Giveaway: A Luxurious Moisturizer That Could Save A Woman’s Life
In an effort to raise awareness of their cause, One Village Planet–Women’s Development Initiative is giving away a free 2-ounce jar of pure, deeply moisturizing shea butter that can be used to treat dry, chapped skin anywhere on the body. Proceeds from Just Shea are used to buy protective boots, gloves, and coats for the women in Ghana who harvest shea butter as their sole source of income — 30,000 of whom are fatally bitten by poisonous snakes each year. To enter to win, leave a comment about a random act of kindness you performed or that you were the recipient of by midnight EST, Friday, December 18th. US mailing addresses only. And for those who don’t want to take their chances, Just Shea is offering free shipping for the holidays.
And the winner is….
Congrats to Brooke!
Crystal: Sometimes I forget that just reaching out and acknowledging others makes a difference. We are NOT all alone out there
Two super-wierd events over the last week, both in movie theatres, strangely enough: in one, a (clearly disturbed) man attacked a young couple in the movie theatre hallway, hitting the man in the face. You could hear the yelling from the theatre seats. I ran to see what was happening, found the police, made a witness report. But the most important part – the girl had left her purse in the theatre and was embarrassed to go back in. (this was a theatre FULL of people, and no one but me ran out to help this couple, what is the world coming to). I offered to go find it, and this sweet girl actually took my HAND, and we went and got her stuff. This had a real impact on me. Why don’t we reach out to people all the time? We NEED each other.
In the second one, it was a sad movie – and there was a man in the front row who started to cry, then moved on to full-on, audible sobs. For a number of minutes – and a minute is a LONG time, if you think about it.
I finally did go up and ask him if he was all right. He said he was, but he did eventually get up and leave, not too much later. I hope he was okay.
It’s been a tough year, and this winter seems a little colder than most. Let’s be extra kind to each other this season.2 years ago
Amy C: A few years ago I got really, really sick. I lost my job and (consequently) all my money – I had no insurance and barely enough money to live on. While I was in church one Sunday, this older woman who knew about my situation came up, pressed a piece of paper into my hand, and quickly left. When I looked at it, I realized it was a check for $500! She was a teacher and her husband was a musician, and I knew they could barely afford that – but that $500 allowed me to eat and pay my bills for an entire month. I will never forget that.2 years ago
beth: what a good cause. i can’t imagine having to take a job in which snakes are the main hazard. thanks for posting this, sarah.
as for the random act of kindness i receive on a regular basis, i have friends who live about two blocks away who call and invite me over to dinner whenever they know my boyfriend is out of town for a while. in their words, the idea is to give me “friendly company” when i’m at home alone. they’re the best kind of neighbors.2 years ago
Erica: A few days ago I gave an elderly woman a ride to the supermarket, it was too cold and too far for her to walk.2 years ago
Katherine: I suppose it’s not quite random, but I have a friend who gets a lot of migraines, so she went on an allergen elimination diet to see if a certain food was causing the problem. Unfortunately, this overlapped with Thanksgiving, so for Thanksgiving she couldn’t have wheat, corn, dairy, eggs, citrus, refined sugar… you get the picture – it was a rough assignment for a day full of delicious food. Well, I like to cook, and we were going to the same friend’s house for Thanksgiving, so I decided to make her a whole meal that she could eat. She came over the night before Thanksgiving, and with her help, I made buckwheat crackers, hummus, edamame soup (with stock from scratch – first time!), a vegan nut and lentil loaf, and tofu pumpkin pudding sweetened with honey. And I made my traditional Thanksgiving dish, and a pumpkin cheesecake (my first ever cheesecake!). It was a lot of work, but it felt really nice to be able to do something for her to make the day a little more bearable. And we had a great time cooking together.
