Random Acts of Kindness Week ends on Saturday, but Tara Leach is encouraging Border residents to continue with the charitable gestures.
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The Border RAK Facebook page founder said she had been blown away by how much momentum the movement gained last year.
“It would be great to have Albury-Wodonga known as the kindest place in Australia,” she said.
“The Barber’s Brew are now doing pay it forward, Hudson’s Coffee and Urban Graze do it and Platinum Brew are always really keen – there’s so many starting.
“I don’t know where we evolve it to next, but that would be amazing if maybe at the end of the week, the pay it forwards could go to someone like Carevan to distribute it.”
Wodonga business owner Vanessa Stelfox has been awed by the kindness of strangers since she signed on the store as a drop-off point for Backpacks 4 VIC Kids in 2015.
Mrs Stelfox has run Man Zone on South Street with her husband Mark for three years, but prior to that, she worked as a domestic cleaner.
“I had one client who was a carer and she had three children of her own and four foster children,” she said.
“She said the clothes they came in were so bad, they had to strip them straight away.
“It’s pretty horrible hearing their stories and I feel for kids who are put in that position in the first place.
“A lot of kids move from home to home and their belongings aren’t their own.
“If they get a backpack, that goes with them.”
The not-for-profit organisation provided 732 backpacks containing essential items including clothing, toiletries, toys and a blanket in its first year, with a goal to deliver 2300 in 2017.
The donations of goods saved them $300 in putting together a backpack.
A connect with my community campaign Ms Leach ran in 2016, which saw 164 care packs created for people in need, will return this year.
“We’ve been big advocates in not only paying forward to the homeless, but to a random stranger, because you never know who is having a bad day,” she said.
“People will sit in their cars for hours building up the courage to go in and ask for help (at support services).
“Knowing strangers care is a very different feeling to knowing your friends care.
“If everyone did it, imagine how amazing our world would be.”