Picture yourself reaching for some produce at your local grocery store, you turn around and a kind stranger hands you $50. Before you can ask any more questions, they’re already gone.
A pair of Fernie locals joined forces to do just that after creating a Facebook page to raise funds as a random act of kindness this holiday season.
Rhoda DeLuca and Jeri Mitchell were inspired by similar events in Lethbridge that were also powered by a Facebook page and raised over a thousand dollars to give to a random stranger at a Walmart.
“At Christmas people have a really big heart, so over the years I always think, ‘What can I do?’ and when I saw this, I thought who better to do it with but Jeri,” explained DeLuca.
Mitchell adds, “We want to show our kids what Christmas is really about.”
The Facebook group: Snow Valley Christmas Cheer — Random Act of Kindness Committee — gained over 160 followers in 24 hours.
“I [thought], ‘Can you believe this? In 24 hours you can see how much people want to help?’ It’s just a beautiful thing what we’ve been witnessing,” said DeLuca.
The pair received handfuls of $20 and even $100 donations leading up to the actual day of kindness on December 18, when they donated all the money raised to strangers at Overwaitea and Extra Foods in Fernie.
DeLuca wanted to be clear that they weren’t intentionally looking for people who “appear poor”, but that the acts of kindness were meant to be just that.
“We randomly chose between Overwaitea and Extra Foods,” she said.
The organizers also accepted private nominations for families in need and presented them with gifts at their homes.
“We’ve had families nominated and we picked one or two of them and gave them gift cards. We don’t want limelights, we don’t want anything. We just want to do something special,” explained Mitchell.
“We don’t want it on the Facebook page,” seconds DeLuca. “We know what it’s like to come from nothing and there are stressful Christmases for people with kids or who have lost their jobs. We just want them to have a smile for one day.”