A Small Idea Turns Into One Good Deed

This is the third-most-listened-to episode of The Kindness Matters Podcast. 

A craft night with a few moms, a pile of extra gloves, and a simple desire to stay connected somehow turns into two coach buses packed with winter gear and volunteers. I’m joined by Michelle Christensen from Golden Valley, Minnesota, the founder of One Good Deed, to tell the story behind Scarf Bombing, a direct, practical kindness project that puts warmth where it’s needed most across Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Michelle walks me through the early days: asking friends and coworkers for hats, gloves, and scarves, then realizing the donations outgrew what shelters could store. We talk about the pivot from drop-offs to placing tagged items in parks where unsheltered neighbors actually live, the city permits that keep park staff from clearing the supplies, and the small detail that changes everything: a bright tag that says, “Take me, I’m not lost, I’m yours.” It’s a powerful way to offer dignity and clarity at the same time.

You’ll also hear the human moments that stick with you, like a bus driver who asks to join the mission, the muffin handoff at a stoplight, and the unforgettable sight of a neon pink blanket “moving” because someone has already claimed it. From there, the kindness ripple spreads into a full nonprofit calendar, one good deed a month, including cards for seniors and Meals on Wheels, an International Women’s Day showcase, community cleanups, Little Free Libraries, backpacks for unsheltered youth, blankets for kids, and comfort care for cancer patients.

If you want to volunteer, donate, or simply remember that kindness still thrives, listen now and check out onegooddeed.org. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find stories like this.

Transcript

Why Kindness Matters Here

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You're listening to a very special episode of the Kindness Matters Podcast, our top three most listened to episodes. This is the Kindness Matters Podcast, a space for stories that inspire, challenge, and bring us a little closer together. If you've been looking for a reminder of the good in people, you're in the right place. Because kindness matters, and so do you. It's kindness we are 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, or even on LinkedIn under Mike Rap button. Check us out. In the meantime, so sit back, relax, enjoy, and we'll get into the Kindness Matters podcast. 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. Um, as I'm usually saying if there's something in this podcast that inspires you or motivates you, um that's fantastic. And feel free to share it with your friends and family. Um I was just uh Okay. So hey, 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? Um, is that you? Did 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? Because my guest today, Michelle Christensen from Golden Valley, Minnesota, has absolutely done that, and I am so excited to share her story with you. Welcome to the show, Michelle.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Hello, Mike. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 2:44

I I I feel I feel like I mean, because you have you've done a lot of these type of things before, haven't you?

SPEAKER_00 2:53

Correct. Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:55

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 I listened to it. I don't know if I told you, but I I did listen to it and it was absolutely fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 3:12

But let's talk, okay, let's talk beginnings. Um,

Craft Nights That Started It All

SPEAKER_01 3:16

because this all started when you and some of your friends, uh your your kids were growing up and and moving on with their lives, and they as kids do, they tend to get their own lives. And you didn't want to lose that connection. So what happened then?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Correct. So um what happened was we uh I gathered with three other girlfriends, um 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 um not that we were necessarily adept at it, but we were gonna give it our best shot. And in the meantime, just connect and friendness 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 um trying, we would be attempting to do. Um, so we each took turns. The first um time I had a craft to do, I work in construction, and um the very first thing that we did was little free libraries. I was able to um talk to some of our vendors and they donated the wood. And there's carpenters at my company, so they would they made them. Um, and I went to Sherwin Williams and they donated some paint. And so our very first thing, it took us multiple weeks uh or multiple meetings to 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, um we were talking about the little free libraries and what we're gonna do, but in the meantime, it was the fall, the the autumn time of year, and I had gone through some of my uh 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 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 um I got a very huge response, a huge, wonderful response from my commun my personal community, and I thought, hmm, this seems to be something that everybody can contribute to. Everyone was very excited, very kind, um 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 gonna open this up a little bit. 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. Um, if you wouldn't mind just putting a collection box in your lunchroom or, you know, just a little something, that would be wonderful. And I would really appreciate it. Um, and the response from that community was tremendous as well. Um, I received feedback both by email, phone calls, whatnot. And um, beyond having the collection boxes being put out, I had people sending checks to me as well, to Michelle Christensen.

SPEAKER_01 7:13

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 7:14

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 the response was tremendous. Didn't realize it. So I was just managing it as I was going along. So

When Donations Outgrow The Shelters

SPEAKER_00 7:39

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 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 um cover, you know, 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, you know, 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. 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 their rules and regulations were to make sure that our hard work wouldn't be 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. And

Tags Permits And A Clear Plan

SPEAKER_00 10:07

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. 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, um, 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 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. And 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 um Lorenz bus and I attached it to the email and I said, This is a 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.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

It was around No, I can imagine.

SPEAKER_00 12:03

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. Um, so we went forward, we put the tags.

