When Kindness Pays Off

I'm on a mission to make the world a little kinder. I try to do small things in my life to surprise and delight people—making other people's days happier makes mine better. This is why I was thrilled to be a part of the Kleenex Kindness campaign.

My mission as a Kleenex Care Pack Ambassador was to pay it forward to deserving YMC members. Hundreds of entries for our Kleenex Kindness competition had to be waded through. The amount of generosity and feel good stories submitted by our readers was inspiring to say the least. Tales of charity, of giving back, and of surprising acts of kindness made it incredibly difficult for our judges to decide. In fact, rather than giving out five Kleenex Care Packs as planned, we ended choosing thirteen recipients!

But there could only be one Grand Prize winner who epitomized the essence of kindness. That winner would receive a $1,000 shopping spree plus a surprise visit to hand deliver the prize pack to their front door from me.

After much deliberation, the Grand Prize winner was chosen. Here's what Jody Matheson wrote for his entry:

"I have countless stories of random kindness, but I'm most proud of one my children did. They chose to donate their birthdays to charity. At ages 8 & 9, they recognized that there were kids who needed help more than they needed stuff. They invited everyone in the classes from school to a big play place, and asked only for a donation to City Kidz. No gifts.

Over two years, they raised close to $1,200.00. I sure would love to treat them to a shopping spree to show them that kindness pays forward. (I'm sure they'll pick a few things for the CityKidz baskets from that too.)"

In order to be able to surprise Jody, he was notified that he was one thirteen finalists of our Pay It Forward contest, and was told that I may or may not show up at his front door on a certain Monday morning at 11 am with a grand prize.

The morning of, I was picked up by Kleenex staffers Sydney and Samantha, and headed out of town to Hamilton, Ontario for the big surprise. When we arrived, we were freaked out that Jody wasn't home! Whaaaat? We jumped back into our car and waited, fingers crossed that Jody would show. Thirty minutes later, he drove up with his wife Zanthe in tow to his home daycare and I was able to ambush him with his Kleenex grand prize. Score!!

Jody was totally surprised and thrilled to have been crowned the King of Kleenex Kindness at YMC, a delicious daddy being honoured by the yummy mummy crowd. I actually caught it on video which you can watch here:

It was really touching for me to meet Jody and his wife and hand deliver their $1,000 shopping spree: both are the embodiment of kindness. I have to admit I had to wipe a few tears of joy after spending time with them (cue the Kleenex).

And then I received a follow-up email from Jody with the photograph below which just blew me away:

"The girls had discussed, prior to winning, what they would do with the prize money if they won. They have been good to their word on this. They each donated $200 to City Kidz (total $400), the charity that benefited from their kindness in the first place. They then have decided to use half the winnings to go to Great Wolf Lodge, where they are also paying for a room and food for another family that we know that is in a financial pinch at the moment and could use a holiday. We plan to all go together in September.

Finally, the girls will use a little of the money on themselves for books and clothing over the summer.

In one way, it is easy to think about doing the right thing when the money doesn’t exist. It is harder to make it happen, when you consider all the ways you can use it for yourself. In the end, this was a great opportunity for the girls to learn that there is always someone that needs it more than you do, and when you can, share."

Thank you to Kleenex for allowing me to pay it forward. Thank you to everyone who shared their stories of kindness with us. And most importantly, thanks to Jody and his family for walking the talk. It's an honour to know you!