Sunday, February 22nd, 2009

Today my family and I went to a place off from 69 HWY, heading East toward Joplin Missouri. It used to be called Zoomers Antiques, but it is now called Fenoglio Originals. This woman named Mary Fenoglio is an amazing artist and woman. She was critically injured in an automobile accident four years ago and had severe spinal damage, but is doing well today. She still suffers from the main trauma of it all and the secondary pain, but she is truly an inspiration to us all.

She asked me if I was an artist, I told her, "Well, yes, that I thought of myself as an artist", and she was such a warm and kind person once she knew that I was there to observe her wonderful pieces of art and the admiration I had for her dedication. She makes one of kind furniture from salvaged doors, old baby beds, old pieces of wood that were once left to rot in a pile to be burned, but she does amazing ensembles with them. She operates hand saws and table saws and makes incredible works of art. Many that I would love to say I have made. Of course, under the discretion of my parents. Maybe one day!!!?

She said she was having a bad day with her fibromyalgia and that people dismiss her composed art as a form of junk, and that is disheartening to her. Not her exact words, but she was hurt by their remarks. She was featured in Country Woman magazine, and it featured some of her pieces.

The inspiration and creativeness that must go into one piece of furniture is amazing. I told her I would love to come back and talk more to her that she was an inspiration to me. She was so relieved by my admiration and gave me a hug. She was such a fascination standing before me that I wanted her to know that I truly looked at her as an artist and I loved how she made the world beautiful by making old things new again. I left her a hand-drawn sketch as a random act of kindness and sent her a thank you for taking the time to show us her particular pieces of art. What an inspiration she could be to us all!!! She has overcome many obstacles and still has the composure to make it all work for her.

Saturday, February 21st, 2009

Today is another beautiful day, I wish I could say it is something I ordered, but it isn't. Today my dad and I are going to go to the SEK Recycling Center to donate our recycled bottles, plastics and paper and make a donation, and then to Salvation Army to drop off some clothes that we are still cleaning out of the basement closets....UGH!!! I didn't realize I had so many clothes.
My mom is out of town on business, so I guess I have to make the informed decision of what to choose to donate. Mariah stayed the night with me last night, and we went skating. David Lowe was nice enough to mention the RAK website again while we were skating. How very thoughtful him and his wife Alisia are. Alisia is a dog groomer and grooms our dog Pierre, she does an excellent job if you know someone that needs their dog groomed. I'll enclose a video eating ramen noodles from a fork, totally hilarious, of his new-do!!!


Oh, and they had an article about the SEK is SEK conference/presentation in the Morning Sun, I'll post it here as well.

Morning Sun, The (Pittsburg, KS)Groups unite at domestic violence conference ANDREW NASH The Morning Sun Published: February 21, 2009

Typically, one group or another will claim responsibility for a particular event or activity. In that case, the Regional Domestic Violence Conference was a rare production. At least 13 businesses, school districts and other groups combined efforts to put on the event.
One organizer, Julie Allison, the president of SEK is Safely Educating Kids (SEK is SEK) and director of Pittsburg State's office of violence response and prevention, said the regional conference was important to many groups, which explained the response.
"Domestic violence is an epidemic that affects not only this community, but across the United States and the world. It's an impact everywhere," Allison said. "It affects the victim, it affects the perpetrator, it affects the kids. It also has an intergenerational affect."
The conference featured the Rev. Al Miles, a national expert on religion and family violence from Honolulu, Hawaii. Miles has written three publications on the subject of domestic violence.
Attendees said Miles' involvement brought a lot to the proverbial table.
"He was very informative and very good. He offered good pointers on how we could get in and offer help," said Tracy Jackson, a social worker with the Kansas Social and Rehabilitative Services in Parsons. "We just have to try not to just jump in there and try to fix the problem right off, but to work with the person at their speed."
Another attendee said the event, as well as Miles, provided an ample opportunity to hear from the angles of others who deal with domestic violence situations.
"I enjoyed the way he mixed the tables up so you get various perspectives," said Vicky Polen, victim's advocate with the Crisis Resource Center. "He was a dynamic speaker, and this was the best training that I've ever been to. I've learned that there's a hope we can work together with the religious-based community."
Allison agreed that the event was important for all the agencies to unite in solving the problem of domestic violence.
"We got the chance to share our frustrations and our successes," Allison said. "Even with our frustrations and successes, all of us want to make a difference. This just reinforced the opportunity to collaborate for the victims and for children."

FRIDAY, February 20th, 2009

Today is a no-school day.....YEA!!! (although I love school)!!!!really!!!!

So, this is a great opportunity to take advantage of the great weather and do some RAK around the community. We have a lady that lives behind us named Laverna. She is an awesome lady. She has helped me many times, like when I have forgotten my house key and wouldn't get in, or when I have my birthday and she always brings me the best stuff!!!! Not as though birthdays are about material things, but she totally rocks! Anyway, I went and got her some candy and thought it would brighten her day. She has been laid off from work and I know something random would cheer her up and brighten her day. She always greets me with a hug and a kiss, what a dear woman she is!!

