WANTED: KIND PEOPLE TO BE FEATURED DURING WEEK

Kindness can be contagious. That's what the region learned during the first Random Acts of Kindness observance in May 1996.

More than 350 participants signed up, including businesses, churches and schools. It translated to more than 20,000 people in six Southeast Missouri counties and one county in Southern Illinois.

The Southeast Missourian will again sponsor the week, which begins on Mothers' Day, May 11, and runs through May 17.

But the newspaper needs your help.

"We're looking for the names of people who do kind deeds all year long," said Joni Adams, managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.

More than 20 people will be featured on full Kindness pages that will be published during the week. These will replace the regular special pages that appear each week, such as Learning, Home, Business, etc.

The kindnesses that these people perform can be large or small.

Among those kind people featured last year:

-- A retiree who has volunteered more than 3,500 at the Missouri Veterans Home since it opened.

-- A young girl who planted flowers in the yard of an elderly neighbor who had been hospitalized.

-- A businessman who ships good will coast-to-coast, aiding the homeless and needy with massive clothing collections.

-- A fifth-grader who makes kindness a way of life, such as cleaning off teachers' cars that were covered in snow.

For some, the stories told of ongoing kindnesses. For others, the story focused on a single event.

One featured young man helped two elderly women when their car had stalled in a water-filled street. Despite the rain, the teen-ager stopped to help and brought his jumper cables. The women considered the 18-year-old `a hero.'

Kindness nominees can be submitted to Joni Adams or Peggy Scott at the Southeast Missourian by calling 335-6611 or faxing to 334-7288. The mailing address is: Box 699, Cape Girardeau, Mo., 63701. Those nominating kind people should include your name and phone number.

Plans are gearing up for this year's Random Acts of Kindness week. Sign-up forms are available at the Southeast Missourian newspaper, 301 Broadway. Beginning this week, information packets can also be mailed.

Names of participants will be featured on the front page of the newspaper, beginning in mid-April.

Starting this week, the newspaper will distribute the following items free of charge: bright pink kindness stickers, bookmarks, participant posters, brochures, idea lists, teacher guides and community guides.

As participants make plans for the week, they're encouraged to call the paper as well.

"We'll be running a number of preview stories between now and when the week begins. We'd like to feature local events in those stories," said Adams.

The newspaper is also planning front page coverage of kindness acts during the week, and will again sponsor a Kindness Hotline. Last year, hundreds of callers reported kind acts during the week.