The Kindness Matters Podcast
So. Much. Division. Let's talk about how to change that. Re-engage as neighbors, friends, co-workers and family. Let's set out to change the world. Strike that. Change A World. One person at a time, make someone's life a little better and then do it again tomorrow and the day after that, through kindness.
Kindness is a Super-Power that each of us has within us. It is so powerful it has the potential to change not only your life but those around you, too. Let's talk about kindness.
The Kindness Matters Podcast
The Ripple Effect of One Good Deed
What if a simple gathering with friends could spark a movement that transforms your community and brings warmth to those in need? In this episode, we unravel the heartwarming journey of Michelle Christensen from Golden Valley, Minnesota, who turned a craft night with friends into an inspiring initiative called One Good Deed. From creating little free libraries to organizing large-scale donation events, Michelle shows us the power of collective goodwill and how small acts of kindness can cascade into significant change. Her story is a testament to how personal connections and a dash of creativity can inspire a community to come together in support of others.
Join us as we embark on a remarkable journey featuring stories of unexpected kindness and community connections. You'll hear about the evolution of One Good Deed, starting from a single coach bus filled with donations and propelled by an anonymous donor to a multi-bus operation. Experience the joy of scarf bombing events and distributing essentials to the unsheltered, where everyday people, including a charismatic bus driver, join hands to spread warmth and compassion. This episode captures the spontaneous acts of generosity that arise when a community rallies together, creating a ripple effect that touches countless lives.
Each chapter of Michelle's journey is filled with moments that highlight the importance of collaboration and the impact of monthly acts of kindness. Discover the diverse range of activities planned by One Good Deed, from creating cards for seniors to Earth Day cleanups, all aimed at supporting various causes and fostering a sense of shared humanity. Michelle's initiative, supported by partnerships with organizations like the Animal Humane Society, showcases how dedication and empathy can bring people together to make a meaningful difference throughout the year. Tune in to be inspired by stories that remind us of the incredible capacity for kindness in our communities.
#community #homeless #empathy
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Well, hello there and welcome. You are listening to the Kindness Matters podcast and I am your host, mike Rathbun. What is this podcast all about? It's about kindness. It's a pushback against everything negative that we see in the news and on social media today, and it's a way to highlight people, organizations that are simply striving to make their little corner of the world a little better place. If you want to join in on the conversation, feel free, Go ahead and follow us on all of your social media feeds. We're on Facebook, instagram, tiktok. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out. We're even on LinkedIn under Mike Rathbun. Check us out and, in the meantime, so sit back, relax, enjoy and we'll get into the Kindness Matters podcast.
Speaker 1:Hey, hello and welcome everybody to the show. Thank you so much for the gift of 30 minutes of your time To tune in and listen to this episode. I am so happy that you're here. As I usually say, if there's something in this podcast that inspires you or motivates you, that's fantastic, and feel free to share it with your friends and family. Family, I was just okay, so I'm sure most of you, or some of you, have, at some point in your life, just gotten together with old friends and maybe done a craft night. Maybe you do it every month, maybe you rotate who does it? Is that you Do you ever do that? Did you then, through that craft night, make a positive difference in the life of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who more than deserved it? Michelle Christensen from Golden Valley, minnesota, has absolutely done that and I am so excited to share her story with you.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the show, michelle. Hello, mike, thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:I feel like I mean because you've done a lot of these type of things before, haven't you?
Speaker 2:Correct, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:And like I can just be like one of the other people besides CNN that interviewed you for a podcast. That is so cool. I listened to it. I don't know if I told you, but I did listen to it and it was absolutely fantastic. Thank you, thank you, thank you. But let's talk beginnings, because this all started when you and some of your friends, your kids, were growing up and moving on with their lives and, as kids do, they tend to get their own lives and you didn't want to lose that connection. So what happened then?
Speaker 2:Correct. So what happened was I gathered with three other girlfriends, moms that I didn't want to lose connections with, and one thing that we all shared in common was just trying to do crafty things, and not that we were necessarily adept at it, but we were going to give it our best shot and, in the meantime, just connect in friendship more than anything else. So we decided to gather once a month and we would each take turns hosting at our homes and coming up with the craft that we would be trying, we would be attempting to do. So we each took turns. The first time I had a craft to do, I work in construction and the very first thing that we did was little free libraries, and they donated the wood and there's carpenters at my company, so they made them and I went to Sherwin-Williams and they donated some paint. And so our very first thing it took us multiple weeks or multiple meetings, it took us like three different meetings, but we had them crafted, we painted them and we had four little free libraries to just either put in our own yards or to put out. So things go along. Another three months go along, my friends take their turns and the next time it comes to be my turn. We were talking about the little free libraries and what we're going to do.
