INFO-2023-9 : Melrose Kind Day

Transcript (~10 min @ 9:30)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 9:27 Jack Eccles: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I sponsored this order with councilor Garipay and we have two members of Melrose kind here to speak with us this evening.

▶ 9:39 Speaker 5: Hi everyone. Thanks for inviting us to come and speak. This was our yesterday. Whereas our seventh annual Melrose random acts of kindness day. and but I like to say something that started kind of just as a thought a fleeting thought has really taken over and has become a movement in our community. Stephanie and I are amazed at how many people and organizations get involved and want to talk about kindness and address kindness and join us in our celebration of kindness. twiva really quick video that we like to show even though it's from 2019. I think that it gives a really good background on how our day became as big as it is and I'm gonna

▶ 10:33 Speaker 6: go ahead play. But one thing I wanted to just interject when WBZ came to follow us the reporters that I only have three to five minutes to follow you. And we said, okay and when he started to see what the mission and the movement was about he said, oh actually I have a little bit more time and he spent three and a half hours with us. So we're super proud of a little snapshot of

▶ 11:01 Speaker 5: it's really easy to look at the news and to see the bad things are happening and we don't spend enough time within the good.

▶ 11:10 Speaker 7: Created a warmth and brightness all their own. This is kindness day in Melrose people in

▶ 11:15 Speaker 8: businesses all over the city are working this day

▶ 11:19 Speaker 7: with random acts of kindness. This is the fourth time the city has celebrated kindness and it is spreading.

▶ 11:24 Speaker 9: Yay, people Rock

▶ 11:34 Speaker 7: hoodies to overtimes and delivered several times people Rose

▶ 11:39 Speaker 5: hated forward with kindness. We have people do things like quarter in the laundry room.

▶ 11:43 Speaker 10: We've had lots of people going to

▶ 11:47 Speaker 7: the library how the library America Darwin got

▶ 11:51 Speaker 7: the idea four years ago as a concrete way for people to put the eye in kindness. We just think it is a break into celebrate what

▶ 12:01 Speaker 6: we have in common and we always have

▶ 12:02 Speaker 7: kindness in common. That's what the orders of Buffalo's General

▶ 12:06 Speaker 7: Store did by sharing these treats with residents too and realize

▶ 12:12 Speaker 6: that you know, there's lots of people out there just sometimes you

▶ 12:17 Speaker 5: to one kind.

▶ 12:20 Speaker 7: Just about Melrose Bank picked up the parking tab for about 200 spots in the city's commuter rail Lots publicly while you're at five o'clock in the morning at six o'clock in the morning jumping on the commuter rail said but a nice advice this one and just down the street. Julie Nolan gave up coffee and Hawks. It's changed my whole thing. Yeah, it is miserable. Oh,

▶ 12:43 Speaker 5: many other communities have reached out to us. He said hey we wanted to do that on our community too. So we're

▶ 12:49 Speaker 5: hoping that it spreads Beyond Melrose. Would you like

▶ 12:57 Speaker 5: that

▶ 12:59 Speaker 7: And not my face and you know, if every community in Massachusetts is 300 51 Community right in Massachusetts. Yeah, if everyone picked a day we could cover just what every day of the year but the day of pass. Yeah, and you know, it picked the perfect day

▶ 13:13 Speaker 7: to do it to give those shots. Absolutely.

