Don “Red Dog” Gardner has been doing his best at what he does for the good of the Lawrence, Kansas community for the past 27 years. A former Marine, he started an exercise program for local high school athletes that has grown into several free classes a week that thousands in the community take part attending. I was one of the lucky guests today. Thank you Red Dog for letting me ride The Kindness Bicycle for all to see.
Riding mid-morning and needing to hydrate we stopped in to a local grocery and were discovered by Eric, a manager of a local sushi restaurant. He was blown away at The Kindness Bicycle Tour and had his friendly staff roll some incredible denizens of the deep. Thank you Eric.
I am somewhat mechanically inclined, today I was stumped however. My inner tube has been losing air and I finally replaced it. Soon after replacing it with another, the 2nd one had an even faster leak. Thinking that perhaps Bogart used that inner tube as a chew toy, I replaced it with the 3rd, that tire was flat in 5 minutes. What is causing it, I thought. I water tested all three and found all of them were leaking in the same place. I searched the tire for a nail in the tread and looked for twenty minutes to no avail. I replaced the tire and the inner tube one last time, problem solved.
Tonight was incredible. With a total of nearly fifty miles today I got to thinking that on the next picture perfect day, I’m riding my 1st century. (100 miles)

Doctors seem to take a big interest in One Million Acts Of Kindness and The Kindness Bicycle Tour, I’ve talked with nearly a hundred over the past few years. Today I met Doctor John Listerman who had read the article in The Lawrence Journal-World about One Million Acts Of Kindness. He has spent the last several years, caring for the indigent and has seen first hand the effects of kindness on others. He and I talked about leading with a kind heart and helping, not hurting one another, To him, hands are meant to heal. What a beautiful way to live one’s life. Our conversation reminded me of a meeting I had nearly 3 years ago, in preparation for heading out on the road, I talked with Stephen G. Post PhD, who is now Director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics at Stony Brook. He wrote “Why Good Things Happen to Good People.” This book should be read by everyone because there are huge health benefits to being kind. If its teachings and beliefs were embraced by everyone, no one would ever lay a hand on another human being.
Today’s cool temperatures made the nearly sixty miles I rode on the University of Kansas campus and surrounding area seem like a walk in the park.
** Stephen G. Post’s newest book is a must read. “The Hidden Gifts of Helping” How the Power of Giving, Compassion and Hope Can Get Us Through Hard Times

Never before have I seen such excitement, prior to a visit at a Domestic Violence Center. I had two contacts by board members to see if The Willow Center would work into the schedule of The Kindness Bicycle Tour, I was also sent an advance email, formally inviting me to a luncheon meeting at the Willow Center. I never could be made to feel more welcome.  These women get it! There was such great interest as we met “town hall” style and brainstormed how our two organizations could do our work more efficiently for the betterment of those we serve. One of the women talked of when women call the crisis line that she helps by focusing on the many problems presented, by solving them one at a time, giving the caller great hope in seeing her problems being solved in this fashion.
One of the very creative ways The Willow Center raises money is by the Red Shoe calendar. This calendar is the brainchild of board member, Cathie Rodkey. All twelve months are represented by a photo of local celebrities “putting their best foot forward,” while wearing 6″ red high heels. All of the men in this calendar, took part in the Willow’s, “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event. I love it!!
News travels quickly in this town as one of the viewers of the NBC Kansas City piece of two days ago, contacted the Lawrence Journal World to let them know of our visit to their town. Reporter Chris Hong contacted me and he and his cameraman met me for a future article. The kindness of people is in no shortage in this town as Chris invited me and Nathan to dinner at his house for homemade pasta from scratch. We stayed late, “solving all of the world’s problems” over some homemade wine brought by Quentin, one of Chris’ friends.
Thank you to everyone, for making today a very special day.

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