Speaker 2:But in the meantime it was the fall, the autumn time of year, and I had gone through some of my winter items and was just kind of arranging, taking stock, wanting to get things on sale if possible, and realized that I had a whole bunch of extra gloves, Kind of laughed to myself and asked my friends both the ones, all of them that were with me crafting, but also in my Facebook that if anybody had some extra items that I decided that I wanted to take any extra down to local shelters because I volunteer as an individual at shelters and I knew that, even though I had that, many others did not and I wanted to share what I had. So I reached out into my personal community and then I got a very huge response, a huge, wonderful response from my personal community, and I thought, hmm, this seems to be something that everybody can contribute to. Everyone was very excited, very kind, went through their kids' items, went through their personal items. My mother-in-law has some. So I thought you know what? I'm just going to open this up a little bit.
Speaker 2:So I went into my professional community. I've been in construction for 25 years now. Back then it was almost going on 20 years. So I felt comfortable to send an email to my professional contacts and just said hey, I'm collecting winter items for the unsheltered to bring them down to shelters. If you wouldn't mind just putting a collection box in your lunch room or just a little, something, that would be wonderful and I would really appreciate it. Something that would be wonderful and I would really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:And the response from that community was tremendous as well. I received feedback both by email, phone calls, whatnot, and beyond having the collection boxes being put out, I had people sending checks to me as well, to Michelle Christensen, and those people sent little notes with them saying fill the gaps, fill whatever it is that you don't have that you want to put into that population beyond your hats, gloves and scarves. So that was very lovely and this whole time the response was tremendous. Didn't realize it, and so I was just managing it as I was going along. So I started collecting late September, we started going through and I realized by probably mid-October about a month in that I had way too much for the shelters, because they typically don't have a lot of extra room. They don't have a lot of extra room.
Speaker 2:They don't have a lot of extra space and people were being so generous that I needed to do something other than just go to the shelters. There needed to be kind of a plan B. So I thought to myself, where else can I put these? And I thought at this point, why not just go to where the unsheltered really truly live, and not all unsheltered or in need people use social services. And so I live in the Minneapolis twin city area and oftentimes you'll be driving and you'll see that person on the corner or you'll see the person under the bridge and you know that they're just simply out looking for cover, they're looking for something warm. So what I did was I went into the parks, kind of scoped out the situation, looked around. By the time we're a month in, month and a half in, I looked at one park in Minneapolis and one park in St Paul and thought this is going to be where we put our items. And so then the next step to me was we have to identify that these are the items that are purposely, intentionally, put out for that population. So I came up with a tag. It's about I would say it's maybe five inches long by maybe three inches wide, colorful, one hole punched, and it says take me, I'm not lost, I'm yours. And so my intention was to take those tags and to put the tags onto each item that we were going to place out in the park, so the community that needed those items would know that those were for them. And then the community that didn't need those items knew to just leave them right where they were If they weren't going to take them. They were meant to be there.
Speaker 2:And then, in the process, as I'm going through and I'm kind of coming up with a bit of a plan, I called the city of Minneapolis, I called the city of St Paul, asked them what the rules and regulations were, to make sure that our hard work wouldn't be wasted, taken in an adverse way, because it was simply meant in kindness, and so I didn't want any kind of darkness to come upon the shine.
Speaker 2:And they said as long as you pull permits through the city of Minneapolis, we'll know that you're there, we'll tell the park workers not to pick anything up and thank you very much, thank you for seeing our community.
Speaker 2:The need is there, and so that very first year we came up, we had about a hundred bags of donations and in the process of collecting all of those donations. I had put a message out and said thank you to everybody, and I had a lot of personal people say I'd like to help you put that out in the parks. I'd like to help you bring it to the shelters. I'd like to help you put that out in the parks. I'd like to help you bring it to the shelters. I'd like to help you put it out in the parks. And I realized very quickly that I had over 40 people that wanted to help me, and so I went back to my professional population that had granted me and given me their funds and I said to them in an email thank you so much for your generosity. I did not foresee this, but there's so many people that want to share in this act of kindness that I feel like I need to rent a coach bus and I need to use your money to pay for that bus.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I wanted to be very transparent about what I was doing with their money because it was just coming to Michelle Christensen. So I went ahead, I got an estimate from Loren's bus and I attached it to the email and I said this is how much I'll be spending on the bus. Thank you for understanding and your grace in me making this decision. And within an hour I received back from the bus company a paid in full receipt from an anonymous donor. So someone within that community, besides giving us, granting us funds to just fill the gaps, they also someone in that group, also paid for our bus, which was not inexpensive it was around no, I can imagine.
