Taking an Honest Look at Oneonta's Culture...

...With a Wall Full of Observations
(From our Newsletter)
Since ending our Friday Evening Gatherings last December, our Missional Community Group has been intentionally doing the work of contextualizing the Gospel to better reach our city with whatever it is we do next. This means taking an honest look at our city's culture so we can better meet its needs. It's been quite the cultural exercise for our faith community, and we've gone about it by adding dozens of cultural observations to a wall, as well as rethinking our 10 Connection Intentions (a revised list will be published soon).

Post by The Redemption Movement.

While we're not quite ready to fully announce what our next move is, I can share one big realization that's rocked our paradigm for ministry, "Why are we trying so hard to invite our city to a church event they're not asking for? Instead of struggling with an invitation-based ministry, wouldn't it be better to be radically obedient to Jesus' Great Commission and 'go' to where the people are?" What we're currently discussing on Sunday mornings is a kind of mold-breaking ministry that might best be described as "Mobile Church."

It's too early to fully explain Mobile Church, but we're all really excited about it, and if this is something that peaks your interest, then you're welcome to join us on Sunday mornings to prayerfully develop this idea in a friendly community setting.

                          

"The Nicest Thing Ever Done for Me" --Receiving a Free Ride

One of my favorite church outreaches is providing Oneonta's downtown partygoers with free rides home. Almost every time we do it, I receive the same compliment from at least one person, "This is the nicest thing that anyone's ever done for me." Hearing this always strikes me as odd because I think to myself, "Really? You must be exaggerating, it's just a free ride home." But the more I think about it, the more I see that these rides are more than taking people home; they're about treating people with dignity.

Granted, I'm aware that an inebriated person has a tendency to make grandiose statements such as this, but when I hear this same grandiose statement over and over again, I begin to take it seriously and analyze the reasoning behind the compliment.

A Brief Lesson About Human Dignity 

To begin, let's look at the concept of human dignity. A simple definition of the word tells us that dignity is: The state or quality of being worthy of honor or respect. From a societal perspective, a person treated with dignity is dependent upon earning such honor and respect via their achievements or behavior. This is why foolish actions are seen as behavior that's undignified.

Now let's add to this definition Christianity's take on human dignity, which teaches that every single person is worthy of respect and honor and should be treated with dignity, even people that we may feel do not deserve it, like those guilty of foolish behavior and even our enemies. This stems from a fundamental teaching of Christian theology that says every person is created in the image of God, and therefore, every person should be treated as one would treat God--with honor and respect.

This idea of human dignity originating from God's image is what motivates Christan social work, and it's deeply tied to the mission of The Redemption Movement: "To restore lost and hurting people who are valued by God." This is why our church does so much community outreach, like the designated driving ministry.

Showing Dignity In a Very Undignified Society

Now, when we look at human dignity in light of our capitalistic society, it becomes obvious that an institution treating a person solely as a resource, commodity, or means to a financial end, strips the person of their God-given dignity by telling them, "You only have worth if I can profit from you." Any consumer-driven institution, business, or organization is guilty of this to some degree, and sadly, a church that's obsessed with results-oriented programs and professionalism can easily get off message and fall into this trap of only respecting and showing honor to those who can further their goals.

This lack of dignity is especially prevalent in a capitalistic society like America. I think this explains how it's possible for an upstate NY college student to be absolutely blown away by a simple act of kindness. We treat them with the honor and respect deserving of a holy God, despite the fact that they may perpetuate less-than-honorable behavior. It may actually be the case that no one has ever treated them in a truly dignified manner before.

What makes an act of kindness like a free ride extra powerful is the fact that we're showing unmerited favor to people participating in an environment where dignity is difficult, if not impossible to come by--the alcohol-fueled party scene.

Okay, before I expound further on this and critique the party scene and the behavior it celebrates, I feel like I should first mention that when we offer free rides to partygoers, we're totally nonjudemental about it. We'll give a ride and show respect and honor to anyone, no matter how inebriated they are, even if they're being a jerk to us about the whole God thing. Again, this goes back to human dignity originating from God's image instead of one's behavior.