Thanks for sharing this cause with us. Even if I don’t win, I’m happy to know about it as a future gift idea.2 years ago
Zarah: What a neat story about this product and the women whose lives it is changing! I received many wonderful RAOKs while my husband and I were remodeling our kitchen this fall (and had nothing to cook with except a microwave) – the gift of homemade leftovers from friends and neighbors! During 10 weeks of frozen dinners and fast food, those little Tupperware containers were a godsend!2 years ago
danielle: i work in the library at my school, which has a printing quota for every student. once the student runs out, they have to add money to their account to print more. one day a girl came in and asked if i knew how to do add money to the printing account. unfortunately they make you add money in $30 increments, which is really silly. i never use up all of my printing allotment (I try to be as green as possible), so i just let her print from my account, saving her that $30. she was really grateful.2 years ago
Brooke: I had a terrible day last week and that same evening I had to attend a holiday party for an organization I recently joined. As a new member, I was a little apprehensive about going by myself and all day long I had been worried about a project for work that was not going well. Just before I walked out the door, I got news that a friend’s father was ill. I was not feeling the Christmas spirit and thought about not going, but I’d already made a cheeseball and RSVPed. I drove half an hour to get to the party and pulled in the drive only to realize I had forgotten the gift for the exchange. I was embarrassed and frustrated and seriously thought about turning around and heading home. But for the cheeseball. Anyway, I explained my situation to the hostess and instead of having me sit out on the exchange, she insisted on me giving an “extra” gift she had on hand so that I could participate. It was such a small and insignificant thing, but it saved me from embarrassment and made me realize in the midst of this holiday season that the the smallest gestures can turn a day around. The gift didn’t matter at all, but her act of kindness made all the difference.2 years ago
Fran: As I’m leaving the store I love going up to people on line and giving them discount store coupons that I’m not going to be using. They really seem so pleasantly surprised!2 years ago
Jennifer: I’m with Fran, I try to give out coupons that I’m not going to use. Usually I leave them on the counter right next to the applicable product.
2 years ago
lisa strawberry: I’ve been sneaking into our dharma group’s center and leaving groceries for a friend who is having a rough time and living at the center at the moment. I know he wouldn’t let me take him grocery shopping (or give him money), so I try to pick out things he would like and leave them there for him. Quick, easy to fix, foods.2 years ago
Kokie: I try every week to bring in a baked good for the people I eat lunch with, I love to cook, but I love the reactions I get when I bring something and one of them was having a bad day. =)2 years ago
Erin: Random Acts of Kindness are cool, both for the giver and the recipient. This story is from when my Dad (and his Jack Russell Terrier) were staying with us during the summer. A while after he’d taken the dog for a “short walk” I started to worry. He was 75 years old, had started experiencing a bit of dementia and was diabetic. After an hour I called the police and they started looking for him. A guy down the street said “I’ll look for him on my motorcycle and check alleys too.” My husband went on a search too. No one could find him. Finally, an hour later, I saw a pick-up truck going slowing down the road and sure enough, there were my Dad and the dog in the front seat. That guy had gone up and down on nearly every street in the area because my Dad had forgotten the address and said he’d recognize the house if he saw it. Turns out my Dad had gotten about a mile from our house and was having low blood-sugar. The pick-up driver said my Dad was leaning against a tree and an older woman across the street saw him and being diabetic herself guessed what was happening and brought a glass of orange juice to him. He offered to take my Dad back to my house. I will never forget their kindness.2 years ago
Vivian T: I feed feral cats at a park.I go everyday to the park to feed them even though it is out of my way. I’m a college student, so sometimes i have to give up buying myself something so I can buy the cats food instead. It is soooo worth it.2 years ago
Georgine: I love to do random acts of kindness, and I like to do them anonymously. If I get to hear about how they touched people’s lives afterward, that’s the icing on the cake…
My husband and I are committed Christians and do not currently have a home church… however we are committed tithers and we have earmarked some of our tithe funds for child sponsorship, missions, and other causes that touch our hearts through the year. We use tithe funds for this as well, feeling that we should give the money away to people who need it. We are very blessed in our lives and feel very strongly we need to bless others.
One time in particular, I remember we were young, newlywed, poor college students, and even though finances were challenging, we tried to be faithful in our giving. I worked at a daycare and one of the care staff was really struggling with a lot of things in her personal life and finances were very difficult for her. She had a baby, her mate was not very responsible or grown up, and they hardly ever had enough to buy diapers or groceries. She cried over something one day – their vehicle needed some work to be safe and it was going to have to come from their food budget and she was so torn.