Speaker 2:We did this in 2017. And I believe the first bill was very close to $750. So it wasn't a small gift at all. So we went forward. We put the tags. I had volunteers come to my house every Wednesday in December. We started putting the tags on the items. We attached them with a very large safety pin so those can be utilized by those that are out unsheltered as well.
Speaker 2:Safety pins are a really big thing. They can hold pieces of clothing together or layers together, so every piece of what we were doing was going to be utilized. So we got our 100 bags. I had my 56 volunteers. The bus sat 56 people. We got a coach bus.
Speaker 2:We took the 100 bags of donations, we stuffed it into the belly of the bus and I had maps of Loring Park and Kellogg Park and those were the first two parks that we did, and so when I came up with an itinerary for the bus company, it was Loring Park first. We were going to take 50 bags with the people that were on the bus. We were going to go out into the parks and put all of those tagged items out, and then we were going to travel to the St Paul Park, Kellogg Park, and do the same thing in that park. So that's exactly what we did. We gathered, we gather. Even now, we gather the first Sunday of every January and we go out with whatever donations that we have. We're now up to two coach buses, so I have about 112 volunteers per. We call it scarf bombing because it's an explosion of kindness.
Speaker 1:When I came up with the name.
Speaker 2:There wasn't noticeable strife in the world. It wasn't necessarily something that I intentionally named it that just because it felt like it was just such a huge gift that everywhere you look every tree limb, every bench we even put items on the ground. We'll put like trail mix and wool socks and first aid kits. We'll put those in Ziplocs on the ground, even if we have to because we run out of places to put our donations, because there's just so many, which is beautiful.
Speaker 1:That's a nice problem to have.
Speaker 2:It's amazing and wonderful and it's all due to all of those donations and all of the whole event. It's all volunteer based, whether it's you're just donating or you come to tag or you get on the bus. Some people do all three, some people only do one, and every single intentional act counts and gets us to where we need to go to complete the event in the manner that it is, and it's wonderful and it's beautiful and it's grown. It's grown now for eight years. This is our eighth year. We just did our scarf bombing on January 5th, so that is the beginning of our eighth year. Scarf bombing is the first event that One Good Deed started from, which is the name of our volunteer group in Golden Valley, and we've been around now for going on eight years and scarf bumming is one of our events.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because you do. I mean. That in and of itself is amazing, and you probably could stop right there if you wanted to, but you do so much more Now. Before we go on to that, though, you told a story when we were chatting about. Was it the bus driver? Yes, the first time.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 2:So the very first time that the bus came to my home and the very first year that we went out, I had people gather in my home.
Speaker 2:We gathered into teams and we loaded the donations onto the bus, and before the bus took off from my house, everybody that had volunteered they all knew me, but they didn't know each other, and so when I got into the bus, I asked for the microphone from the bus driver, calmed all the giddiness and all the chit-chatting and kind of explained to everybody in the bus exactly what we were doing. So everybody was on the same page before we took off for the park, and after I explained everything to everybody, I turned back around and I was sitting at the front of the bus, because, of course, you have a coach bus on a residential street. All of the volunteers had parked up and down the street and it was winter, so there's snow banks all over the place, and so I was very cognizant of trying to help the bus driver navigate tight corners getting on and off residential streets. So I was sitting right in the front seat.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:And as I sat down and people started calming down in the back a little bit, the bus driver turned to me and she said this is really, really neat what you're doing. She did not know what her journey was for, she just knew where we were going. And she said I didn't know that there was such a thing. And I said you know, we just kind of came up with it. And she said I would. And we start taking off. And she said I would and we started taking off and she said I would really like to help. And I said well, we wouldn't be getting anywhere without you driving us and I'm very, very appreciative for that. Thank you for navigating and getting us safely to where we need to go. And she said no, really, I want to do it, I want to help. And I said okay.