We also took some sugar free candy to an older couple that are our friends, Louie is diabetic, but boy, he can cook. Louis Caputo is truly italian. I'll enclose a pic of him when he let me drive his pontoon boat a couple of summers ago. He is like a grandpa to me and his wife Judy is just as fun~ I'm sure he won't mind!!!

THURSDAY February 19th, 2009

WE DIDN'T WIN ANY PRIZES...BUT WE ARE DOING RAK ANYWAYS!!!!..............and that is a prize in itself!!!!!!

e got there on time and were able to get great seats. They showed a presentation of a couple of the presentations submitted for review and we seen some really good ones. They didn't feature our presentation since there was a speaker and he had a presentation. His name was Rev. Al Miles from Honolulu Hawaii....yes, I always wanted to go there. Who knows, maybe I will one day!!

He was a great speaker and spoke about instances where bullying, peer pressure and stalking are of great concern in the settings of society today. He also spoke about some true-life instances where a teenage girl was in a domestical abuse relationship. It was very informative and very well received with all the audience. The audience was very diverse in age, there was an older woman there that was knitting, alot of young people and then of course, PARENTS!!!!! UGH!! My dad had to ask when the proper age was to start dating? (Talk about embarasssing!!!!)Well, Mr. Al Miles replied that it is dependent on the teenager and that they had to leave all lines of communication open for discussion. (Very well handled!!!)

We got to meet Rev. Al Miles after the presentation and had a photo opportunity, check it out!!! He was super nice. Then the ladies at The Crisis Resource Center of Southeast Kansas was kind enough to offer us a pen and a nail file. They did their RAK for the evening by just being there!

Well, my parents still thought we deserved a celebratory dinner and took us to Meadowbrook Mall and fed us at Cafe Del Rio...got to love the Queso! YUM!

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 18th, 2009

WELL, TODAY IS THE BIG DAY......
and what day is that? You ask???
Well, today is the day that we go to the SEK Conference on promoting PEACE in our community. You see Taylor and I began this website as a bit of a contest to see what type of feedback we could get on how we can make a difference in promoting Random Acts of Kindness, and how far we could get posts from different areas of the world. Well, as you all know, we didn't get very far, but we know our hard work will pay off in the future, because we are going to try and maintain posts throughout the year to use it as a beginning to bigger and better experiments.
Julie Allison, the president of SEK is Safely Educating Kids (SEK is SEK) and director of Pittsburg State's office of violence response and prevention program, is the lady that will be in charge of tonites ceremony and there will be a discussion with the assistance of Rev. Al Miles from Honolulu Hawaii.
Tonite is an exciting night. I'm going with my parents, and Mariah and Taylor are going with me. Taylor and I have discussed this, and we don't care if we win or not, we just want to make a difference~

AS WE WERE DOING ONE RANDOM ACT OF KINDNESS ANOTHER ONE WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF US.............

Tuesday February 17th, 2009

My mom and I was going to the other side of town to drop off some clothing at the local Salvation Army on East 5th St. We were on Joplin Street and came across a trash bin in the middle of the road. She had pulled over off to the side of the street and turned her flashers on. I asked my mom what she was doing. She said, "Well, aren't you going to remove it from the middle of the street so no cars hit it?"

I then opened the car door and got out, while I was doing this random act of kindness, it hit me.....who knows if there is an elderly lady that lives there and can't get out, or what if someone that lives there is sick and dreading getting out in the blustery wind and cold.

I then felt relieved to know what I had just done helped whomever that lives there, and I could've possibly saved someone from hitting the trash bin and hurting their car, or possibly saving an accident from occuring. It felt good to take the initiative and do something good.

WHAT WONDERFUL PEOPLE THERE ARE IN OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

MONDAY February 16th, 2009

On Monday I was informed from the Pittsburg Public Library that I had a book overdue by three days. This was my first overdue book and I gave it to my mom to take back while I was in school. I knew it was only ten cents a day, but I felt badly for it not being on time.

Well, when I got home, my mom said the charges were waived by the nice lady at the check-in/check-out department of the library. It is because of these random acts of kindness that can put a smile on someones face, no matter how small.

My mom went ahead and left a donation and offered sincere thanks to the lady. I don't know if you have ever visited the library, but if you have, then you know it is a diamond waiting to be found. If not, you should go. The Young Adult Librarian, Bev Troglia is an awesome help as well. Check out their website if you get a chance. http://www.pittsburgpubliclibrary.org/

I then went on to hand out more RAK cards at the local convenient store, and at the local Sonic Drive-In. We have managed to hand out 400 cards so far~ If you get a chance please post something nice you have done today, no matter how small it was!

LOCKS OF LOVE....

