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Random Acts of Kindness

A simple good deed or gesture can go a long way!

By Word SlingerPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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(Photo Credit: Tommy Maher Facebook page)

I am a Survivor of the Las Vegas shooting on October 1, 2017. From that horrific event came a lot of different emotions, feelings, and experiences. Disbelief, anger, shock, denial, heartbreak, you name it. Everyone has been all over the map since that night. But from all the trauma and horror of that night, also came a glimmer of hope. A reassurance that, there is still good in the world. Lots of it as it turns out.

I don't even know where to begin... literally. Tommy Maher came out of nowhere. He wasn't at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, but had a friend who was. After hearing what had happened, he wanted to do more than just donate money. He wanted to do something that had more meaning. Then he says, "This idea just came to me, my heart and gut were telling me to do it."

His idea was to do 58 random acts of kindness in memory of the 58 Angels we lost that night. But that wasn't all. He also had 58 specially engraved bracelets made up, each one bearing the name of the Angel it represented and thousands of smaller silicon bracelets stamped with #HONOR58. He then went on a mission, through 12 different states and even a trip to Canada in just 12 days. His mission was to deliver each bracelet, along with 30 or so smaller bracelets, to a special person that had some sort of connection to each of the 58 Angels. The idea was for that person to also do 58 random acts of kindness, giving out the smaller bracelets each time. Then those people do 58 random acts, and so on. What happened next was nothing short of amazing.

Suddenly everybody was doing random acts of kindness in memory of our Angels. Even people who had no connection at all to the shooting. Everything from tipping wait staff $58 and paying for other people's gas and meals, to donating school supplies to schools and helping pay somebody's bills. Each one usually posted on social media with the hashtag #HONOR58. Thousands of people being kind and doing nice things for others, all in honor of 58 innocent strangers whom they had never even met.

But let's get back to Tommy. He had #HONOR58 t-shirts made to sell, and donated all proceeds back to Route 91 Survivors who couldn't pay for food, bills or even hospital expenses.

Tommy didn't stop at honoring the fallen Angels from the shooting in Las Vegas either. He also traveled to Parkland, Florida to visit and do some random acts of kindness in honor of the 14 students and three teachers killed in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas shooting. People then started doing random acts and posting on social media using #HONOR17.

Then he did the same thing again by travelling to Santa Fe, Texas to honor the eight students and two teachers killed in the shooting at Santa Fe High School. Once again, people joined in the random acts of kindness using #HONOR10.

The most recent thing Tommy has done, is have metal signs made up with the saying “Believe There is GOOD in the World,” with the letters spelling “BE THE GOOD” capitalized. Tommy took ten of those signs to Santa Fe High School where he presented them to the football team’s Head Coach, Mark Kannipes, so Mark could give each one to the team’s opponent every week.

Perhaps the most amazing thing out of all of this, is the fact that Tommy Maher has done all the travelling and all these random acts of kindness with money out of his own pocket. He doesn’t ask for a dime or anything in return, except that you take his random act of kindness and “Pay It Forward.”

So for those who don’t believe there is still good in the world, I ask you to search the hashtags #HONOR58, #HONOR17, and #HONOR10 or visit the social media pages below and find out for yourselves, there is still a lot of good in the world.

Honor58, Instagram: @honor58journey

Honor17, Instagram: @honor17journey

HONOR10

healing
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