Speaker 2:And when we had gathered in my home, I gave everybody snacks. We used the restrooms, we filled our coffee cups, because none of that is out there when we go out into the parks, and so I had extra muffins, extra pastries, and we brought everything onto the bus. I told people please fill up, but anything that we don't eat or use here we're going to bring on the bus and we're going to give to the people in the park as well as the winter items. So we had a lot of pastries and such on the bus and so when the bus driver said she wanted to help, we were going towards Loring Park and there's an exit on 94 as you're going towards Loring Park and it's called Dunwoody Boulevard and it brings you down. That's the exit you take to get to Lorain Park. And as you're navigating your way to Lorain Park and coming off the freeway, there's concrete medians to your left to make it two-way traffic and there's always unsheltered people right in those concrete medians, right at the stoplights. And so I told her, as we were journeying on the freeway, there's going to be people on those concrete medians.
Speaker 2:And she said okay, and I said we can give them some of these pastries and everything was up by us in the front of the bus and she said okay, and I said so. When you're coming off the exit ramp. And she said okay, and I said so. When you're coming off the exit ramp, instead of going in the right lane, like we wanted to to to get to the park, I said if you go in the left-hand lane and the light turned red and the person was there and she said what do I do? And I said open your window. So she opened the window and the person looked at her and she said now what? And I said, well, ask them if they'd like a muffin. So she did and the person said yes, I would love a muffin. And she said now what? And I said give them a muffin. So we had those really big muffins. I don't know if you're from around here, but we had those really big.
Speaker 1:Perkins muffins, where they can only fit four in a pie box.
Speaker 2:They are so big for muffins, right. And I made sure that I got double chocolate chip and I wanted to give everybody a whole bunch of energy and sweetness before they went out. So we got she took a really big double chocolate chip muffin and she she held it out the window and she said would you like this muffin? And he said yes. And he started coming over to the bus and she leaned out and she gave him the muffin and he said thank you. And she said now what? And I said give him the box, you know, ask him if he wants more. And he said thank you. And she said now what? And I said give them the box, you know, ask them if he wants more. And he said yes. And she said now what do I do? And I said give them the box. Give them the whole box of muffins, because oftentimes you'll see one unsheltered person, but they're within a community.
Speaker 2:They're taking turns or it's just it's more convenient for them where they are, but they have their own community as well and they take care of each other. So you may see one, but there's always going to be four or five more. And there's happens to be a bridge, probably within a block and a half of that location, and I know that there's family that live up in the eaves underneath the bridges, so I knew that the food was going to go immediately underneath that bridge. So she got to help. She was just tearful and so grateful and had an amazing experience. So we get into the right handling. We go to Loring Park. She pulls in, she opens the bus doors I had already kind of explained everything to the volunteers she hops out of the bus, opens up the bellies of the bus and we take out 50 bags. We have four teams on a bus, so everybody if there's 56 people, they're just divided into four teams and I have a leader per team. I have a leader per team. So if you're out in the park you know who your leader is, if you have any questions, if you want to go back to the bus, but then that way too, we don't leave the park without everybody being accounted for. That team leader knows that there are 12 people. There are 14 people. Those people know to check in with that team leader and I wanted to make sure that no one left the park. I told them don't go to Dunn Brothers for coffee, Don't try to find a bathroom, you need to stay here. We have 45 minutes. So we did our scarf bombing in Lorain Park and then the volunteers I gave them a timeframe of please come back to the bus by 1230. If you're done before, come and sit on the bus and wait 12 30. We counted heads and we were on our way to the next park, which was Kellogg Park, and we had to take another very skinny street and we started turning the corner and the light in front of us that we needed to turn to get onto the freeway, to turn red and the Walker Art Center is right in front of us. Very tight turn Again.
Speaker 2:I'm sitting in the front of the bus and I can hear this chitter, chatter in the back of the bus and by now people were just beyond themselves about what they did. They were just, they had moments of real clarity and kindness and they just loved what they did. And so the din on the bus was just tremendous, and so I'm trying to help her navigate the skinny street and I hear in the back of the bus I hear this woman say Joe, Joe, and she's talking a little bit louder above and I can hear and I'm like, oh my gosh, what's going on? So I turn around and there's nothing really. And then I hear her say it again.
