Archive for the ‘Ohio’ Category

The Ohio State University

Monday, October 5th, 2009

bogart-osu

I met Liz who I mentioned earlier, and we worked the oval on campus.  We must have passed out 1200 stickers. What a great response. While on the oval, a guy came out of one of the buildings wondering where all of the students were getting the kindness sticker. He is from POLENET, an Antarctica survey and research team which is part of OSU. After our conversation and not wanting to miss an opportunity, I gave him one of my Sow Only Seeds Of Love stickers to be taken to the research post on Antarctica. Now every continent will be represented.

Liz and her friends, Jim, Allison, Rachel, and Mikel invited me to dinner, a great homemade lasagna dinner.  There’s no way I would turn that down.  They went all out, complete sit down dinner with salad, garlic Italian bread and some extraordinary red wine. We had some great conversations, talking about what we can do to help and spread the word and the importance of finding our passion in life. They gave me some great input from their point of view, some ideas which I will use along the way.  Jim had a fun idea for making the map on the website more enjoyable. I am going to contact a teacher at Mayfield High School in Cleveland about doing this. They were very gracious hosts, making me feel welcome in their home. A million thanks to you guys. I’ll be getting them some Kindness shirts to wear during their travels.  Liz has a friend at the NY Times who she contacted about doing an article.  Bogart decided that he should run a few hundred laps around the table at the speed of light. Perhaps he was showing off to get someone to give him a bite of lasagna, I think I need to get him more exercise as our travels continue.  Whew, we thought he might wear through the carpet and we would all fall through the floor. Every time we get invited to somone’s home, Bogart seems to enjoy trying to not get us invited back. Before we shoved off, we took some great pictures in front of the bus. We even did a great version of O-H-I-O in front of the bus. I’m planning on finding a location on campus near the medical center tomorrow.

Ashland University

Thursday, September 24th, 2009

169I arrived at Ashland, Ohio at about 1 PM.  I went straight to Ashland University and, as fate would have it, I found a parking spot as a lady was leaving, right in the center of activity around here, a very busy location.

.The bus, Bogart, and I seem to attract a crowd quickly.  Then Brian Wells stopped by.  Brian is also on the paper’s staff, and is president of Accent Public Relations, Ashland University, a school organization and he is also a writer for the school newspaper.  He gave me a lengthy interview and took at least a dozen pictures. He said he was going to meet with his group and find a way to make the Kindness project a permanent activity within the school.

4 young women then stopped to chat, 3 of whom have a 1 hour radio program on the school station.  They were going to make the Kindness project the subject of today’s show.  “Bob and Bogart, go see them.”

At the recommendation of one of the ladies, I proceeded to the office of Dr. John Stratton, who is the Executive Director of the Ashland Center for Non-Violence.  He graciously let me explain what the Kindness project was all about, given that I walked in totally unplanned and with my subtle 2 ft. by 3 ft. “One Million Acts of Kindness” sign.  He explained that his department is new and looking for things like this project.  He brought in a few more people to discuss it and asked me to return at a later date to talk and keep things alive there.  They will also put a Kindness project link on their web site.  This was a great meeting!

And lastly, I received a call from a young lady from Ohio State University asking me when I was coming to OSU.  I was really surprised at her question and I asked her how in the world she heard of me.  She said she found it through a Google search.  She would like to spend her career helping people and she came across my web site and wanted to talk to me about it.

Then she said within 5 minutes of reading the Kindness web site, she was walking through the student center and saw a Kindness sticker on someone’s computer…..an incredible coincidence.   She said she then created a sort of mini-Facebook site within her own Facebook site and she’s made “tons of friends on it already.”

This has been one incredible day, exceeding all my expectations.

Wooster Day 2

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

This morning, while still trying to wake up, Jen stopped by the bus to see what it was all about. Jen is the manager of a store nearby and she said their parent company sponsors appropriate charities.  She thought One Million Acts of Kindness would be a great fit for them and she was going to bring it up at her next staff meeting in October.  What a great idea!  And the beat goes on.

This evening, I attended a talk on campus given by Nicholas Kristoff, a New York Times writer.  He spoke on the world’s issues facing us today.  I bought one of his books thinking it may help get his ear for a while.  It worked.  He listened to the Kindness project and thought it was incredible.  I’ll definitely read his book, “China Wakes.” 

I also met one of the assistant deans and she said it was perfectly fine to come right onto the campus. It’s interesting how campuses vary there practices on who has access to the areas. 

Kate, my coffee shop friend a few days ago, spoke about the Kindness project at a service in the Unitarian Church nearby.  In fact, 2 young women later came up to me separately to tell me about it.  Kate also brought a reporter from the local paper to interview me and take a few pictures.  That Kate is really something.  I’ll bet I talked to at least 400 students today.

