Bonnyville resident and Pay It Forward (PIF) Day Ambassador for Canada Darlene Doskoch was out inspiring locals with random acts of kindness yet again.
The Bonnyville AB –Thank You Facebook page creator participated in a handful of PIF Day kindness acts last Thursday.
The Dove Centre got involved with Doskoch in the community. Volunteers helped hand out flowers and muffins. They also took chocolates to the RCMP.
Doskoch stopped by Sobeys, where she randomly selected shoppers at the cashier and paid for their groceries.
“While we live in a world where unimaginable things happen and a world of such hurt and pain, it is really heartwarming to know that nice people still exist,” Stacey Stone posted online, one of the women Doskoch paid for. “A gesture so small means so much to someone else. Thank you sweet lady for not only making my day by restoring the fact that sweet kind people still do exist.”
Doskoch could also be found raking lawns to help residents with spring cleanup.
PIF International was hoping to record 10 million acts of kindness for its 10-year anniversary.
Acts of kindness are mostly recorded through social media. Unless the person receiving or giving the kind act reaches out, the act goes undocumented. It can be hard to figure out just how successful PIF Day was.
“We always ask that people go on our Facebook page or go on our website, and let us know,” said Doskoch.
Last year, Facebook documented five million acts of kindness around the world. These included any post with #payitforward or posts on the PIF page.
“That was just on Facebook, so you know if we're hitting five million on Facebook we know darn well that there is more going out there in the community, and around the world, than what is just happening on Facebook.”
Many of Doskoch's acts around the community were recorded on the Bonnyville AB – Thank You page on Facebook.
Doskoch started volunteering with PIF Day in 2011.
After moving to Bonnyville from Williams Lake, BC in 2013, she noticed that Bonnyville is a particularly kind place to live.
“The Town of Bonnyville itself inspires me because Bonnyville is so incredibly kind. It's a pretty transient town, I'm pretty sure that in some part creates that environment of welcoming.”
Doskoch saw a news broadcast where Inspirational Speaker for Pay It Forward Donovan Nichols was handing out cookies and asking strangers for hugs.
“I thought ‘I want to be like him',” said Doskoch.
After making contact with Nichols, the pair worked together to develop PIF organization in Canada. It wasn't long before PIF International asked Doskoch to become Canada's ambassador for PIF.
“It took me about two-seconds before I said yes,” laughed Doskoch.
Starting in her previous community, Doskoch worked her way out to larger cities and then to provinces.
Many cities like Calgary and Edmonton bought into the idea of paying it forward quickly, proclaiming Pay It Forward Day. British Colombia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and the Yukon followed suit.
“The only difficult part in doing it is all of these things I have to do every year, because they only proclaim for the one day for that year. It's not like it's proclaimed this year and it will be proclaimed for the rest of forever. It's only good for that year and that day,” said Doskoch.
By connecting with local politicians, Doskoch hoped to get the government of Canada to proclaim PIF Day.
“My goal is, when you go into a store in Canada, and you buy a new calendar you open it up to April 28 and see that PIF Day is already mentioned on the calendar. Just to get it into everyone's household and make it a part of our normal language.”
Doskoch gave a simple idiom for making acts of kindness prevalent in everyday life.
If someone folds their hands together, their thumbs will fall a certain way. If they were to switch which thumb was over the other, it would go against the way they have been naturally folding their hands since they were born.
Acts of kindness are similar. At first they are a little uncomfortable, but they can become natural.
“Sometimes kindness scares people because they aren't used to receiving it. They know how to act in a stressful situation, but as a society, we aren't really used to receiving or seeing acts of kindness,” said Doskoch. “It's not sensational enough, but what if it was? What if that became our norm rather than the negative aspect of society?”
PIF Canada will be recording the number of acts of kindness performed on PIF Day over the next few weeks.
Anyone who participated, or anyone who missed PIF Day and wants to perform an act of kindness on a regular day of the week, can inspire others with their act by posting it to the Pay It Forward Day Canada or Bonnyville AB – Thank You Facebook page.
“If we choose to only look for kindness in the world, than we will only find it.”