Speaker 2:She's like Joe, my blanket, it's moving. And so I turn around and I look at her and she's about halfway back on the bus and I look at her and she's just loud enough where the other people on the bus are kind of looking at her too to see what is she talking about. So her husband looks out the window. He happened to be in the window seat and he looked out the window and his wife had put out a neon pink blanket and it was visible from where she was. Even though we were away from the park, she could see it was moving and he said somebody has your blanket.
Speaker 2:And so somebody. In the time it took us to load the bus and go around the corner, we did not see many unsheltered people out looking. They knew that we were coming. I had given the shelters in the area flyers about two weeks beforehand and said please share this with your community. We're going to come on this date at this time and please let them know that if there's anything out there with this tag, they can have it. Food, tents, sleeping bags, items, it doesn't matter, it's for them, it's purposed.
Speaker 2:And so they knew that we were going to be out in the parks and they were waiting. They were waiting for us to leave and that's exactly what happened. We got on the bus, we left and we hadn't even turned the corner to get on the freeway and this woman saw her pink blanket moving because somebody was underneath the blanket and had taken it. So when her husband said somebody took your blanket, all of a sudden I felt a shift on the bus because everybody went over to that side of the bus to see if their items yes, they kind of lean, but they wanted to see if their items were being taken and used, and it was amazing and beautiful and heartwarming. It was amazing and so by the time we turned onto the freeway, I swear people were seeing wheels on the bus go round and round and you know old McDonald and they were just having a blast in the back. They were getting to know each other.
Speaker 2:I heard things like you only live four blocks from us. Our sons played hockey together. Oh, I know her, I work with her, so beyond-.
Speaker 1:So it's a real community.
Speaker 2:Yeah, beyond giving into a community, they were able to also receive from the community of kindness that they were sitting in, and it was very lovely to watch all of the connections happen, even though I was at the front of the bus. I didn't see it all, but I saw enough of it and I could feel it on the bus. It was amazing. So we ended up going to Kellogg Park and we did the exact same thing by the time we got out. You know they were old hands, they knew what they needed to do. But I will share one other little story, and I'll be quick. I don't know if I've shared this with you before, but we got to Kellogg Park and there's nowhere to park a bus on Kellogg Boulevard. It's just a two way, both ways.
Speaker 1:Yeah, if you're not familiar with St Paul.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Those both ways. Yeah, if you're not familiar with St.
Speaker 2:Paul, those streets over there are nuts Well, and there's nowhere to park unless you go into a ramp. There's just nowhere to park, there's no metered parking, there's no nothing. And so Kellogg Park sits, the Mississippi River sits on the right-hand side, and then Kellogg Boulevard sits on the left, and then the park sits in between the river and the road. So we were doing kind of a rectangular strip park and the bus driver didn't know where to park and I said let's do this, just put the bus here, meaning like just beyond, just right behind a stoplight. And I said just flip on your hazards and we'll be quick. And she said I want to help again. And I said okay, here's what I'll do. I'll stay on the bus, you can go out and you can scarf bomb, but don't go too far, because if a police officer comes, I need you to come back on this bus and I need you to drive this bus.
Speaker 1:I do not have a license that says I.
Speaker 2:She was just. She was so eager to help that I didn't. I wanted to find a way to let her help. So that's exactly what we did. She threw on. She threw on the blinkers. So I'm sitting on the bus and I'm watching, and I can kind of see all of the volunteers at this point I can make sure that no one's really leaving the park and then all of a sudden I look up and we're sitting behind. It's a two lane. Kellogg Boulevard is a two lane, and so we're in the right or right most lane, with the hazards on, behind a stoplight. People are going around us, it's not a problem at all. But I look and there's a car that is on the other side of the intersection of the stoplight, in front of us, in the right hand lane, with their hazards on, and I'm like, oh no, people are going to, people are starting to park on the road. This is a parking spot. And then another car came, and then another car came.
Speaker 1:Look what you started.
Speaker 2:So there was three cars all with their hazards on, and I'm looking out the front of the window and I'm like this is going to become a problem. So I'm just getting ready to get the bus driver and the next thing I know I see people get out of all three of the cars. They open up their trunks and they pull out their own blankets, their own jackets, their own emergency kits from the backs of their cars. They had followed us from Lorain Park.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:And they wanted and I don't I don't know who they are, I just watched them do it and then they got back in their cars and they left. But they went up to the volunteers and every volunteer had like a Ziploc full of extra tags, extra pins, hand warmers, just in case they met a person in the park somebody might need something. And so they went up to the volunteers. The volunteers took a new tag with a pin and they gave their items to my volunteers to put out into the park because-.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, you talk about the ripple of kindness.
