The Kindness Report, Year Five:A Fitting Finale to Our Last Public “National Pull-a-Mark Day”!

Well, Mark’s birthday, March 4, arrived and departed, with lots of tender stories about acts of kindness coming in. I’ve been a little slow to follow up in sharing them in part because I’ve spent much of the remainder of March preparing for and now recovering from successful neck disc fusion surgery. Here I am in the attractive rigid collar I’ll be wearing for two more weeks!

Now that I have a little quiet time, I’ve collected and read the messages, and I’m delighted to share them in our last “Kindness Report”—the list of good deeds that people did on National Pull-a-Mark Day and then shared with me.

As I mentioned before Mark’s birthday earlier this month, this will be our last Social Media celebration of National Pull-a-Mark Day, though our family will continue to observe this tradition quietly among ourselves for many years into the future. We appreciate everyone who, over the past five years, has done a kind deed and given a thought to Mark—both of those things fill me with joy! Here it is…

THE KINDNESS REPORT

On National Pull-a-Mark Day, friends and family of Mark Walton…

--Collected supplies and assembled kits of toiletries and medications for a homeless shelter.

--Saved all their change in a bottle for a year, and gave it to a homeless woman holding a sign that said “Anything helps.”

--Gave up their aisle seat on the plane to an elderly lady with a cane and took the middle seat instead.

--Helped out a friend who was moving apartments.

--Helped out a friend recovering from surgery.

--Gave extra large tips to service workers.

--Helped TWO DIFFERENT PEOPLE push their stuck cars out of the snow (one person did this twice in one single day!).

-- Took homemade beef stew & hot sourdough bread to a single 82 yr. old lady with an injured back.

-- Scrolled through social media to find pictures of people’s pets, then posted a note for each one saying how cute their pets are.

--Donated to a senior dog rescue shelter.

--Bought breakfast at a fast-food restaurant for the people in the line behind them.

--Made it a point to pay a compliment to at least three different people during that day.

--Reached out to a neighbor they didn’t know well and invited her to lunch.

--Vowed to be extra-courteous and patient with all the customers they dealt with in their online business that day.

— Took dinner and a book to a friend struggling with mental and physical challenges, and then sat with them for an hour, and listened to them talk.

--Helped a homeless man wandering in a parking lot.

--Helped facilitate a way for a retailer to donate leftover meat and produce to an animal shelter.

--At least three people stopped to help someone who looked like he/she was in need of assistance.

--Tried extra hard to be friendly to and understanding of people with whom they did NOT see eye to eye.

--------------

Thank you all for all your love and support of Mark and of our family, and for your efforts to do good in this world each and every day. Mark and our entire family have been blessed to have such wonderful family, friends, and colleagues. Thank you for pulling together…and for Pulling a Mark!