Our Five Ring Circus: 21 Acts of Kindness for Down Syndrome Awareness

Thursday, March 24, 2016

21 Acts of Kindness for Down Syndrome Awareness

At the beginning of March, our family embarked on a journey to perform 21 Acts of Kindness leading up to World Down Syndrome Day on March 21st.

We did this in honor of our sweet Liam who is rocking that extra chromosome. We are just so thankful for the incredible love and joy he brings to our lives every single day, and we wanted to spread the love and kindness that we are so lucky to receive.  We also did it to bring awareness for an often misunderstood genetic condition.

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We spent three weeks spreading kindness and it was such a wonderful experience! I shared our #21ActsofKindnessforLiam on social media each day to chronicle our adventure.  It was so much fun to surprise others with kindness, and it really did end up sparking many conversations!

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Act #1: We love our local library so much, so we dropped off Lofthouse Cookies for the staff.
Act #2: We sent in a little gift for Dylan's amazing teacher!
Act #3: We dropped off donuts for the office staff at Lexie's elementary school.

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Act #4: We dropped off supplies to our local humane society.
Act #5: We mailed a little gift to a sweet online friend of mine.
Act #6: We gave a $5 Starbucks gift card to a random person in line.

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Act #7: We bought cookies for the staff at Lily's preschool.
Act #8: We handed out sidewalk chalk at our favorite park.
Act #9: We gave flowers to an elderly woman at the park.

21 Acts of Kindness for Liam

Act #10: We put together a small goody bag of items from the Target Dollar spot and gave it to a little girl at Disney on Ice Frozen!
Act #11: We mailed a package to a very supportive family whom we have never even met!
Act #12: Lexie took in a gift to a teacher she loves who helps out in her classroom.

21 Acts of Kindness for Liam

Act #13: We dropped off donuts for the wonderful ladies at our local pharmacy.
Act #14: We took donuts to the office staff at the school Lily will attend in the Fall.
Act #15: We handed out an activity pack to a sweet little girl at the park.

21 Acts of Kindness for Liam

Act #16: We dropped off cookies to the office staff at Dylan's school.
Act #17: We bought a restaurant gift card for a dear friend (and his wife) who just had heart surgery.
Act #18:  I was given the chance to review The Parent's Guide to Down Syndrome (which is an amazing resource), so I decided to buy a copy and give it away to a parent who is on the same journey as we are!
Act #19: Give an activity pack and a lollipop to a crying child.
Act #20: Buy an elderly gentleman's bread, milk, and bananas.

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Act #21: For our final act, on World Down Syndrome Day, we took the 321 Pledge! In other words, we donated $21 to help a person who has Down syndrome achieve their dream of a higher education. I hope that one day Liam will be lucky enough to attend college!

I challenge EVERYONE to be kind. Kindness is free and can change the world one simple act at a a time. And if you want to give a gift of kindness to brighten someone's day, it doesn't have to cost much at all!

Although we had a few acts of kindness that cost a bit more, the majority of the acts only cost $1-$3. In the grand scheme of things, that really isn't much!

The best part of this experience was the fact that Dylan, Lexie and Lily were really excited about performing these acts of kindness!  We made a list, and they kept adding to it over the course of the month. They just wanted to give MORE and that's a great thing! We already started our list for next year!

I truly loved all of our acts of kindness, but I have to admit, my favorite was walking up to the elderly woman at the park and handing her a plant.  She was so surprised! It only cost $1 to make her smile.  That's it. One single dollar.  It really is as simple as that! 

Our 21 days of giving was such a great experience that it inspired us to give even more throughout the year.  We make it a point to donate as much as we possibly can, but we want to continue these simple acts of kindness. We're going to perform one unexpected and meaningful act of kindness each month, because what we learned from all this is that it really doesn't take much to brighten someone's day!

This entire experience was inspired by our amazing little boy who taught us so much in his 2 1/2 years of life. There are still so many people out there who consider him unworthy of life, but the truth is, he changed OUR lives.  He always inspires us to be better human beings.  He IS worthy.

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Have you performed any acts of kindness?


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9 comments:

  1. You all were so busy! Think of all the people you brought a little happiness to this week. I shop at Aldi once a week and their carts take a quarter, which you get back when you return it. I often like to leave my quarter in the cart for the next person who comes after me.

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  2. You are amazing! Not only because of these amazing acts of kindness you did in honor of Liam, but for how positive and wonderful of a momma you are! You amaze me lady! :)

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    1. Awww, thank you so much, my friend! We truly enjoyed doing this!

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  3. Yay you did an update! Such a fun way to celebrate and spread some love and cheer.

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    1. Thank you! It was a great experience for me, but an even better learning experience for my kids!

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  4. I love that you did this. You are such a great role model for your kids!

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  5. Thank you for sharing your acts of kindness. It's people like you that make the world a better place.

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