Day 3: Free Bus Rides - 30 Days of Kindness

Free Bus Rides was Day 3 of 30 Days of Kindness, and this was also my first time using the Oneonta Public Transportation. Laura was at work today, which meant that I was going to be riding solo. Personally, I am always excited to do projects like these, they are a great way have an adventure in your own town.

Before I go into how it went, I want to begin by telling you how it did not go, and that is according to plan. Being a newb to the bus system, I thought that I would simply stand in line at the bus stop, be the first one on, and tell the bus driver that I was going to pay for everybody's bus fare behind me. After awkwardly trying this out on two buses, I soon realized that all the riders either had a day pass or a student ID, and nobody was paying with cash.

I had to regroup. What was I going to do with a stack of 50 one dollar bills? The answer was obvious: ride the bus and pass money out to passengers. I mean hey, I was going to give it away anyway, I might as well directly bless the good folks that ride the bus.

I purposely boarded a bus that was shuttling people from downtown to SUNY Oneonta. I waited until everybody was on board, and when the bus pulled out I then begin to interject myself in the middle of conversations by handing people a $1 bill with a kindness card and said, "Excuse me, I am doing an act of kindness with my church to show God's love. Here is a free dollar."

The most common reaction was a big smile and a thank you. A few people seemed confused so I cleared things up by explaining the Free Bus Ride project and telling them that I did not know about bus passes so I am now handing out free dollar bills instead. Almost everybody took the dollar with the card, and several people asked about our church. For the people that asked about our church, I gave them a 30 Days of Kindness calendar and informed them of all the events that we have coming up, which included a mention of our grand opening on Good Friday.

 
Fifty dollars lasted two laps from downtown, up to the college, and back again. Between passing out money, cards, and calendars, I got to talk with several students. I talked with one young man from Brooklyn who is a Music Industry major. When I showed him the calendar and explained how we host shows and we are making our building a space that doubles as a venue for local artist, he seemed very interested in performing some R&B music at our church. I also had a pleasant conversation with 7 young women at one time from the Tri-Sigma sorority. They where interested in hearing about how Laura and I ended up choosing to move to Oneonta from Missouri. 

Several students said this act of kindness made their day. Others promised to pass on the dollar to another person as another act of kindness. There were others that showed an interest in volunteering for upcoming kindness projects; and the best part, every dollar passed out came with a message of God's love. 

Feel free to contact us if you wish to go on your own adventure for a good cause and participate in any one of our upcoming acts of kindness.