Project Three Six Five

365 days 365 (or more) acts of kindness 365 photos Mission: To empower people of all ages to share kindness through their daily actions. Find us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER Menu (click on the links below): + About Project Three Six Five + Submit a Story + Read some feedback + Contact Info (Hint: click on the photos for a description)

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DAY 192: A cup of tea.

I’ve been working at a tea shop recently and on day 192 a guy called the shop asking if we had raspberry tea leaves. He explained that his wife was pregnant and was craving it. I took a look at our tea list and we just so happened to have it. He asked me what time we closed at, and said something along the lines of: “I’m going to have to drive across town just to get it, but I’ll be there before you close!”

About half an hour before close, he came into the shop. (I don’t know what it was, but I could tell it was him). I packed him a tin of tea that he paid for. I guess the “act of kindness” part of this was that I made him a cup of tea on the side (paying for it out of my own money), so he could bring it to his wife as soon as he got home. Turns out, he’s really been driving around town to find this tea for his wife. Apparently she was going to have a baby the next day, and her friends told her (specifically) that drinking raspberry leave tea helps during labour. I told him congrats, handed him the tea, and also told him he’s a great husband (and is going to be a great dad)!

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DAY 191: Complimented a blog.

The people who send me positive messages about my blog really do make my day. I’ve read every single one of them, and although I can’t reply publicly (because this blog won’t allow text posts), I really appreciate them. 

For this day, I decided to return the favour to one of my personal favourite blogs. The blog is called The Curious Brain, and has a bunch of posts on creative things – videos, infographics, comics, and so on. I’ve been following this blog for years because it’s been an inspiration to me when I find myself low in creativity. 

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DAY 190: Left bus tickets at the train station.

Have you had one of those days where you’ve forgotten to bring your bus pass? I have. That’s why I decided to leave bus tickets at one of the LRT (bus stop) stations. I left a note explaining why I left them there that also encouraged (the receiver) to try out their own act of kindness.

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You'll receive: - Updates on the project - Weekly acts of kindness suggestions - Info on community events  - More!

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DAY 189: Donated money to a mental health awareness campaign online crisis network. 

(I definitely wrote that in sharpie before thinking).

I know I've been doing a lot of donations lately, but I really wanted to donate again to this cause. I found out it was National Suicide Prevention week via social media, and I wanted to do something that was related to the cause. I found out about this 24/7 online crisis network via the Post Secret Facebook page, and I thought it would be a good way to contribute to the cause. 

I encourage you to donate too by visiting IMAlive.org

What's in the photo? It's a photo of my journal that was stamped at a Post Secret event and signed by Frank Warren (the man behind Post Secret). The polaroid photo in the photo is of my friends and I with Frank Warren. I thought this was relevant since Frank Warren is such a huge advocate for mental health awareness and is the reason why I found out about the campaign I donated to.

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DAY 188: Gave away a Subway gift card.

I can't really take any credit for this one. Last class, one of my classmates (who I had never met before) came up to me and told me she had heard about Project Three Six Five through twitter. I know this project has gotten some decent media coverage in the past year, but it still surprises me whenever someone I don't know approaches me about the project. (And I am so grateful for it). 

She told me she received the gift card from a booth at the clubs fair on campus, and wanted me to give it out to a stranger. As she wished, I gave it out to a stranger. However, it did take me a couple of attempts because the first girl I offered it to told me to give it to someone who needs it more. This kind of shocked me so I waited a few days before trying again. The second time around, I approached another girl in the subway line, explained what I was doing, and gave her the gift card (which she accepted). Mission complete. 

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DAY 187: Donated money to a friend's run.

This one's pretty self explanatory. My friend does a lot of charity runs in the town she grew up in, so I thought I'd donate $5 to the cause. So why is there a crappy drawing of the shoe? Well, to be honest, I didn't really have anything to take a photo of for this one since it was an online donation. I mean, I could've taken another photo of my laptop screen...but I already have too many of those. So here we are, with a badly drawn shoe (which is supposed to represent the race). 

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DAY 186: Baked cookies with kids.

I was trying to think of an act of kindness that was a bit different than usual, and I thought about the kids I was babysitting at night. I was thinking about doing something a bit "extra" for the kids, just for a change. When I was a kid, I loved making things. Making things was even better when you could eat it. After thinking about this for a bit, the idea came to me: baking cookies. (Almost) every kid loves making cookies. You get to mix the ingredients, bake them, decorate them, AND eat them. That's like heaven to a kid. (And to me, even at age 20. Yeah, I'm still a kid at heart). WIth this idea in mind, I went to a nearby grocery before I was supposed to babysit and bought some cookie mix, icing and food colouring. I also brought over cookie cutters from my house because cookie cutters make cookies taste THAT much better. Fact.  I think this was pretty successful. The kids loved making the cookies. As a plus, I didn't have to go through another makeover performed by a 6-year-old girl (which is what happened last time haha). 

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DAY 185: Donated money to buying school supplies for kids.

Let's be real here. I was definitely one of those kids who bought new school supplies each year even when I didn't need them. I've probably burned thousands of my parents' dollars on pretty pencils, erasers, and the like. (Sorry parents). Now that I'm grown up and spend my own money on school supplies, I've decided to be a bit more money-conscious when it comes to back-to-school shopping. Really, all I needed this year were some notebooks so that's exactly what I bought. To my surprise, Staples was selling 80-page notebooks for 10 cents each! I bought 6, spending a total of 60 cents. (Big spender, I know). I figured that since I spent so little on my own school supplies, it'd be a good idea to help buy school supplies for another kid who can't afford them. At the till, I asked the cashier if I could donate $10 to the Staples's school supply drive. (Not sure what the exact name of it is). The cashier seemed really surprised by this and thanked me a billion times, which was nice to see that someone else was really passionate about the cause. 

