Positive People Dollars
By Albert B. Kelly
During one of my visits to a local school I was impressed
when they shared with me their program, started by the students, in which they
were tasked with finding people who are doing positive things in the community
and recognizing them for their good deed. After spotting someone doing a good
deed, the students would submit the name of the individual and give each one
doing a good deed a certificate verifying that they were “caught” doing
something positive in the Bridgeton community.
The other side to this is that without knowing it the person
doing the good deed and receiving the certificate was also being a meaningful
and worthwhile role model for the student who spotted them. So it had a
multiplier effect- not only did they do the original good deed which was
spotted by the student, they also did the good deed of being a role model.
I haven’t forgotten this classroom assignment and I want to
do something similar in our community, something where we reward positive
people who are doing positive things, big and small, not to be noticed, not for
public recognition, but because as Martin Luther King once said, “The time is
always right to do right”.
It is becoming even more urgent now in these harsh and
cynical days that our youth find and perhaps follow positive role models in
their neighborhoods and community. At
the very least, they should see what decency, kindness, compassion, or civic
responsibility looks like in the daily life of our community.
I was watching a TV program recently where the TV stars were
using vulgar and disgusting language that would not be tolerated in any
situation or personal interaction, language that was once prohibited from the
public airwaves. This is yet another example of the erosion of our common
culture and civic decency.
With our coarse public discourse in mind, I am thankful for
the many calls I have received over the last few months from citizens asking
how they might get involved in helping our youth and even some of the adults
struggling with life’s challenges. I am
also grateful for having had the opportunity to sit down with a number of community
leaders to map out strategies to help those neighborhoods who all too often
feel as if they are under siege.
With these things in mind, I would like to take what the
students started one step further and
incorporate it into a more public
approach. Specifically, I will be asking our local Police Department to keep an
eye out for positive people doing random acts of kindness in the community and
once spotted, give that person a special gift from the department and
myself.
Each time they “catch” someone over the next several weeks
doing some random act of kindness, I will be asking them to give that person an
envelope with a $2.00 bill inside, which I will be providing to them, because I
have always believed that it is
important that people be recognized in some tangible way.
This is my way of thanking the citizens of my city, the many
who do good and kind deeds in the daily life of our community, with a small gesture,
a token of thanks on behalf of the Bridgeton Police Department and a grateful
mayor.
In truth, I wish it could be a larger sum in each envelope
and perhaps one day it will be, but until then, I am grateful to be able to
share some of my personal good fortune with the many good and positive citizens
of the Great City of Bridgeton.
These “thank you” envelopes will only be distributed by me
and our police officers during this season of reflection leading up to one of the
most solemn holidays on the religious calendar. It is a gesture to be sure, but
it is an expression of thanks to those who we come in contact with on a regular
basis who are positive people.
And with positive people as an inspiration, consider
reaching out to someone and doing something a little extra whether sharing a
meal, buying someone a sandwich, opening a door, or even paying for items for
the person standing behind you on the checkout line at the store.
These random acts of kindness have a way of lifting everything
and everyone around us to a higher level. Remember, the time is always right to
do right.