Why You Won't Find the Respect You Deserve At a Party

That being said, here are just a few ways that the bar-hopping party scene lacks dignity (generalizations are obviously being made):

• Bars, restaurants, and cabs treat people as customers to profit from. There's nothing wrong with making a living, but there's something shallow about a relationship based off a transaction.
• Getting drunk shows a lack of respect to one's own body and personhood. From the standpoint of behavior-based dignity, there's nothing dignified about poisoning your body and putting yourself at risk by clouding your judgement. And the whole "your body is a temple thing," that's about God's spirit dwelling inside a person, and this temple idea goes back to finding dignity from being made in God's image. The drunkenness I've seen firsthand from  people downtown I've tried to comfort who have vomited and urinated on themselves isn't funny, it's sad.  
• Drinking buddies only stick around if there's booze, and they're quick to drop you if they meet someone better. I've seen this countless times when giving rides to partygoers feeling jilted after their friends left them behind, causing some serious drama. This is not a new problem; in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, he tells of the younger brother character who left home with a ton of money and spent it on "wild-living." As soon as he ran out of money, his "friends" were nowhere to be found.
• In the hookup culture, people are treated like sexual objects that are disposable, instead of being fully honored by a committed mate. Participants of casual sex act like nothing is wrong about it. They're proud of their sexual conquests, claiming that it's part of their sexual identity. I believe that, eventually, the pain and heartbreak that accompanies a lifestyle of being used and abused by multiple partners will break through, causing one to long for a partner that shows them dignity by fully respecting them for who they are, instead of only for what their body can offer. 
• Many students feel like the entire community of Oneonta sees them only as a way to make money. As I drive students home and insist that the ride is free, many are blown away by the gesture because they feel like the city and its residents are trying to squeeze them for every nickel they have. Oneonta's young adults are hungry for a community where they feel valued and accepted for who they are, not for how much money they can cough up.

Would You Like a Free Ride Home? 

Now put yourself in the middle of this nightlife environment: You're with your flaky friends going from bar to bar being pressured to buy drinks. You've been hit on by some scummy people and you're feeling sick from drinking too much. Meanwhile, half your friends ditched you and you're considering going home with a stranger. All the while, you're frustrated that you're still living in this small town because you feel like nobody here appreciates the skills and passions you have to offer.

At 2AM, you step outside the bar and see an odd sight: Two guys wearing matching blazers holding a sign that reads "Act of Kindness, FREE RIDE, Don't Drink & Drive."

"What is this? No way. This can't be free. Nothing is free. Who would do such a thing? Why? What's the catch?"

Curiosity gets the best of you and you approach the duo standing in front of the clean blue car with a handmade "Free Ride" sign on the door and tap light on the roof. You ask them twenty questions and they assure you that's it's really free and that they're just trying to help people. You're on the fence about it until a random student walks by, high fives the guy holding the sign, and then emphatically tells you, "This guy is legit, he gave me a ride last week!" (This happens quite a bit)

You cautiously get in the backseat of the car with your cell phone at the ready, just in case. The driver says "Where to?" You tell him, he replies, "Not a problem," and pulls onto Main Street. That's when you spot a sign in the car pointing to a backseat pocket stocked full of free bottled water. You're thirsty, so ask if it's okay to have one. You're told to help yourself and you do, after making sure that the seal isn't broken.

As the ride continues, you learn that the driver is the pastor of a local church, this is his personal car, and he and his friend are volunteering their time to "show people God's love." On top of that, the driver won't stop asking you questions about yourself, "Where are you from?" "What's your major?" "What are your plans for after you graduate?" "What do you think about Oneonta?" It's like the guy genuinely cares about you, and it's obviously not in a sexual way or anything like that because he won't shut up about his family.

You think to yourself, "What's going on here? Why's he being so nice? Does he actually care about me? Why is he being so respectful of me when he doesn't even know me? Isn't he a religious person? Shouldn't he hate me for being such a 'bad person' according to all of his stupid religious rules?"

This is all too much so you offer to pay him. He refuses. You flash a dollar bill and insist, but he turns your money down a second time and goes on a bit more about God's love and insists that the ride is free "because God's love is free."

Then it hits you. It's such an epiphany that you can't help but speak it aloud, "Wow, this is the nicest thing that anyone has ever done for me."

