First stop on this late fall day is the Athens Police Department to see about getting special parking privileges for The Kindness Bus today. I didn’t quite know what to expect as I went in the door. A couple of stickers and a call to the Captain was all it took. I left holding the bag. The bag to cover the meter that is. I needed the closest space to the corner by the College Gate. This is the busiest corner in the city and the most visible as well. I was scheduled to be interviewed and photographed for the better part of the day, and no other location would do, as far as I was concerned. A professional writer, Vickie Elmer and professional photographer, Greg Ruffing were approved by AARP headquarters in Washington, to do an article on the mission of One Million Acts Of Kindness and it’s message. This is to be our biggest day to date as far as reaching a huge readership. The article will run in the beginning of 2010. Mid-morning, Joe Higgins, a writer for The Athens Messenger showed up with his photographer requesting an interview for an article. I told him as long as it was front page and above the fold, we would be good to go. Bogart is becoming a rock star. Move over Rin Tin Tin.

A steady stream of students had one thing on their minds today, finals. Most were pre-occupied with such things as quantum physics and nanotechnology. Some did however, take time out of their day to pet Bogart for good luck, and talk briefly to me. Most conversations were understandably shorter than I am accustomed to, but we made contact with about two hundred fifty students today. There were several students who agreed to take a stack of stickers home with them and start conversation about One Million Acts Of Kindness at Thanksgiving dinner. One student named Lisa was particularly enthusiastic. What a wonderful topic of conversation at Thanksgiving, kindness. Roberta a professor of Sociology at Ohio University came out of her way to tell me she thought One Million Acts Of Kindness was the coolest thing ever. Daniel, a student who had a final when he passed the bus initially, came back after his final to stop and talk about the great things possible by performing One Million Acts Of Kindness in one’s life.

To date, there have been over one hundred students who have made a verbal pledge to do one million acts of kindness in their lives. I wish I had documented their names as I traveled from campus to campus. Late today a student mentioned documenting in writing, the names of everyone pledging to accomplish this goal in their lives. He and two others, during the late afternoon, pledged in writing to challenge themselves to reach this greatest of goals. We will address this important new detail, and find a creative way to accomplish documentation for the individual. I am going to start listing the names at the end of each day’s blog. We can also add names to any previous blogs.

The following individuals have vowed to perform One Million Acts Of Kindness in their lives:

Daniel Continenza; Anna Wiederhold; Brittany Feda

This entry was posted on Monday, November 23rd, 2009 at 7:30 pm and is filed under Kindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.