The Kindness Project - by Ella and Lauren Taira

PROJECT 1:

For our first act of kindness, we decided to go to Portillo's and pay for two people's meals through the drive-through. We decided to do this act through the drive-through so it would be anonymous. For the first car, we did not receive a reaction from the people. For the second car, we received a "thank you". After this act we decided to make our acts of kindness person-to-person so hopefully, we could receive more of a reaction. Also, for this act, it didn’t feel like we were really spreading the kindness because we were not able to tell the recipients our motives and to spread the kindness.

PROJECT 2:

For our second act of kindness, we paid for a family's dinner at the restaurant "Margaritas". The family was selected by Nick, and consisted of two parents and their two young girls. We chose a family that would most likely be done eating before us so they could come over and we could see their reactions. When they finished their meal, the family came over and thanked us. They also mentioned how they had been coming to the restaurant for years, just like our family, so we figured it was a good pick. They were very appreciative of our act and hopefully spread the kindness elsewhere. With the hope that they would carry on the kindness, we felt we had successfully completed part our kindness mission. We always go to "Margaritas" and have always loved the food and the people there so we thought buying someone's dinner was the best idea because of the fact that we're so used to the atmosphere. Everyone is always in a good mood while we're there and why not make them feel even better by surprising them with dinner on us.

PROJECT 3:

For our third and final act of kindness, we bought donuts and coffee for the River Forest fire and police departments. We picked this task because we thought that the fire/police men were deserving of a nice treat, especially because they do so much for us and our community. We purchased two dozen assorted donuts and a 1 lb. bag of coffee. We went to the police/fire station and had some trouble figuring out where to go. Since it was a Sunday, it was very empty and we couldn't find anyone to give the donuts to. Nick was very frustrated with the transaction because of the fact that we couldn't find any people. We eventually found a fireman and a policeman and gave them the donuts and coffee. They were very appreciative of our gift and thanked us for it.  We felt like the smaller acts of kindness were the best because of the fact that they were so unexpected. You could tell the police officer was a little confused and thought we were looking for someone specific but it was nice to see how happy they were when they realized it was just to be kind.