Speaker 2:It was amazing. I saw it only because I was sitting on the bus. Had I not been sitting on the bus waiting, I would have missed the whole transaction, and so it was just. It was an amazing. For me personally, it was the cherry on top, and the reason why it was. It was the sprinkles, and it was a lot of work to organize all of that together, and that, to me, was that and the pink blanket. Those two moments were very instrumental.
Speaker 2:And then the last we get back on the bus, we come back to my home. Everybody's getting off the bus. I'm thanking everybody in person because they're all my friends and they were all helping me, michelle, and so I wanted to thank everybody. So I thanked everybody in person as they were getting off. And the first I don't know like five or six people that got off the bus. They're like hey, michelle, what are you going to do next? What are you going to do next? And I said, geez, I think I might take a deep breath because that was a lot. That was three months of work. He kind of joked about it, said thank you to everybody and I said thank you to the bus driver, and then I turned around and I'm a bit petite, I'm five two. So I stood on the top of the bus steps and I looked and my front yard was filled with people. None of the volunteers had left and so I said no, really, thank you so much. You guys, feel free to use my restroom. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:The Vikings were playing, people had things to do and I didn't want them to feel like they had to stay. And somebody in the back of that crowd said what are you going to do next? And I looked at everybody and realized that I hadn't seen it, but a general shift in all of those people collectively had happened, probably in the bus, I would guess on the way back home, like I heard people say I don't want this to end, I want to keep doing this. Do we have any more? Can we go to another park?
Speaker 2:Um, and that was lovely, but I think once everything was kind of done and set and it soaked into people's heart space, they wanted to do more, and so it became a verbal question once they needed to end the event If I do more, will you help me? And they all said yes, and so One Good Deed our group of volunteers that has now been around for eight years. That is how One Good Deed started was in my front yard after our first year of scarf, because I wanted to make crafts with moms that I didn't want to lose connection with.
Speaker 1:Wow, it's amazing, it's amazing, it's amazing. So go ahead.
Speaker 2:It's only grown. It's only grown from there. The events that we do. We do one good deed a month. That's the name of our group is one good deed, and we intentionally do one good deed in kindness a month. So scarf bombing is our January good deed. In February we're making cards for seniors and I think I have we're doing, we're gathering on February 8th and I believe I have 65 volunteers signed up already, which is amazing. But what we'll do is we cover four senior campuses, so we have 200 cards that we're kind of obligated to make so we can give them to four campuses and then any extra I will give to Meals on Wheels.
Speaker 1:Oh nice, so they can put them out with their meals, yep.
Speaker 2:Perfect. They tuck them into the meals, and the cards are meant for a piece of kindness for people that don't necessarily either get visitors or they don't have the ability to connect. They just they're either mobility.
Speaker 1:Probably homebound or.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly.
Speaker 1:Okay, yep.
Speaker 2:So last year we made 650 cards, so Meals on Wheels received 450 cards. To put in plus, we covered the four campuses, and it's amazing. So this year, with 65 volunteers to this point, we'll probably end up with maybe 80 people. But one of the other things that I really intentionally do with One Good Deed is I make sure that, whatever good deed we're doing, all of the materials, the venue, all of the details of the event are taken care of.
Speaker 2:And all I ask for as the organizer of One Good Deed, all I ask for is your kindness and your time. You don't have to bring materials, you don't have to pay anything. All you have to do is come to the venue for the time that we're there or given. If it's a three hour event and you can only give an hour, that's okay too. But, like for our card making activity, I've got the paper, the stamps, the stickers, the bling all of that will be sitting there and a plethora of sneaky snacks and beverages because I'm a hostess, so but everything, literally, that you need to just rest in kindness, it's all there. You just need to bring your actual kindness and helping hands and heart to the event, and that's every event that we do.
Speaker 1:Now, so okay, that January and February. What else do you do during the year, I know? And how long did it take you to decide? I want to do something every month.
Speaker 2:I would say the first year was a lot of learning how much I could give because I do have a full time job as well. So one gooded is a 501c3 nonprofit, both state and federal. We're tax exempt and we've grown into that. But it takes a lot of time to organize and the good deeds that we have we have 12 a year but I have several partners, nonprofit partners that One Good Deed supports. On the backside that it's not an event you wouldn't see it as something that you could participate in, but we support other nonprofits that maybe don't have their status so they can receive the benefit of kindness.