Wooster Day 1

Monday, September 21st, 2009

On my way to Wooster, Ohio to pay a visit to the College of Wooster.  The rainy weather made me a little cautious while driving, and I soon realized I had an 18 wheeler right on my tail.  I pulled into a strip mall to let him and the rest of the traffic get by.  Within a minute or two, a man named Blair knocked on the door and asked what this was all about.  I explained what I was trying to accomplish and his reaction was, “Why don’t we see more of this?” He walked away with a sticker and the intention to spread the word. 

A minute later, one of the store front doors opened and a lady called out for me to come in for a cup of coffee.  The store, Thymbles, is owned by Chris and Dale Marty, and their employee, Linda was there as well.  We had a great conversation over great cup of coffee.  There have been some incredible coincidences on this trip and today was one of them. 

Normally closed on Monday, they opened today because this weekend is a quilting show in Chatauqua N.Y. where over 7000 people are expected to attend and they were getting ready for it all this week.  They then decided that a “One Million Acts of Kindness” quilt would be a great idea.  In fact, we talked about 100 limited edition quilts for the holidays.    It’s really amazing how contagious this project can be.  They asked for some stickers to pass out at the show and they wound up with 250. 

Chris and Dale also have a mailing list with over 3000 names.  Each month a newsletter goes out to the entire list.  They said that next month the letter will focus on One Million Acts of Kindness.  This whole thing has been unbelievable. 

On to The College of Wooster.   It was a bad weather day, cold and rain.  While having a coffee at McDonald’s, Kate, one of my friends from a coffee shop North of the University of Akron saw the bus and stopped in to chat for a while.  She invited me to attend a meeting on the campus on 9/22 on environmental issues.  I thought that was a great idea, I’m looking for ward to that. Also, she got a fresh supply of “Kindness Rocks” stickers, a very popular item. 

My son Alex stopped by to visit, always great to see him, we had lunch at a popular spot in Wooster, the rain chasing us inside. We chatted about the project, his activities and caught up on life in general.  I was very happy to see him especially since it’ll probably be the last time till December.

Brimfield

Saturday, September 19th, 2009

168

Spent the night in Brimfield, Ohio.  The next morning I went into a coffee shop in for my morning cup when a woman in a moose outfit saw me leave the bus and enter the shop.   She asked me what time the parade started.  Parade?  What parade?   She assumed I was going to be in the annual Brimfest parade, and when she realized I had no idea what she was talking about, she insisted I join in.  I was happy to do so, a few thousand people saw the bus, some even applauded with a standing “O.”  A very nice hometown parade, what a great day!

The chief of police came up and said he thought it was a great idea.  Ann, an inner city elementary school teacher, saw Bogart and came over to tell me what a great idea this was.  So, the pendulum swings both ways, somewhat of a downer at the University of Akron, and then a great day in Brimfield, Ohio.  Life is good.

University of Akron Day 2

Friday, September 18th, 2009

I thought spending another day at the University of Akron woul be a good idea.   I found a good spot for the bus, pulled up and started to feed the parking meter.  At that point, a man in a U.of A. uniform pulled up in his golf cart and said, “Hi, you don’t have to feed the meter, we’re glad to see you.”  What a great place, I thought.

 

So, Bogart and I went off to begin our process, meeting students and anyone else interested enough to hear about my project.  I’ll bet I talked to a few hundred students; all seemed very interested in what was going on.  It’s this kind of reception that makes me believe that if this generation embraces what I’m doing, there’s hope for all of us. 

 

Just as I’m feeling great about what I’m doing and who I’m talking to, a very official looking woman came up to me and said, “I’m sorry to have to say this, because I love what you are doing, but someone complained about you, you’ll have to leave.  You can go down the street if you like, as long as you are off campus.”   What?  Instantaneous and complete deflation.  There are 2 things I just couldn’t figure out, who would complain about this and what could they possibly complain about?  Sheeese!  Even Bogart was miffed.  He looked at me as if to say, “Let’s get outta here.”  Back to the bus we went, as we got closer to it, I can see someone left me a note under the wiper, an invitation to talk somewhere, I’m sure.  Wait a minute…..it’s not an invitation…..it’s a parking ticket!  A parking ticket!   Some parking ticket giver ticketed the Kindness bus.   Can you believe it?  Later I found it was all a misunderstanding and things were set right.  Thank to the University of Akron Security Department.

University of Akron Day 1

Thursday, September 17th, 2009

The first day of my visit to the University of Akron,  I met Frank, one of the professors, and he was so interested he asked how we could keep our dialog going to continue moving the project along.  I was also invited to a soccer game to sit with a group of kids.  It was a great game, Akron beating Indiana 1-0.  Akron truly deserves their number 1 ranking.  He then invited me to spend the night at his house on Saturday, he and his wife Dorothy are having a few friends over and it would be a good chance to spread the word.