
A few months before, she had heard a story about social justice activist and lawyer Bryan Stevenson and a prisoner awaiting execution.
“He had been assigned a particular case … and so, the one thing he saw he could do was to be with this inmate on his last day, to be there for the execution,” Myers recounted. “ … That was sitting on my heart, and so when I saw this ad about a grassroots kindness movement, I felt like, ‘I want to do something to stop people from falling through the cracks.’”
Color America Beautiful with the Power of Kindness – the 250 Acts of Kindness Challenge – is simple: Collect 250 acts of kindness by the 4th of July. Each act counts, whether participants offer kindness to someone else, receive it gratefully or witness it in the world around them.
The challenge is rooted in a vision of kindness as more than random acts, but kindness as second nature.
“It seems that with (America’s) 250th birthday, that there has to be something special that we can do, especially because we need kindness more than ever,” Myers explained. “ … As things have gotten more divisive in this country – and here I am as a self-proclaimed kindness ambassador because this is so important to me – who can I be as a leader to make a difference?
“Kindness is so much more than holding a door or helping somebody carry their groceries,” she added. “It’s loyalty and flexibility and respect and honesty. Kindness isn’t the same if you take any one of those away. I want people to understand how much depth there is to this concept, and that every one of us can expand who we are in our emotional intelligence by deepening into what kindness is all about.”
Here’s how the challenge works: Participants write down their acts of kindness on slips of paper and collect them in a shoebox, coffee can or any container they choose. Acts can also be recorded in a journal, shared at the dinner table or logged digitally using the BeKind app.
Participants will also record whether they offered, received or witnessed acts of kindness and whom those acts served, whether themselves, others or the planet. The movement is designed for families looking for a meaningful way to celebrate America’s birthday together; schools and classrooms seeking a values-based spring project; faith communities building bridges through acts of service and love; businesses and workplaces fostering team connection; civic organizations, clubs and neighborhood groups; and any individual who wants to make a difference – one kind act at a time.
Part of the challenge draws on the work of psychotherapist and philosopher Piero Ferrucci, whose book of essays, “The Power of Kindness: The Unexpected Benefits of Leading a Compassionate Life,” distinguishes how vast and deep kindness is.