Speaker 1:I saw on your website that you partnered with the Animal Humane Society.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes.
Speaker 1:That's amazing.
Speaker 2:So, like in March, like some of our events, it did take a minute, I would say the first year, but then I just kind of I wanted to do a little bit of everything for everyone so there'd be an appeal for everybody. March is recognized as International Women's History Month and so we host a. It's a International Women's Day, kind of like a showcase. I invite 36 women-run, women-inspired, women-centric whether it's the League of Women Voters or a needle workers group or Her Self Health, who does women only health items concerns. I have I rent a space of huge gymnasium. I invite 36 different no, there's no overlapping but 36 kind of different organizations or businesses to come there and just be present, answer questions. If somebody wants to sign up for a class, they want to find out more about something, but it's free to the vendor and it's free to the public.
Speaker 1:One good DP is for your space and it's just about.
Speaker 2:Here are some things that are out there for you, and we do it in the vein to celebrate women, just because that's March's event, and of course we get men and kids and it's, it's lovely. Last year, I think, we had about 400 people come and attend, just kind of walk through.
Speaker 2:So the lovely part is is that if you're coming as a guest A, there's no charge at all. But you can walk into this gymnasium and you can take all the time that you want and you can bounce off every table or three. Whatever speaks to you, you can spend that amount of time there with them and get one-on-one, face-to-face answers. How does this look? Do you have another chapter in my area? Whatever the question may be, that's what those people at the table are there for. They want to share what they do, and it's specific, but it does apply. If you're a loving partner, to say a woman, and she's asking questions, you can stand right there as her male counterpart or female counterpart or whoever you are as her partner. You can stand there and hear the same things she's hearing and say, hey, you know what, I've got a question. Could that be something I could participate in too, or whatnot? So that's March April.
Speaker 2:We do an Earth Day community cleanup. March April, we do an Earth Day community cleanup. I get a 20-yard dumpster donated and we fill it up to the top. I had last year, I think we had 45 volunteers. We break up into teams and we have garbage bags and we just fill the dumpster and we go out for four hours. I have Boy Scout troops, girl Scout troops, church groups, clubs, organizations. That's April. May is Flags for Fort Snelling and the Animal Humane Society Walk for Animals. We're walk ambassadors for them, so we kind of fill their gaps. We're just the people that walk around to make sure that if any participant has a question, where's the restroom, where's the start line?
Speaker 2:that's what we do and then, flags for Fort Snelling.
Speaker 2:We put flags at Fort Snelling, we sign up for shifts. So if that's something that speaks to you, that's a very hard organization. Those gaps fill really fast. But I get dedicated slots all weekend and people can sign up for that. Slots all weekend and people can sign up for that. We have a charity garage sale. In June last year we made $8,000 for charity. The year before was 9,000. And we have two nonprofits. All the money that we make we donate into the two nonprofits.
Speaker 2:So everybody that wants to donate items like, let's say, the epilepsy truck is coming around or the veterans truck is coming around you put your stuff down at the curb and they pick it up. We at One Good Deed will take that beginning. We start in mid-May and we start taking donations in. We put everything out. I have five yards five full front yards full of items and what happens is we put everything out and nothing is priced. It's free will pricing and everything that we make is considered an in-kind donation. So one person can come up and say this book is 25 cents to me and the next person can say this book is a hundred dollars to me and to us it doesn't matter because all of the money goes to our supported nonprofits. But it's a wonderful, beautiful way to donate and repurpose your items to someone else. And then we do have people.
Speaker 2:I go to shelters in our area where the garage sale is. People. I go to shelters in our area where the garage sale is and I put posters up and I say if you're in need or you're unsheltered, come, and so we'll get that population as well where they come. And they'll come up and I see it all the time. You know they'll have a couple bags worth of stuff and they'll be like it's fantastic, it's. You know they'll open up their wallet kind of paw through and they'll be like is $7 enough? And I'll say you know, five is enough, five is enough. And you know what? You've got three ones. I need ones. I'll take those three ones. You. They may not want to do a formal donation into a nonprofit, but they know who we support and so they'll come in and they'll support that nonprofit that way.
