Excuse the title of this blog and the possessive pronoun used to describe women like they are some sort of possession, but that is exactly what I witnessed from a grandfather and a father interacting with the teenage boy with them. Riding the Kindness Bicycle past 3 generations of men, I could tell at a distance that the father wanted no part of my signage. Circling back around and acting like I hadn’t seen the scowl on his face I got close enough so all 3 could see the signs close up, I also rang my bell to get their full attention. This time the father and grandfather both gave me a look of disapproval, the boy however, gave me a thumbs up. Upon seeing his son’s reaction, the father yanked his son’s arm down. I surmise that this has been the attitude for much longer than 3 generations in this family. I hope the son, by seeing the sign and by hearing me say that 4 women a day die in the United States because of Domestic Violence, breaks the mentality that persists in his family.
Today’s ride of forty miles was a breeze because of perfect conditions and very flat terrain. I love Kansas!!

With a full day planned, I hit the ground riding, on an early morning ride of the Kindness Bicycle, to get exposure from a captive audience of rush hour commuters, stopped at a very busy intersection. Before I made it out of the parking lot, a local
2nd grade teacher stopped me to tell me she had seen the newscast of One Million Acts Of Kindness on television last week. She told me of how she and her class perform Closet Kindness, acts of anonymous kindness. What a talented, caring teacher and what very lucky students.
Today I met with Sarah North of Rose Brooks, a center which offers several services and programs for victims of Domestic Violence. This center is doing everything right and is bursting at the seams because of an increased demand. They have plans for an addition to their existing residence building because of an overflow of residents who are sleeping where they can. The two programs I loved to hear about on my walk through with Sarah were; Project SAFE, a support and guidance program which helps children deal with an ongoing abusive relationship and trains school personnel to better help students, and Children’s Programming, where children learn to express themselves through art therapy, play and sports so counselors can connect, to prepare them for a better life ahead. This center is doing amazing work even with the overload of residents.
Thank you to NBC Kansas City for their piece on my visit to Rose Brooks.

It didn’t take too long for the conversations to start today. “Outstanding, outstanding, outstanding!” were the words that caught my interest as I rode The Kindness Bicycle past a small group of women out for a morning walk. Seeing the sign which reads, “Boys should never hit girls” was all it took. “If you teach kids not to hit when they are young, they stand a better chance not to hit when they are adults,” Cathy, one of the women said. Dee and Bailey, a mom and daughter were busy taking pictures of The Kindness Bus when I rode up on The Kindness Bicycle, it didn’t take long before they showed great interest in The Kindness Bicycle Tour as well, for reasons all too common.
The Park Hill School District offices were on my route. With school about to start a new year I dropped off a Kindness Certificate to Carmen Scott, a very interested receptionist, who said she would present it to Superintendent, Dr. Dennis Fisher for the possible use as a teaching tool throughout the District.

February 13th – 19th 2012  is the biggest week of the year for One Million Acts Of Kindness. It is the week of our 3rd annual One Million Acts Of Kindness Week. It is our annual event which last year spread to twenty-two countries. The goal of the week is two-fold. The 1st part is where groups as few as 2 people, decide what kind act of charity they will do in their community during the course of this week, which is something over and above what they normally might do. The 2nd part is each individual from each group pledging to take The Kindness Challenge; pledging to personally perform One Million Acts Of Kindness in their lifetime.
My goal for 2012 is for thirty countries to be represented by individuals taking part in this week. I also wish for three thousand individuals to take The Kindness Challenge.
We will begin in earnest at the beginning of September to sign up as many groups as we can.
You can sign up at the top of the homepage on this website. You can also immediately take The Kindness Challenge by printing and signing one of The Kindness Certificates which can be found at the top of this website as well. Please promote this to everyone you possibly can. Thank you, Bob Votruba

The 7 month Kindness Bicycle/Bus Tour to raise awareness about Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse continues until December 21st. These are very grown up issues and are not the type of subject matter that young kids read. School will be starting soon and I will begin to once again visit classrooms along my travels. I have decided to write 2 short, daily blogs beginning in September; 1 for school children and 1 for The Kindness Bicycle/Bus Tour. The success of One Million Acts Of Kindness’ website has long been supported, in big part, by classrooms across the country. I recently received a very nice letter from a teacher whose classes have been following Bogart’s travels for the past 2 years. She has agreed to have her letter used as 1 of my blogs along with a picture of her students. I am looking forward to visiting classrooms once again, when the school year begins. Bogart is looking forward to it as well, I just need to convince him to leave his pillow-top bed lifestyle he has been living.

The Kindness Bicycle/Bus Tour is taking a route to the north near I-70 when we leave Kansas City on Wednesday morning. I have decided to then head north out of Colorado Springs through Denver, Boulder and north into Laramie, Wyoming and then push west along the I-80 corridor to San Francisco, California. The reason for this itinerary change is to have the safety of a major interstate near my travels in case of an early Fall snowstorm.
The Kindness Bus, being stuck in a snowstorm while traveling through the Rockies, was not something I gave too much consideration when I planned the itinerary for The Kindness Bicycle/Bus Tour. In thinking back to last winter’s travels in the snow, the back of The Kindness Bus likes to try to pass the front on icy roads and this is something that just won’t work on a country road through the Rockies.

The Kindness Bus/Bicycle Tour will be in Los Angeles for more than a month beginning in late November and then again in early 2012. There is a great deal of interest in One Million Acts Of Kindness and The 8,400 mile Kindness Bicycle Tour in southern California. I came here for a couple of meetings for the next few days and will return to The Kindness Bus in Kansas City this weekend. Being that Los Angeles is such a sprawling city, I am also going to spend my spare time trying to seek out the best places for high visibility.
It didn’t take long for the kind acts to start from people in Los Angeles wanting to help, by offering to volunteer time or lending support to One Million Acts Of Kindness and The Kindness Bicycle Tour. One such example was for the owner of Patina, one of the nicest restaurants in Los Angeles, located in the LA Philharmonic building, to show his kindness by providing bottled water for a long drive to the desert.