My hubby and I went out and used some of our giving money to purchase a money order and mail it to her house anonymously.
She came to work elated the next day telling everyone how someone had blessed them and she had no idea whoever it could be because she really didn’t know anyone there.
Since I worked in the office, I never heard this, but the director of the preschool knew me pretty well and wondered if I had been involved somehow… she came in and told me this heartwarming story of how someone really did something nice for this girl..
And my heart just smiled inside.
We’ve done stuff like this a number of times and let me just say that it always feels amazing – more amazing than anything we would ever do ourselves with that money.
And we honestly feel that we are so blessed in our own lives because we want to try and live this way and bless others. We’ve definitely experienced a few of our own special blessings and miracles.2 years ago
Erin: It’s a small thing, but I gave an extra $5 coupon to the woman behind me in line at Hallmark the other day. It made me feel great to pass along a little holiday cheer.2 years ago
Karen: I am reading these posts with a tear in my eye. It is nice to read about random acts of kindness. We are all busy, but it only takes a minute to help someone. I think it goes back to treating people the way we want to be treated…. it is a simple concept, but something that is important.
A few months ago our neighbor’s dog ran off. We found her and brought her home. Just seeing the owner and dog reunited filled us with joy!2 years ago
deanne: I don’t know if this is random per se, but I am a library assistant at a public library. We charge for printing off the internet. Yesterday I had an older gentleman who couldn’t walk try to print off the last 15 months of his bank statements, because he was filing for bankruptcy. He was having trouble (mostly because our computers are stupid). First I tried putting him on a different public computer but there was still trouble trying to print, so I then put him on a staff computer and helped him print out a whole pile of papers, and I didn’t charge him for it (a big no-no where I work). In the midst of printing out his statements he told me that his divorce was finalized two weeks ago. Here was a freshly divorced man who was about to file bankruptcy (I saw his bank account while helping him-he had $.83!) and he still managed to make jokes with me while I was helping him. I don’t know that I would have been so polite and cheerful if I was in his shoes.2 years ago
jj: I live in Minnesnowta, and though I don’t like all the traffic problems caused I blizzards, I do like to see the gung-ho helpful spirit that comes out during them. As I was driving my fiance’s family home from the airport (they had just landed from sunny El Salvador), my tires locked into a track of snow and I couldn’t steer my way out of hitting a metal pole and hacking up the front corner of my car. Though the police who drove by didn’t bat an eye or stop to help, a friendly soul passing by on the highway stopped to help push us out of the snow and make sure our tires (and ourselves) were okay. That’s what I like to see — even in the age of cellphones, friendly folk getting out of their car to give a helpful Minnesota push! =)2 years ago
fritz: i was grocery shopping once at a store that i never go to, they had some kind of contest when you checked out and i ended up winning a $50 gift certificate to the store, i turned around to the lady with kids behind me and gave it to her…2 years ago
Jen: leave it to sarah to whip up these stories for a blog giveaway…I love it! thanks so much.
I try to always offer little kindnesses – holding doors open, even just a simple smile…just letting people know they are important and are seen. The other day as I was doing the grocery shopping I heard a woman puzzling over how to tell which grapefruits were which. So I walked on back and helped her find the pink ones by the skins…she seemed surprised and so happy. Amazing.2 years ago
kristin: I was walking in a 3 day breast cancer walk about a year after i lost my mom. I had a t-shirt on that said on my back : “3 days, 60 miles in memory of my beautiful, sweet , brave mother”. I was about 11 miles in on a really hot day trudging up a hill and an older mom type lady put her hand on my shoulder ever so gently and whispered ” your mom is very proud of you today” and kept right on walking. I never even saw her face. It was to this day (i was 27 then and I am now 41) one of the kindest most magical moments of my life. I felt some how connceted to my mom for the first time since she had died at that moment on that hill, by those words. Life is good2 years ago