Speaker 2:That's June, july. We kept the little free libraries. We do 30 little free libraries every year. They're all made. I have the paint, the brushes, everything. Everything is donated and we're up to. We did our 200th little free library last year, so now we'll be up to 230 this year, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:And we do kindness, we do. We paint kindness rocks the little ones that just aren't old enough to paint yet, because we get families for that activity. So I'll have a separate little area where they can make friendship bracelets and they can paint rocks and they can do whatever. And then we have the kids and the families that are a little bit older and can hold a paintbrush and kind of do a good job of it. They paint their libraries. And then when they're done painting their libraries, they take them home into their communities, their front yards, wherever they want, and they plant their Little Free Library for free.
Speaker 1:I was thinking of doing that this year because I have a great space for it at my house, but I've never built one.
Speaker 2:Yep. Well, you should come and paint one.
Speaker 2:I should, if you want to paint one, I can get you one, that's not a problem, and my carpenters that do them. Now it's a retired men's group that meets every week and they actually make my little free libraries and then I donate to them and they meet every week to be in service. So they've done many things for one good deed. It's amazing. And they make beds for foster children. So they turn around and take the money that I donate to them for making the libraries and the beds come in kits already, but they buy the bedding, they buy the mattress and the sheets and everything else. So when they're going to a foster home to install a bed, they've got the pieces for the bed, but then they've also got the bedding and they have pitchers. But they fix bikes and they do memorial crosses for the fire department. I mean, they just want to be in service. So they make my little free libraries every year and they love it. They love being purposed, they know what they're doing. Um, and it's a, it's a ripple, it goes all the way. If I didn't have them, I couldn't do little free libraries. The families couldn't plant those in their communities.
Speaker 2:August we do backpacks for unsheltered youth. September we do fleece tie blankets, for we did 200 this September and we tuck teddy bears in the blankets. We did 50, we gave to the Ronald McDonald House, 50 to Foster Minnesota, 50 to Hennepin Healthcare and 50 to Hennepin County First Responders for the backs of their cars and ambulance. October we do comfort care for cancer patients because Cancer Awareness Month is October. So we'll do mastectomy pillows, port covers, chemo caps. We do that November. We do cards for seniors again, but we do Thanksgiving because that's a very popular thing and people really volunteers like that activity and there's a lot of people that love those cards.
Speaker 1:Oh sure.
Speaker 2:And then December we start kind of going full tilt, getting ready for scarf bombing.
Speaker 1:So, that's.
Speaker 2:I just leave that open. So that's our schedule in a nutshell, wow.
Speaker 1:Michelle, this is so amazing, and all because you wanted to stay close to your friends as the kids moved off. I mean, it just started so simple and so organically and that is so amazing. I cannot thank you enough for your time today. It has been the absolute pleasure of a lifetime to talk with you and hear your story.
Speaker 2:Wonderful Well. Thank you so much for having me and sharing our ripple of kindness. It really is out there. Our group started with 100 people, or 56 people that first year, and now we're up to over 1,700.
Speaker 1:And so oftentimes.
Speaker 2:I just want to let people know that it really kindness, really does still live and thrive, and sometimes it's a little hard to see, but if you find the right place you'll find it.
Speaker 1:And your, your organization is one good deedorg, and I will have the link for that in the show notes. So anybody who wants to know what's going on, or wants to volunteer or wants to donate, that's the place to do it.
Speaker 2:Wonderful.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. Have a great weekend, my friend.
Speaker 1:I want to thank you for taking this time to listen to this episode with my guest, michelle Christensen. I hope you're able to take something positive from the time you spent with us. Maybe you'll be inspired, maybe you'll be motivated, maybe you'll be moved. If you experienced any of those positive feelings, please consider sharing this podcast with your friends and family. I'm always striving to offer you a better podcast, so give me some feedback. Let me know how you think I'm doing. Offer suggestions for shows. You can do that by emailing me or leaving me a message on my socials. It would mean the world Also. Feel free to follow us on our socials like Facebook, instagram, linkedin and TikTok.
Speaker 1:This podcast is part of the Mayday Media Network. If you have an idea for a podcast and need some production assistance, or have a podcast and are looking for a supportive network, to join maydaymedianetworkcom and check out the amazing shows on there, like Afrocentric, spoiled by Movie Generation Mixtape In a Pickle radio show, wake Up and Dream with D Anthony Palin, stacks of Packs and the Time Pals. We will be back again next week with a new episode and we would be honored if you would join us. You've been listening to the Kindness Matters Podcast. I'm your host, mike Rathbun. Have a fantastic week.