▶ 13:19 Speaker 5: The crazy thing for me about that video is even though they did a great job of showing what kindness is I think of how far we've come since then I mean I said hug a library and now we're bringing the entire Library breakfast and it's not Stephanie and I bringing them breakfast. It's people in the community you say we want to somehow be involved. Should we put together here a list of everything that happened this year unkindness day, and we just wanted to kind of quickly go over it. We had 2,000 letters that we distributed from elementary school students to Melrose senior citizens in our community this year Stephanie and I went in and read the letters to a lot of the seniors and it was just incredibly touching is awesome. We had 1,000 thank yous from Melrose High School students to impactful teachers today. I I mailed 15 that were in out of District. So one was in New Jersey when we was in Malden a couple of Vermont, so not just not just teachers in Melrose, but outside of Melrose. Students wrote to we had many many cards from middle school students to hospital staff and patients and we were at

▶ 14:35 Speaker 6: the dedication of healthcare Heroes way on Friday morning, which was pretty exciting. We joined the Boy Scouts a local Boy Scout Troop showered Scott McCauley with love handmade cards and some homemade goodies Scott as you all know has provided 37 Thanksgiving dinners for folks that would otherwise Has spent Thanksgiving alone. He's pivoted, you know the big word with covid and he's still providing that dinner. So he's providing dinners to go for those individuals. The humanitarian Club worked with us to shower the police department. We provided dunks gift cards and Melrose hats to the crossing guards that take care of our students across the community. Let's talk Melrose took care of the Department of Health. I mean, there's just so much. We actually surprised Jenny and Linda who are local animal Heroes that help locate lost dogs or rescue Wildlife Girl Scout surprise them with some cards and some gifts. It's just we feel like it's an opportunity to highlight the good work that's being done in the community and the individuals that often don't want the acknowledgment but deserve it.

▶ 15:55 Speaker 5: One one kind of personal note is when we started the movement. My youngest son was in middle school and he was like, oh my God, Mom. Do you really have to do this? And then a few years later? He's in high school and he came home and he slammed the door and he I said don't slam the door and he said no Mom I had to tell you something. I was in Dunkin Donuts in a lady came in and she said I'm buying donuts for all of you. And he said it's working mom. It's working and then this year now he said he's a sophomore in college and he texted me I screenshot from a janitor. He was my son was a janitor last last summer. The ECC. Yes, the ECC in a janitor the janitor there texted him and said, hey your mother just gave me a gift card and celebration of my kindness. Do you know anything about that? And he's like, oh, yeah, I know about that. It's pretty cool

▶ 16:50 Speaker 6: and see one other kind of neat thing to points out Mary Beth and I were at a parent University on Saturday morning and a proud mom walked up and said my son was the recipient of a gift card. He's an eighth grade boy from another friend and the friend said hey, it's kindness day. So I wanted to do something nice. and what it made Mary Beth and I think there's so much of that that's probably happening that we're not really capturing and we don't know about but we're thrilled that this ripple effect is actually taking yeah.

▶ 17:22 Speaker 5: Yeah, we're already thinking about more plans for next year every year we do more. And every year we feel as if we haven't done enough. Because in in a world that we live in kindness should be celebrated and the power of kindness should be recognized constantly and that that's what we want to keep doing year round and we kicked off

▶ 17:49 Speaker 6: the whole celebration on Friday morning with the band 40 members of the band. Thank you, Mr. Repucci. And yeah playing songs to have kids walk into the middle school and the high school and you just hope that it at least initiates a conversation. Why was the band out front playing and then like I said, you just hope that it has that ripple effect and it's motivates you to continue to do kindness not just on that particular day, but throughout the year our hope

▶ 18:17 Speaker 5: is as our children grow and you know take off into the world. And people ask them where they're from. They can tell them that they're from City of kindness and that's that's our hope is that we keep spreading it.

▶ 18:32 Speaker 6: So thank you for being up. Thank you for allowing us to come here and share what happened over the last week and we look forward to next year.

▶ 18:42 Speaker 5: Thank you.

▶ 18:44 Robb Stewart: Thank you very much. Are there any comments feedback from the council?

▶ 18:51 Manjula Karamcheti: Oh, well, just really a big. Thank you. It is a wonderful time of year to be celebrating kindness, and I do think that it has an impact that ripples not just on the day or the weekend. It seems to keep going. So just thank you for bringing it to the community and sticking with it even during covid and you going with your positive energy. So that's huge and we definitely need it. Thank you.