Donations in Action: Will power, eavesdropping, acts of kindness

Out of nowhere, five men from a nearby business stepped into my office. They wanted to make a donation. They said their boss gave them $100 to go out into the world and do a random act of kindness.

One of the men had heard that donations to The Salvation Army were being doubled by a Minnesota hunger and homeless nonprofit. The guys searched their smartphones for the nearest Salvation Army, which happened to be our location.

We stood around the table. As I began to explain how The Salvation Army would use their donation, three of the men pulled $20 bills from their wallets and slapped them on the table. Suddenly, their donation totaled $160.

The men were so excited. They wanted to have their picture taken with me in from of the Salvation Army sign in the window.

Random acts of kindness go a long way. It was amazing to watch these men react to what they had done.

A resident of the Salvation Army housing facility I work at was having serious concerns about relapsing after five years of sobriety. He explained that he had run into someone from his past and they exchanged numbers. The two used to do drugs together, and they were supposed to meet this evening.

The resident was visibly upset and stressed. He didn’t know if he was strong enough to say no to this person.

After much discussion, the resident decided to leave his phone in my office overnight and retrieve it the next day. This was the only way he was confident he wouldn’t use.

The following day, he got his phone back. He said he felt much more confident and had a plan in place if the person ever contacted him again.

The resident stated that he would have used if not for the support of his case manager.

Our office was out of bus passes to give people in need of transportation assistance. I had ordered more, and expected them any day.

A man stopped by in need of a bus pass. He was living in a homeless shelter and had been looking for work for a long time. He was supposed to start the job tomorrow, but had no way to get there. I felt terrible for him.

Thankfully, the bus passes arrived while the man was sitting in my office. I gave him enough passes to last through his first week of work. He was ecstatic.

The following week, the man stopped by to show me his in/out slips from his first week of work. The joy he expressed was wonderful. We shook hands, and he promised to come in again sometime to tell me how he was doing.

One of our volunteers was helping a pregnant single mother pick out groceries in our food shelf. Several minutes before, the volunteer overheard the woman tell a Salvation Army social worker she needed help paying to get her electricity turned on. The woman was distraught because The Salvation Army could not cover the entire expense.

Without being asked, the volunteer offered to pay what The Salvation Army could not. The Salvation Army and the volunteer pooled their money together and got the woman’s electricity turned back on that very day.