The day began with an early morning visit to the farmers market in downtown Topeka. Getting here early made it possible to find the most visible parking spot for The Kindness Bus. Hundreds of Topekans are now aware of One Million Acts Of Kindness from visiting the market. The other reason I visited this market was because United Way was having a Live United Awareness event. United Way is a big provider for many of the Domestic Violence coalitions and the Child Advocacy agencies.
Today’s highlight was an invitation to perform my puppet show to 3 audiences during the course of the day at the Kansas Children’s Discovery Center. After all of the performances, everyone was so complimentary. Doing this sort of work is a nice, light change of pace from dealing with the day to day issues of Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse. The filming of all 3 puppet shows will allow Nathan to put together a great video compilation for the website and Youtube.
Today’s short ride of 40 miles allowed me to interact with dozens of people enjoying the beautiful weather in Topeka.

Incredible!
I called Executive Director, Joyce Grover of the KCSDV just a couple of days ago to inform her of The Kindness Bicycle/Bus Tour coming to Topeka, in 2 days time, she put together the warmest of welcomes. Today I walked into a room full of her entire staff of nearly 30, less Pat Clark, the receptionist, who answers all of the important calls. The staff had provide for this breakfast meeting with homemade dishes, pastries and fruit.
After my talk, as a group and individually, we shared information of the important work that this coalition accomplishes. This state agency works to educate the public on issues of domestic violence, builds coalition among service providers and networking to ensure comprehensive service to the public, works on prevention measures across the state, helps to promote positive policy change on the state and national levels, diligently works to obtain funding for programs and so much more. It was am honor to meet so many dedicated individuals all in one room. Thank you to all.
During one of the breaks from my short ride of 20 miles today, I met Tracy from the Governor’s office, she was so excited and complimentary for The Kindness Bicycle/Bus Tour. I think the Governor will hear about us on Monday morning.

An early morning visit to this Children’s Advocacy Center was another eye opening experience. Having only been to a handful of Children’s Advocacy Centers, I am still astonished at the sheer numbers of Childhood Sexual Abuse cases in our country.
Director, Kelly Stephens and Jill Shehi-Chapman, Family Support Specialist met with us to tell us about their facility and the good it is doing for children and families in need. Getting abused children to verbally express their tough, but once done, the child is often times able to move on with their lives knowing that they will now be protected. After the interview with Kelly and Jill, it is easy to understand why the motto of LifeHouse is, “Helping kids be kids again.”
The return of the Heat Index being over 110 degrees has returned, causing me to be shy of my total for the day by 16 miles. I hope we don’t go straight from summer to winter.

Riding The Kindness Bike for up to 8 hours a day leaves little time to keep up with office work, especially this time of year, when school is about to start. I make a lot of phone calls to schools across the country to promote One Million Acts Of Kindness. Multi-tasking on The Kindness Bike lets me raise awareness about Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse and promote One Million Acts Of Kindness to schools.
One website puts me in contact with every school in the United States, affording me the opportunity to reach every school age student in the country through their principal or counselor. The website is SchoolTree.org
Kindness Certificates and One Million Acts Of Kindness Week are the perfect anti-bullying measure. Students with a constant mind set of kindness have an awareness of how important it is to respect one another. Please spread the word about our Kindness Certificates. They can be found on the homepage of our website.
We have a couple of very busy days ahead, with visits to the Kansas Coalition Against Sexual and Domestic Violence and LifeHouse Child Advocacy Center.
The Kansas Children’s Discovery Center in Topeka is our home base for the next few days, they are even letting me put on several performances of my puppet show.
Today’s proposed ride of 52 miles fell a handful shy of the total. I am hoping to ride many bonus miles the next few days, along the beautiful paved paths in Topeka.

A wonderful movement I learned of today is, Living is So Big. It is all about spreading awareness of just how great life is to experience and how the little things can have a huge impact on life.
Living is So Big, founders, Jesus and Iliana are on a cross country promotion, teaching the importance of being grateful for all the good in our lives. I met them and their son, Christopher, who lives in Lawrence, after they had taken dozens of photos of The Kindness Bus. They have a passion for what they are doing and are so inspiring. I found myself counting my blessings for the very rich life I have; an 84 sq. ft. bus of everything I own and a life filled with everything I need.
Bill and Beverly stopped by The Kindness Bus as I was getting some mail ready to be sent. They had seen us on the news and in the newspaper and stopped by to give us their blessing. The site, www.livingissobig.com is definitely worth a visit to add your comments of what you are grateful for in your life.
Thank you to Annie for putting together a last minute neighborhood party for One Million Acts Of Kindness, it was a great way to have an entire neighborhood get to see The Kindness Bus up close.
We are getting some great sleeping weather and cool mornings for riding, 40 miles today. We push west to Topeka tomorrow morning.

A positive message to say the least is
“You, are your gift to the world.” In creating this phrase, I tried to find words to inspire. You CAN be the most incredibly kind person on the face of the earth; it is only you standing in the way of making this a reality. This is the life all of us need to live. “It’s a choice.”
We began our 4th month yesterday of The Kindness Bicycle/Bus Tour to raise awareness about Domestic Violence and Childhood Sexual Abuse. Today seemed to be a day of conversation with dozens of people. I talked with Danni who is such a great role model for her 3 daughters. They had seen The Kindness Bicycle previous to my talking with her and she told me that it started a great conversation in their family. Cathie from The Willow Center stopped by to take some photos of me in red heels for a possible appearance in The Red Shoe calendar.  Kevin and Melissa, a young couple stopped by The Kindness Bus to show their support. Kevin just got back from Afghanistan and was thrilled to see such a positive message.  A big thanks to Natalya for the huge interest and hospitality.
Today was supposed to be an off day but I rode thirty miles to whittle away at the deficit of over two hundred miles. The picture I used today is of the beauty of the flora along the path I rode.

“We don’t talk about that kind of stuff,” he said to his son.
A family of 5 walking past The Kindness Bike held the interest of the son of about twelve years of age. His teenage sisters were interested as well, but didn’t express themselves verbally. The mother was silent as the father tried his best to usher his family to the car as quickly as he could. The son chose to read aloud, the 2 signs; “Boys should never hit girls” and “Be a man, don’t raise a hand. Stop Domestic Violence! “We don’t talk about that kind of stuff,” the father said, to my amazement. Once in the car, the father sped off, only to get stuck at a long line of traffic in the turning lane just out of the parking lot. I of course rode the couple of hundred feet to be in full view once again as the father had to wait for the light to change as the boy in the car looked my way and continued to express himself. The light changed and I watched as the long line of traffic in the turning lane started moving, but not fast enough, the father was about to get stuck first in line at the light again. He chose to run the fully red light!!
I don’t know if the father was in a hurry or if he just didn’t want to see the signs on The Kindness Bike for a third time, but one thing is for sure, he had better start talking to his family about important issues which can affect his children or there won’t be any room left under the rug for him to sweep everything he chooses not to discuss.

Changing my inner tubes so many times yesterday, I inadvertently took the wrong brake pad apart instead of using the quick release on the opposing side. I rode today’s 40 miles with a dragging brake pad making the ride seem like 100 miles. Needless to say, I will visit a bike shop tomorrow.