Scarf Bombing Day Logistics

SPEAKER_00 12:17

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 uh unsheltered as well. Safety pins are a really big thing. They can hold pieces of clothing together or layers together. So every every piece of what we were doing was going to be utilized. So we got our hundred bags. I had my 56 volunteers, the bus sat 56 people. We got a coached bus, we took the hundred bags of donations, we stuffed it into the belly of the bus, and I had um 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 gonna take 50 bags with the people that were on the bus. We were gonna go out into the parks and put all of those tagged items out, and then we were gonna 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. Um when I came up with the name, there wasn't um there wasn't noticeable strife in the world that we it wasn't um necessarily something that I intentionally um named it that just because it felt like it was just such a huge gift that the everywhere you look, every tree limb, every bench, every we even put items on the ground. We'll put like um uh n trail mix and uh wool socks and first aid kits. We'll put those in Ziploc on the 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_01 14:22

That's a that's a nice problem to have.

SPEAKER_00 14:24

It's 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 it 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 um did our scarf bombing on January 5th, so that is the beginning um 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 bombing is one of our events.

SPEAKER_01 15:25

Yeah, because you do, I mean, that that in and of itself is amazing, and you probably could stop right there if you wanted to, but you do so much more. Um now, before we go on to that though, sure you told a story when we were chatting um about was it the bus driver?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

The the first the first time?

A Bus Driver Joins The Mission

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Yes, so the the very first time that the bus came to my home, and the very first year that we went out, um, I had people gather in my home. We gathered into teams, and um 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 snowbanks all over the place. And so I was very cognizant of trying to help the bus driver navigate tight corners getting on on and off residential streets. So I was sitting right in the front seat.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

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. Um, and she said, I would, and we start 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 I want to do it. I want to help. And I said, Okay. Um, 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 gonna bring on the bus and we're gonna 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. You that's the exit you take to get to Loring Park. And as you're navigating your way to Loring 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 gonna be people on those concrete medians. 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.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

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 get to the park, I said, if you go in the left hand lane, the concrete medium will be on your left and the person will be standing right there, and you can open your window as we stop at the stop light. So that's exactly what we did. She pulled the bus into the left hand lane and a 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 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 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 Perkins muffins where they can only fit four in a pie box because they're 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 yes, and she said, Now what do I do? And I said, Give him the box. Give him the the whole box of muffins, because oftentimes you'll see one unsheltered person, but they're within a community. Sure, yeah, or 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 gonna be four or five more, and there 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 gonna 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 hand lane, 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. 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 Dun 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 Loring Park. And then the volunteers, I gave them a time frame of please come back to the bus by 12:30. 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 turned red. And the Walker Art Center is right in front of us. Very tight turn. Again, 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 her, 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. 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.

The Pink Blanket Moment

SPEAKER_00 23:54

She could see the blanket was moving. And he said, Somebody has your blanket. 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. And so they knew that we were going to be out in the parks and they were 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 kind of lean. Um, but they wanted to 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. I heard things like, You only live four blocks from us, our sons played hockey together, oh, I know her, I work with her.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

So beyond So it's a real community.

SPEAKER_00 25:54

Yeah, beyond giving into a community, they were able to also receive from the community of kindness that that they were sitting in. Um, 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_01 26:38

Yeah, if you're not familiar with St. Paul, those streets over there are nuts.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

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 the Mississippi River sits on the right hand side, and then Kellogg Boulevard sits on the left, and that's and then the park this 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, be just right behind a stoplight. And I said, just flip on your hazards and we'll be quick. And um, she said, I 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 I if a police officer comes, I need you to come back on this bus and I need you to drive to drive this bus.

SPEAKER_01 27:41

I do not have a license that says I can drive this bus.

SPEAKER_00 27:44

And she was just she was so eager to help that I didn't I wanted to find a way to to let her help. So that's exactly what we did. She threw

Strangers Follow The Kindness Ripple

SPEAKER_00 27:52

on she threw on the 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 rightmost 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 gonna are people are starting to park on the road like this is a parking spot. And then another car came, and then another car came.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Look what you started.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

So there were three cars all with their hazards on, and I'm looking out the front of the window and I'm like, this is gonna 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 Loring Park. So they were doing 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 the volunteer 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 Oh my gosh, you talk about the ripple of kindness. It was amazing. It was absolutely and then 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. 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 gonna do next? What are you gonna 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. 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. Oh, and so I said, No, really, thank you so much, you guys. Feel free to use my restroom. Um, thank you so much. 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 gonna 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 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? Um, and that was lovely. But I think once everything was kind of done and said 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.

One Good Deed Takes Shape

SPEAKER_00 32:02

And I said at that point, if I do more, will you help me? And they all said yes. And so when good deed, our group of volunteers that has now been around for eight years, that is how One Good Deeds started was in my front yard after our first year of scarf bombing because I wanted to make crafts with moms that I didn't want to lose connection with. Wow, it's amazing, it's amazing. And then it's it's 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.

A Full Year Of Monthly Projects

SPEAKER_00 32:50

In February, we're making cards for seniors. Um and I think I have we're doing um, we're we're um 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 four senior campuses. So we're 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_01 33:22

And so that's so they can put them out with their meals.

