KINDNESS WEEK PROVES A SUCCESS

Kindness counts. Area residents said so with myriad kindnesses both large and small last week.

Some 350 businesses, schools, organizations and individuals participated in Random Acts of Kindness Week.

The list included 173 businesses; 56 schools, classes and day-care centers; 47 government and non-profit agencies; 43 churches and Sunday school classes; 26 organizations; and five individuals spread over six Southeast Missouri counties and one county in Southern Illinois.

People from as far away as Cairo, Ill., and Charleston and Advance participated in Random Acts of Kindness Week.

Many of the kind deeds were planned, but others were spontaneous like the motorist who stopped his car to retrieve a child's ball that had rolled into the street.

Kindness was defined in many ways:

-- Third-grade students at Woodland School in Marble Hill cleaned their classrooms and the hallways each afternoon so the custodian could leave work early.

-- Grace United Methodist Church cooked hot dogs and hamburgers for over 400 Cape Girardeau Central High School students.

-- Police officers handed out warnings rather than tickets.

-- A 9-year-old girl planted flowers for an elderly neighbor who was in the hospital.

-- Pre-schoolers at the Christians School for the Young Years washed their principal's car, weeded the flower garden and picked up trash.

For some, kindness was an everyday occurrence, whether it is volunteering at the Cape Girardeau Civic Center or local hospitals.

The Southeast Missourian sponsored Random Acts of Kindness, carrying stories daily about kindness and publishing reports of kindnesses called in to the paper's Kindness Hotline.

The newspaper handed out over 18,000 Kindness stickers and about 13,000 Kindness bookmarks.

"I think the region was a nice place to be last week," said Joni Adams, the newspaper's managing editor.

"It makes you feel good about living here," she said. "Too often, I think we look at the bad side of everything."

Adams said people did kindnesses for people they knew as well as for strangers.

Kindnesses generated other kindnesses, she said. Firefighters cleaned up the Civil War fountain in the Common Pleas Courthouse Park. Later in the week, firefighters were on the receiving end. A restaurant provided them with meals.

The Missourian will run a full-page ad Monday thanking and listing all of the participants that signed up for Random Acts of Kindness Week.

The remainder of the Kindness Hotline calls received by the newspaper will be published in Tuesday's edition.

Kindness Week garnered attention across the country.

"The Associated Press ran a wire story on it and we were interviewed by radio stations in San Diego and Los Angeles," said Adams.

"Friday, I was interviewed live on WCBS IN New York city, the country's largest radio station.

"I even got a call from the `Oprah Winfrey Show' wanting to know more about the week," she said.

"Isn't it amazing that something as small as kindness can make news from coast to coast," Adams said.

The Rev. Jeffrey Sippy, pastor of Hanover Lutheran Church in Cape Girardeau, enthusiastically embraced the kindness effort.

Sippy said he tried to be "the kindness cop," calling attention to life's little kindnesses.

Some of the kindnesses were planned rather than random. But Sippy said the planned events helped encourage others to be kind.

Sippy said kindness is tough to define in words. "You can't really define it. You can only do it," he said.

"I loved the whole week and I loved what the newspaper did. Every morning, I wanted to read the newspaper," Sippy said.

"I really experienced a real high spirit throughout the week in the stores and around town," he said.

Adams said the newspaper will sponsor Random Acts of Kindness again next year, although no date has been set.

"We're not sure if we will hook up with the national event in February or have a Random Acts of Kindness Week of our own," said Adams. "How can we stop now?"