National Kindness Day Is Today!!!!

All week we have been blogging about kindness. Today is the day, "National Kindness Day" ... so I have been racking my brain on what to post for such an awesome occasion.  (Let's face it.  The world needs a little more kindness in it.)  This is what I came up with ... 

We blog about books and our fictional heroes almost everyday but today I'm going to take a break and talk about the real life ones.  These are the ones that show incredible kindness even when sometimes they shouldn't. I know there have been many times in my life where kindness has affected me for the better ... like getting food for my kids and when I pull up at the drive through they inform me the car in front of me already paid for my food.  Or when I have done my own act of kindness and see the smile on the face of a stranger that is having a worse day than mine.  It makes life worth living. So here we go.  Most of these people you probably have never heard of before but they are the angels on earth, trying to make a difference in at least one person's life.

Act of Kindness #1
Caitlin Prater-Haacke

On Sept. 25, somebody broke into Caitlin Prater-Haacke’s locker at school and used her iPad to post a Facebook status update that told her to die, she said.  Instead of letting it upset her, Prater-Haacke decided to respond with kindness and put up positive post-it notes on every locker before students arrived for school.

“Bullying is not necessarily addressed, and people get really down about it.  I wanted to do something positive — it was about due time,” Prater-Haacke said.

The community then banded together to launch a new anti-bullying campaign called "Positive Post-It Day", which encourages people to leave anonymous notes of kindness for one another.

The Staples store gave away Post-it notes to support the campaign.

One of the students who recieved a post it note said many students kept Prater-Haacke’s positive messages because the notes made them feel special.

Act of Kindness #2

Jorge Munoz

Jorge Munoz is one of the most inspiring people you'll ever meet.  A school bus driver by day and an angel by night.  Every night for the past 5 years, he with the help of his family, has gone home and cooked food for hundreds of people on his old stove.  He then goes to a street corner in Queens, New York and feeds those that are hungry.  He does this with his own money and donations he receives because "it's the right thing to do".  He is a man that wants to help, and is the epitome of an everyday hero. 

Act of Kindness #3

Mark and Ismini Svensson

Mark and Ismini Svensson have traveled plenty.  Instead of the big wedding or a honeymoon, they've been crossing the country in hopes of helping those who could use it.

The New York couple has spent the last two years doing the "50 Acts of Giving Back" -- the challenge they're determined to complete instead of relaxing in their newly married bliss. They've been on a mission to shed light on causes they believe in and complete random acts of kindness in every U.S. state -- from giving out meals to homeless people in Missouri and showing rescue animals love in Florida, to donating gifts to sick kids in Arkansas and supporting domestic abuse victims in Utah.

The couple had the money for a wedding reception, but decided to use those savings and travel across all 50 states instead.

"We both realized that what makes us happiest is helping people in need," she told CNN

So many amazing stories out there. Today let's try to be a little kinder.  Give someone a sticky note and tell them they're beautiful or pay for someones hot chocolate at Starbucks. Lets pay it forward!