SPEAKER_00 33:25

Yep, they took them in, they tuck them into the meals. Um, 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_01 33:40

Probably homebound or yes, exactly. Okay, yep.

SPEAKER_00 33:43

So last year we made 650 cards. So Meals on Wheels received 450 cards to put in, plus we covered the four campuses. Um, and it's amazing. So this year with 65 volunteers to this point, you know, 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, um, all of the materials, the venue, all of the details of the event are taken care of. 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 give an 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 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. Oh 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_01 35:06

Now, um, so okay, that January and February, what else do you do during the year? I I know you and how long did it take you to decide I want to do something every month?

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Um I would say the first year was a lot of um a lot of learning um how much I could give because I do have a full-time job as well. So one good deed is a 501c3 nonprofit, you know, both state and federal. We're tax exempt. And we've grown into that. But it's it takes a lot of time um to organize and the 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 um 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_01 36:06

I saw on your website that you partnered with the Animal Humane Society.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 36:13

So it like in March, um, like some of our events, it 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. Um, and so we host a um, it's a International Women's Day kind of like a showcase. I invite 36 women-run, women-inspired, um, women-centric, um, whether it's the League of Women Voters or a Needle Workers Group or Herself Health who does um women-only health um items concerns. I have I rent a space, a huge gymnasium. I invite 36 different um, no one, there's no overlapping, but 36 kind of different organizations or businesses to come there and just be present, answer questions. Um, 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. One good DP's for the space, and it's just about 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. So the lovely part 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, they want to share what they do. And it's it's specific, but it does apply. If you're if you're a loving partner to say um a woman and she's asking questions, you can stand right there as her male counterpart or female carnapart 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 is because that could that be something I could participate in too or whatnot. So that's March, April. We do um 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 um garbage bags and we just fill the dumpster and we are go out for four hours. I have Boy Scout troops, Girl Scout troops, um, church groups, clubs, organizations. That's uh 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 anybody any participant has a question, where's the restroom? Where's the start line? That's what we do. And then flags for Fort Snelling, we put flags at Fort Snelling. Um, we sign up for shifts. So if that's if that's something that speaks to you, that's a very hard organization. They those gaps fill really fast, but I get dedicated slots all weekend, and people can sign up for that. We have a charity garage sale in June last year. We made um $8,000 for charity. The year before was $9,000. Um, and we have two nonprofits. All the money that we make, we donate into the two nonprofits. So everybody that wants to donate items, like let's say you um the epilepsy truck is coming around or the veterans truck is coming around, you put your your stuff down at the curb and they pick it up. We at One Good Deed will take that beginning. We start in uh mid-May and we start taking donations in. We put everything out. I 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 $100 to me. And to us, it it doesn't matter because all of the money goes to other 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, 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 it's you know, they'll open up their wallet and kind of paw through, and they'll be like, It's is seven dollars 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 keep the five. Um, because it's about dignity, you know, at for at a certain point. But then there's other people that they come here because they know that that's what we're doing, and 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. 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're we'll be up to 230 this year.

SPEAKER_01 42:19

That's crazy.

SPEAKER_00 42:20

And we do kindness, we do, we paint kindness rocks with 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 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 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_01 42:56

It's 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_00 43:01

And yep. Well, you should come and paint one. If you want to paint one, I can 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 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 pictures and 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 library. Libraries every year and they love it. They love being purposed. They know what they're doing. 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. August, we do backpacks for unsheltered youth. September we do fleece tiny fleece tie blankets for we did 200 this September. And we tuck um teddy bears in the um blankets. We did 50 we gave to the Ronald McDonald House, 50 to Foster. For the like the backs of their cars and ambulance. October we do um uh uh comfort care for cancer patients because Cancer Awareness Month is October. So we'll do massectomy pillows, port covers, chemo caps. Um 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_01 45:14

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_00 45:14

And then December we start kind of going full tilt getting ready for scarf bombing. So that's I just leave that. Yeah, I leave that open. So that's our schedule in a nutshell.

SPEAKER_01 45:26

Wow, Michelle, this is so amazing, and 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 that is so amazing. I I cannot thank you enough for your time today. I it has been the absolute pleasure of a lifetime to to talk with you and and have you hear your story.

SPEAKER_00 45:53

Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for having me and and sharing our ripple of kindness. Um, it really is out there. Our group started with a hundred people or fifty-six people that first year, and now uh you know we're up to over 1700. And so oftentimes 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.

How To Volunteer Or Donate

SPEAKER_01 46:23

And your your organization is onegooddeed.org, 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 a place to do it.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

Wonderful. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Have a great weekend, my friend.

Share The Show And Stay Connected

SPEAKER_01 46:43

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 spend 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. 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, MaydaymediaNetwork.com and check out the amazing shows on there, like Afrocentric, Spoiled by Movie, Generation Mixtape, Inapickle Radio Show, Wake Up and Dream with D.Anthony Palin, Stacks of Packs, and the Time Palettes. 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 Rathman. Have a fantastic week.