SORORITY AND PIZZERIA DO KIND DEEDS

One Cape Girardeau man picked up an order of kindness while another got an order delivered to his home Sunday, courtesy of Papa John's Pizza and Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority.

Jeff Ostendorf received a large pepperoni pizza and Eric Lohrmann got a large cheese pizza and an order of cheese sticks paid for by the Southeast Missouri State University sorority.

Ostendorf and Lohrmann were chosen at random to receive the free pizzas as part of Random Acts of Kindness Week.

Ostendorf, a Southeast student, was surprised by the gesture and said it might inspire him to perform an act of kindness.

"I might help a little old lady walk across the street now," he said. Ostendorf said he might also give a slice of the pizza away as a way of continuing the kindness.

Lohrmann said he appreciated the pizza but felt it would have been better going to a needier family.

"This is nice but we can afford to pay for the pizza," he said. "There's a lot of folks out there with families that probably don't get pizza that often.

"I thought it might be nice if they did that for somebody else and then I thought, gee maybe I should do that."

Lohrmann said he is considering arranging to buy a pizza for someone else through Papa John's.

Christy Huston, Sigma Sigma Sigma rush director and a shift leader at Papa John's, said the members of her sorority donated money to a variety of Kindness Week activities, including the pizza give-away. She said her sorority does a lot of community service projects.

"This was fun. He (Ostendorf) was surprised. He's a nice guy I know him from class, so he was a good guy to give it to," Huston said.

Sigma Sigma Sigma sorority will be conducting a number of Kindness Week activities including: distributing lollipops on campus Monday, singing at area nursing homes Tuesday, handing out carnations Wednesday and putting "Have a Great Day" fliers on cars in the Walmart parking lot Friday.

This is just the tip of the kindness iceberg as Random Acts of Kindness Week gets into full swing. The observance runs through Saturday, and has spread more than 60 miles away.

Today is the first day of the Kindness Hotline.

Everyone is encouraged to call the hotline at 334-8997 or *11 on Ameritech Cellular to share their stories of kindness that occur during the week.

The hotline will be manned in the news department from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., beginning today.

Callers are asked to provide their name, city, business or organization, phone number and a short description of the kind deed.

Last year, hundreds of calls were logged into the kindness line, providing an uplifting overview of the many activities going on during the week.

The hotline calls will be published in the newspaper throughout the week, beginning Tuesday. The calls will appear on special full pages that highlight kind people in the community. The newspaper will also be writing front page stories each day on area kindnesses performed during the week.

Kindness week stickers are still available free of charge at the Southeast Missourian offices, 301 Broadway. About 20,000 bright pink stickers proclaiming "Warning: I practice random acts of kindness" have been distributed.

For more information on Kindness Week call Joni Adams or Peggy Scott at 335-6611 or 1-800-879-1210.