Cloudy with a chance of kindness: Wave of selfless acts spreads across province

It might have started with the gift of teddy bears in Salisbury. Or it might have started in Oromocto, where two military personnel from CFB Gagetown bought, wrapped and delivered presents for every single one of the 57 residents at a special care home.

Or maybe it began in Quispamsis, where a woman who'd just spent a difficult day at the hospital was reduced to tears when she learned a stranger had just paid for her meal.

But regardless of how or what kicked it off, the flickers of unexpected kindnesses have spiralled and snowballed and rolled across the province, sparking joy and soothing spirits.

In some towns, the movement has been given a name. In Salisbury, businesses and organizations have banded together to hand out gifts to customers or make donations to food banks in a campaign called December to Remember. 

In other towns, there isn't a specific campaign, just a string of individuals doing good deeds and expecting nothing in return.

Some might argue that there's nothing unusual about acts of kindness in a province that prides itself on such things.

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But it's the volume of them, and the timing, that is particularly touching.  

With just weeks to go until we say goodbye — and good riddance — to the ravages of 2020, the year looks poised to end on a glowing note of humanity.

It's what Dr. Chris Moore, a psychology and neuroscience professor of at Dalhousie University, calls "a win-win situation."

"When we make someone else feel good, we empathize with the joy they feel and that makes us happy," he said. "But we also feel the sense of pride that comes with being a generous person and that makes us feel good also."

"When times are hard and joy is in short supply — such as in this pandemic — being kind to others is one sure way of giving ourselves a feel-good boost." 

Here are just a few examples of how New Brunswickers have been brightening others' lives lately. 

Oromocto: A small army of gifts

The Enhanced Living special care home always tries to do something nice for its residents at Christmas time, and this year, "with the seniors being isolated," the desire to do something special was particularly keen.

But Erynn Bailey, the director of care, says she was not prepared for the level of "special" that unfolded.

Several weeks ago, Cpl. Julie Power of Canadian Forces Base Gagetown contacted Bailey and said the 5th Canadian division training centre wanted to organize a gift donation for the residents. 

Bailey put her in touch with personal support worker Laura Sedge and left the co-ordinating to them. 

With military precision, Power, Sgt. Melanie Beaulieu and Sedge worked together to draft a list of residents and gift ideas, replacing names with numbers to ensure confidentiality. Power and Beaulieu then bought, wrapped and dropped off presents for every single one of the 57 residents.

"The incredible sight of it when they dropped all those gifts off, all of them wrapped — it was such a powerful moment," Bailey said. 

Sedge and personal support worker Tiffany Buckingham are now adding names to the gifts and after letting them sit undisturbed in an isolation room for four days (the threat of COVID-19 still lingers, after all), they'll tuck them under the tree, Bailey said.

"This year has been one of the most challenging, but acts like this restore my faith in humanity," she said. "This Christmas will be different, there is no doubt in that. But it will also be one of the best because our staff and our community have really come together this year for our residents."

Burton: A souped-up birthday surprise

Like so many events this year, Lincoln Cameron's eighth birthday party was cancelled because of COVID-19 restrictions.

But his mother wasn't about to let that be the end of it.

Tonya Cameron reached out on Facebook to see if anyone knew of anyone who had a race car or big truck they would be willing to drive past the house on her engine-obsessed son's special day.

A friend of race  car driver Timothy Hohmann saw the post and reached out to him.

And that's when things shifted into high gear.

Hohmann reached out to another driver, found a "race driver" costume to give to Lincoln and picked up a present to give him as well.

On Lincoln's birthday, two gleaming race cars, a modified Chevrolet Cobalt mini-stock car driven by Hohmann and a modified Dodge Neon mini-stock car driven by Randy Titus, growled down the street toward his house.

"He was a bit confused when they first went by, until we told him they were there for him," his mom said. 

"When they pulled in the yard he was shocked … but he came around pretty quickly and was so excited."

The smile on his face when he slid into the driver's seat could have lit up a room, but Hohmann says he got as much of a kick out of it as Lincoln did.

Though he'd never met the Camerons and didn't charge a cent for the special drive-up guest appearance, he says seeing "the excitement the kids get around cars, that's payment enough." 

Bathurst: You can't keep a good volunteer down

The volunteers at Evangel Bathurst Church were feeling frustrated. They'd watched helplessly as the pandemic sidelined event after event after event — the Christmas concert for kids, the seniors' banquet, the Christmas parade. 

Pastor Pamela Bauer was frustrated, too. 

