Monday, August 11, 2014

Random Acts of Kindness

What goes around truly comes around. 

Rosie (16, Beacon High School) and Sasha (16, Stuyvesant High School) are both members of the Random Acts program, with a mission to "encourage people of all ages to perform their own acts of kindness wherever, and whenever, possible." "I saw a lot of people on Tumblr participating in Random Acts so i decided to join" said Rosie. "It was really fun so this year I convinced Sasha to join with me."

"It's a mixture of a few silly tasks but also more going around and helping your community and seeing people in need and helping them out" said Sasha. For this particular activity, participants were encouraged to deliver flowers to local senior citizens. When deciding on a venue, Sasha knew just the place.

"I basically grew up here." Sasha has been coming to the Y since nursery school. After graduating, she continued with music lessons, and was a part of our teen program. She also helped serve Sunday lunch at the senior center. Sasha's sister also attended the Y nursery program. "When I saw random Acts was delivering flowers to senior centers, I thought this place would be a good place to do it."

When we see people like Rosie willingly giving back to the Y, we can't help but think we are doing something right. We work hard to instill the values of community and kindness into our youngsters, and Sasha proved just that by giving back to our seniors. The look on the unsuspecting faces of our members receiving flowers during coffee hour proves just how far a small act of kindness can go.

The Center for Adults Living Well @ the Y thanks Sasha and Rosie for their thoughtful gesture, and we hope to see them again soon.