HEADLINE READS:

Local Young Girl Donates Long Blonde Flowing Locks to Locks of Love

I wanted to alert everyone that one of our accelerated Random Acts of Kindness volunteers has went and had her hair donated to the cause of Locks of Love. Morgan Bernard was such a trooper and was such a dear to do this. We are so proud of her and she is such a sweetie! SO.... if you see a sweet young girl that goes by the name of Morgan Bernard, please tell her she is such an inspiration to us all.

Pictures by Shelley Bernard

EVERYBODY WAS ROCK-n-ROLLA-SKATING!

[What a great night for promoting RAK-ROKS]

We decided since it was Valentines Day that we would go to the local party that LOWE's SKATEWAY has each year. WOW!! Talk about the people that were there. I didn't realize that there would be so many. I decided to bring along chocolate candy, fruit roll-ups and cute little rings with fun little sayings on them to pass out along with the flyers and cards. Well, let's put it this way, I didn't have quite enough.

When I had gotten in to pay my way, I spoke with Alisa and Dave Lowe, the owners of Lowe's Skateway and they said they would help to promote this wonderful cause by announcing it during the skate session...and you know what??? THEY DID!!! ................YES!!! They did their random act of kindness, and it was so appreciated.

Taylor and I had many people come up to us during the night asking us to explain to them what it was that we were doing. We just explained that they just need to do something kind, helpful or doing something without being asked. We even had a five year old little girl that asked what she could do? We told her that she could share her toys, be nice to her siblings, and/or clean her messes up without being asked. We really didn't expect a little five year old to ask such a question, but glad she did, since it meant that she wanted to help as well.

SO, thank you to the little girl that came up to us to ask how she could help.

Oh, and once again, if you could leave a comment if you check out our website, it would be appreciated, we just want to see how far the word travels, and if you have done any random acts of kindness recently~

Thanks for looking, and check back often for new photos and video!

We've been Soooooo busy!!! WOOHOOO!!

Taylor Bernard & Morgan Bernard

Mary Kay Caldwell from SEK Humane Society at the Chili Feed, and a listing of events at Memorial Auditorium.

WOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

I can't believe how fast the news has traveled about our cause. I'm getting confronted at school and at area businesses about what we're doing to promote RAK ROKS. We've recently handed out flyers (thanks mom!!) at area businesses to hang, and everyone has been really helpful and seems to be excited about hopefully making a difference.

We went to Salvation Army and dropped off lots of clothing and we want to give a special thanks to Sue and Helen, they are such wonderful ladies, they do a random act of kindness everyday by helping people who have suffered loss, either by disaster relief, or when someone has underwent a tragic loss like a house fire. These ladies are always there to greet whoever walks through the door, and there to listen.

So, not only have we went to Salvation Army, Public Library (Thank you Bev Troglia, you are so nice, and the ladies at the front desk)!!, Dillons, Frontenac'rs, Applebees, Chili's, PSU and Meadowbrook Mall.

Oh, and yes....we have new photos and videos.......TA-DA~

If we could please get everyone who checks our website to leave a comment, even if it isn't to post your random act of kindness, if you could just tell us how you feel about this idea. Check back often to see if you are caught doing a random act of kindness....

Some of the lucky candidates....

The LUCKY PINK & BLACK CARDS.....who will get them?????

Maybe you can make a difference!

SOOO Far...SOOO Good~

Well...... today during school we got to have our blog mentioned during the school bulletin. I'm hoping my classmates will be able to view it and make suggestions and comments.
Later this afternoon I'm off to make more business cards to hand out. I'm thinking that I should maybe change the layout of the cards to make the website more visible. Hopefully that will help to direct the comments to the blog. OH, and I'm going to post some pics, see if you were one of the fortunate ones caught during the first round of RAK ROKS.....

Love ya,
PEACE OUT~

IT WAS FUN!!!!!

Well, it was an eventful night. We figured we better get to the shopping center here in town before the weather turned bad. We managed to hand out 103 Random Acts of Kindness cards and with a little bit of sweet inspiration behind it all. We had some wonderful and receptive people who actually approached us. Alot of them would pull out their wallets thinking it was a fundraiser, and we even had one woman who was taken by what we were doing, that she began crying....we gave her a handful of candy!!!~

Hopefully, we will be handing out cards tomorrow night as well, but will probably be at the local Mall. Keep checking back to see how far your card will make it. We appreciate everyones support in this effort. I know Pittsburg Kansas is small, but even we can make a difference, and who knows, maybe we can actually make it as far as the East/West Coast?? I'll be posting pics later on, so check back to see if you've been captured.

The day it all began....

Today is when it all begins.....we will be handing out the RAK ROKS cards today at Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Big Lots, Dillons, PSU, and the surrounding community. We will have a special treat attached to most to make it an even sweeter treat!!! It turned out to be such a beautiful day, so we could not ask for more...well, maybe for everyone to make an effort to do a random act of kindness!!! Thanks for all your support!