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'Random act of kindness'

By Melissa Hirschl

Spreading random acts of kindness is a goal toward which many of us strive. Unfortunately, however,  most of us seem to lack the time or energy to convert our goals into action.

A group of pre-teens from Dayspring United Methodist Church found not only the motivation but the time and energy to achieve their goal when they offered a free interior car wash April 21.

“Free,” of course, is a word we’re all used to being bombarded with. Free minutes, free access, free kids’ meals—they’re dosed out all too, well, freely.

Many times we expect a “catch” lingering somewhere. This time however, the words were accurate--no strings attached. Any donation of any kind was turned away.

“We got the idea out of books that are focused on serving the community,” says the Rev. Anthony Tang, who headed the altruistic project.

“We wanted to emphasize the importance of doing projects that show God’s love,” he said. “We also wanted to give people a reason to be joyful and excited.”

The card given out by the kids at the car wash was simple and succinct:

FREE interior car wash? What’s the catch? No catch here except a little bit of your time to have one more reason to be happy today. What reason? God’s love. It’s a simple way of saying that God loves you.  Let us know if we can be of more assistance to you.

“We have done mission projects in the past,” says Tang, “but I noticed we tended to be repetitive with our projects. When we would brainstorm ideas, traditional ideas kept re-circulating, i.e., car washes for fund raising, mission trips, etc. Knowing that, we tried to find something exciting, fun and different.”

Offered at two locations (Einstein Bros. at McClintock and Guadalupe and Ray and Rural), the free cleaning proved to be a novel idea, taking many people by surprise.

 “People kept thinking they had to give a donation, like at normal car washes,” said Sarah Ihns, a 13-year-old participant.

“One man told me he had no money for the wash, and I had to keep telling him it’s totally free. People were very skeptical.”

Megan Wiley, a 14-year-old Chandler participant, remembers the day as one that was fun-filled and also emotionally satisfying.

“It was a really fun experience to help others without expecting anything back,” she says. “It was also nice to get out a message that we were acting out of God’s love.”

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