| Pay It Forward Day is coming up on Thursday April 26th and we invite you to celebrate with us by doing an act of kindness! Below are some kindness ideas, based on some of our favorite real-life HelpOthers’ pay-it-forward stories. And we invite you to share how you celebrated by leaving a comment on this story!
1. The tried and tested – pay for the coffee for the person in the line behind you.
Andrew was a bit anxious when he tried to do this for the first time and wasn’t sure it would work – a week later, the coffee shop tags him with a free cup of coffee for being cheerful and friendly!
2. Anonymously pay for someone’s meal at a restaurant.
A grandmother is sharing pancakes with her family when she decides to pay for the meal of a man eating alone, so she has the waitress deliver him a Smile Card instead of the bill. This leads to a wonderful pay-it-forward chain reaction at the restaurant.
3. Gift something from your home to someone who might appreciate it.
This family shares their home-grown ‘cukes and zukes’ with their elderly neighbors.
4. Get your friends together – organize a ‘Pay-it-Forward’ activity with  people in your community.
This group of friends got together to give out cupcakes, Smile Cards and pay-it-forward bracelets in London’s Hyde Park. Sounds like it was a lot of fun!
5. If you can’t organize a group, you could do a pay-it-forward activity on your own – like giving flowers or chocolates to random strangers.
A young lady skips lunch and uses the money to spend on extra flowers to give away just to make people’s day. When she tells the florist what she’s going to do with the flowers, the florist gifts her some flowers to give away too!
6. Leave a surprise gift somewhere for someone to find with a Smile Card so that they understand what it’s for.
This woman who was going through a difficult time was left feeling overwhelmed by kindness when she found a $20 bill wrapped around a Smile Card left in a pay phone at the a mall.
7. Teach children about the concept of ‘pay-it-forward’ – it’s never too young to start!
A 6 week old baby girl has a wonderful opportunity to pay-it-forward. What a great lesson for when she grows up!
8. Do something to honor the public service workers in your community.
These two school friends baked cookies, cakes, pies and brownies and gave them out at fire-stations, a hospital, the post office, the police station, and even chased down some bus drivers for three blocks!
9. Go big – this year think of something really big or completely unexpected!
This young man gave up his first class seat and got his colleague to do the same – just to see a couple of people smile!
10. Finally – don’t forget to spread the word!
This woman had to make two trips to Walmart and speak to the management on the phone to explain that she wanted to carry out a pay-it-forward action before she could finally do her pay-it-forward act.
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