It's never too late to donate. Instead of spending that extra $5 on the pretty pencils, why not donate that $5 to someone who could really use it?

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DAY 184: Left 2-for-1 gym passes in lockers at the gym.

A while back, someone gave me a bunch of 2-for-1 passes. I never ended up using them because I tend to go solo. (I get distracted when I go with others). Since I recently bought a month pass to the gym, I figured I no longer had a use for them since my parents don't go to the gym either (sorry for revealing your secrets, parents). Anyway, it's always nice to save a little money when you least expect it, so I decided to hide some passes in lockers throughout the recreation centre. Might as well put them to good use!

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DAY 183: Wrote happy notes in chalk around my neighbourhood.

I'll admit, I'm kind of broke from all the spending I've been doing while living away from home this summer. I was trying to think of something that would brighten someone's day, and the thought of chalk came up. (I was talking to a friend earlier and they mentioned this idea). It was about 1 am when I decided to grab a large piece of chalk from my garage and started to write nice, happy notes around my neighbourhood. I was just thinking that it'd be a nice way to start a morning by reading an encouraging note. I wrote these notes on peoples' driveways, public sidewalks, and at a couple of bus stops. Hopefully someone will wake up with a smile tomorrow!

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DAY 182: Left a note for my parents in the fridge. 

It's been a long time since I've spent time with my parents. I spent 2 months of the summer living in Toronto for work, and another 3 weeks in Toronto/Montreal/Quebec for vacation. I haven't really been around my parents too much since I've been back because I tend to be away from the house by the time they get home from work each night. I thought I should show them that I appreciate them (even if I don't spend a lot of time with them) by writing them a short note on post-it notes. I snuck down to my fridge in the morning and taped the notes in the fridge where I know they always look each morning.

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DAY 181: Participated in the Stride walk/run for blood.

I have a friend who volunteers for the Canadian Blood Services (CBS) and is pretty passionate about spreading the importance of donating blood. (Unfortunately I can't donate blood because I'm too small/young). The CBS Youth Volunteer group (I don't know their official name) organized an event called "Stride" this sunday. It's a 4k walk/7k run. However, instead of asking for monetary donations, participants are asked to get blood donation pledges. (I think this is a genius idea for the record).  

I decided to participate in the run and so far I have 2 pledges. I know it's not a lot, but hey, a couple of blood donations could mean a lot to someone else. Although the walk/run has passed, I'm still allowed to collect pledges until the end of august. If you are a Canadian and want to help me out by pledging to donate blood, please send me a message!

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DAY 180: Hosted an exchange student.

About a month ago, I received an email from my university looking for students who'd be interested in hosting a Japanese exchange student for a day. When I first read the email, I didn't really think too much of it since I was in Toronto. However, a few days ago, my friend was talking about how he was going to volunteer to host a student. He mentioned that they were still looking for people to help out, so I took the opportunity to sign up to host a Japanese student for the day.

My friend and I hosted our students together. My exchange student's name was Ria and is from Tokyo. We started the day by heading to the farmers market and sampled some local foods. Then we headed to Dadeos for lunch (a popular local restaurant). After that, we went to the Whitemud amusement park where we played mini golf and tried out the batting cages. (I sat out on the latter because I can't hit a baseball for the life of me). We also visited a second farmers market and got a tour of the inside of an icecream food truck. To finish off the day, we went back to my house and had a bbq with my parents (because they were interested in seeing what a "Canadian house" looked like). All in all, a day well spent!

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DAY 179: Reverse Pickpocketed.

I watched a few videos online about reverse pickpocketing and I really wanted to try it out. Reverse pickpocketing is like pickpocketing, but instead of stealing something from someone when they're not looking, you give them something. 

I tried this out at the Toronto International Airport and I was super nervous. Yeah, silly me, I chose a place with super-high security. I'm glad I didn't get caught because it sure would've been hard trying to explain this one to the airport security. 

Anyway, I purchased a gift card at the airport Starbucks and wrote a note (explaining this) to go along with it. As everyone from my flight headed to the luggage claim, I circled the belt to find someone to "reverse pickpocket". This was extremely nerve-racking. Sweaty palms, shaking hands...yeah that was me. Anyway, I eventually found a good 'victim' who had a bag that was wide open. It was tricky because she was with 2 other people, so I had to drop it in her bag when the 3 of them weren't looking. After standing next to this lady for quite some time, I finally built up the confidence to drop off the gift card in her bag and casually walked away. Success!

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DAY 178: Wrote a note for a street performer. At the beginning of July, the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival took place. It's an annual event, and as the name says, a bunch of street performers come to perform to the public at Churchill Square. Every year, I attend the festival full of amazing acts. Although these performers have lots of people come to them after their performance to give them money, that seems to be the extent of the "thank you". I thought I'd try something different for a change a wrote a card with some money inside. The card had a little message I wrote, thanking the street performer for being who they are and doing what they love (because I think that's sort of rare these days). After the individual's performance, I dropped the card into the performer's hat and walked away. 

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DAY 177: Put together care packages. I was looking for ideas of acts of kindness to do, and I came across this idea of creating ‘care packages’ for people in need. I went to Walmart and put together a couple of care packs, each containing the following: 4 packs of tissues, 1 pack of wet cleaning cloths, 2 juice boxes, 4 granola bars, 1 toothbrush, 1 toothpaste, and 2 packs of goldfish snacks. I plan to keep these care packs in the trunk of my car, and give them to people in need that I come across in the future.