"I love Christmas," she said. "I love everything about it, the spirit of it, the giving and the joy."

So when she was faced with the final big cancel of the annual sit-down Christmas dinner for the community, Bauer decided it was time to push back.

"I thought, there's gotta be something we can do," she said. "And then I thought, why not do a drive-through dinner?"

She wasn't sure the idea would resonate with residents. And the logistics were daunting: they had a goal of serving 250 meals, meaning hundreds of pounds of turkey, kitchen and prep areas divided into zones, Public Health-compliant cleaning and serving rules, keeping the traffic moving smoothly.

But there were volunteers — so many volunteers — who were thrilled to finally be able to be volunteering again, and there was help from the New Brunswick Association for Community Living and other organizations, and it was immediately clear that people loved the idea.

Bauer's goals quickly expanded. Why not serve 500 dinners? Why not deliver them to those who didn't have a car or couldn't get out to pick it up? Why not make it free?

We exist to love and to serve, and this was one very special way we were able to do that.- Pastor Pamela Bauer, Evangel Bathurst Church

On the day of the drive-through, a non-stop stream of cars pulled in to pick up a dinner of turkey with all the traditional fixings, while Christmas music played in the background and volunteers danced and sang and chatted.

People couldn't get over the fact that it was free, and many wanted to make a donations. Others who couldn't get out to pick the dinner up were deeply moved that volunteers brought it to their door.

"I've organized a lot of events," Bauer said, "but this was something special. I mean, we exist to love and to serve, and this was one very special way we were able to do that."

Salisbury: Beary Christmas to you and yours

For Brandy Alward, Salisbury isn't just a village, it's a family.

"The caring, the way everybody looks out for each other — I have lived here my whole life and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. I love the kindness in our little province."

But even she was taken aback by an incident at the neighbourhood grocery store a few weeks ago.

Her husband was in the checkout line with their two daughters, Billie and Avery, when the cashier held out white and brown teddy bears and asked the girls which one they wanted.

It was a gift, she explained, paid for by the stranger in the line ahead of them.

The girls were over the moon.

"They love teddy bears so this was a huge deal for them," Alward said. "They were bouncing with excitement when they came home and told me what had happened."

Alward still doesn't know who the mystery benefactor was and knows she may never know.

That's OK, she says, but she does have a message for her.

"Merry Christmas, and thank you for your kindness, the girls love their teddy bears and sleep with them every night."

Salisbury: Attention, shoppers, we'd like to make your day

It's not unusual to see members of the Salisbury Petitcodiac Minor Basketball team waiting at the checkout at Sandy's Independent Grocery Store at this time of year.

Normally, they're there to ask for donations for a good cause. 

But on a recent Saturday about two weeks ago, they were the good cause.

That day, Dec. 5, the team wanted to carry out random acts of kindness at a store that has helped their team so much. Store owners Sandy and Joe Cantelo "have helped our team out so much" and the team wanted to show their appreciation.

So when they saw Kaye Cross in the store, they knew exactly what to do.

Cross is a "great customer" and is known community-wide for being a tireless community volunteer, the team's coach, Rob Campbell said in an email. The girls wanted to say thank you to both Cross and Cantelo by giving Cross a gift card for the grocery store.

"We are very proud of the girls and how they wanted to help out someone that has helped them for years," Campbell said.

Quispamsis: That'll be zero dollars and … ma'am? Are you OK?

For weeks, Ruth Ann Swansburg had been keeping it together through difficult times.

Her mother had taken several falls and her family had to make the wrenching decision to move her to a seniors' apartment, "out of her home of 41 years, the house I grew up in most of my life."

She'd spent the first night with her mom in her new apartment. 

The next night, "I left her on her own … and it was not easy," Swansburg said in a post on her Instagram account, everything_unscripted.

"I had it all together ... UNTIL ... I got a craving for A&W onion rings on a whim."

She stopped at the Hampton Road location in Quispamsis, placed her order, and when she got to the pickup window, the cashier told her the man in the car ahead of her had paid for her order.

Swansburg says the unexpected kindness hit her like a wave.

"I don't think I was pulled away from the restaurant before the tears started. All the emotions came flooding.
Someone who does not know me did this simple kind thing, and it made my night."

Now, weeks later, Swansburg says she still wells up thinking about it.

"It was a very overwhelming experience for me at a time I needed it," she said.

She doesn't know who the man was and she figures she never will. But she does hope he knows, somehow, how deeply that simple kindness touched her.

"It meant so much more to me than that person will ever know."