A few miles later, you're dropped off at your home safe and sound. You thank the two gentlemen for the ride and walk to your front door with a water bottle in hand, along with what he calls a "kindness card." What a unique experience that was. You're not even bothered by all the drama of the night because it all seems rather silly in light of this act of kindness.

Showing Diginity Changes Hearts

I see this story all the time. It shows the power of a small act of kindness and how treating a person with love, respect, honor, and dignity can cause them to reevaluate what kindness really looks like in the midst of a cynical culture that just doesn't seem to care.

Our church does this outreach for the good people of downtown Onenta as often as we can. We're closing in on 500 free rides given at the time of this writing. Check out our designated driving page to read a report about every one of our DD outings, and join the Oneonta Designated Driving Crew on Facebook to help serve the community with free rides.

-Kaler      

Act of Kindness: How to Cool Off Your Neighbors On a Hot Summer Day!

During the hottest part of the 2014 summer in Oneonta, NY, our church spent Sunday afternoons providing our community some sweet relief by giving away ice-cold drinks. In one month, we used our "kindness cart" to pass out nearly 200 drinks, and in addition to cooling people off, we warmed a lot of hearts with God's love!

"Would You Like a Free Cold Drink?" 

Those on Main Street who got a chance to see the kindness cart in action may have done a double take at the odd sight. After all, it's not every day that you're approached by a friendly face offering you a free soda from a cooler strapped to a dolly. And to make sure that everyone knew what we were up to, we strapped a whiteboard sign to the dolly that read "FREE COLD DRINK!"

With our kindness cart assembled and our cooler full of bottled water, cans of soda, and ice, we would then spend a few hours pushing the cart up and down Oneonta's downtown sidewalks and parks. As you can tell by this picture, we were easy to spot.

For our small church, this is an effective outreach that's both fairly inexpensive and fun to do. With our full-sized cooler, we're able to fit 40+ beverages and 2 bags of ice, and we found that a ratio of half bottled water/half cans of soda works best.

On one occasion, we had two teams of volunteers pass out cold drinks at the same time. While team #1 pushed the kindness cart up and down Main Street, the second team carried a smaller cooler in the city park that had extra drinks stowed away in a baby stroller.

How to Make Your Own Kindness Cart!

For those of you feeling inspired to make your own kindness cart and bless your community with cold drinks on a hot summer day, we've made for you this helpful image: Here's how you can make your own kindness cart in 6 easy steps!

One fun, additional step that you can do is to get creative and decorate your kindness cart. This was done by our friends from Rider University in New Jersey. In October, the student club Rider Serves, made a kindness cart for selling concessions at a sporting event in order to raise money for an animal shelter.

Post by Rider Serves.

For our church, 2013 was the first year that we tried out the kindness cart, and thanks to the large amount of people that we're able to bless with the cart in a relatively short amount of time, it has become one of our favorite summertime activities. Every time we do it we come back with stories of meeting new people, making new friends, and our faith is encouraged because the cold drinks are so well received.

Mobile Kindness

As silly as the kindness cart looks, we've learned that putting wheels to this act of kindness is what makes it work. As a church that reaches out to our community with at least one act of kindness every week, we've learned a thing or two about what works and what doesn't work. One approach to community outreach that we feel no longer works in today's postmodern culture is to host a kindness event at church, expecting the public to come to us. In particular, we've seen this approach fail with a free community dinner, and even a free oil change got little-to-no response from our community.

I think this is why Jesus' Great Commission to the church begins with the word "go." By strapping wheels to our acts of kindness and taking them to where the people are, we've experienced a dramatic increase in the number of interactions, and we get the opportunity to talk with people that may be determined to never set foot inside a church. We've found that even a person that's vocal against Christianity is genuinely touched when they're approached by an act of kindness--especially if they're super thirsty and we're offering a cold water that's free!

"And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward." --Jesus, Matthew 10:42

Taking a Break From Friday Evening Gatherings at The Redemption Movement

After 21 months of hosting Friday Evening Church Gatherings out of our old storefront on River Street, we've made the decision to put a stop to our Friday event while we seek the Lord's guidance for a new direction. The Redemption Movement will continue as a church; we just need some time to determine what our next steps will be. In a way, it's like we're hitting the church reset button.    

We've come to the conclusion that the Friday gatherings at our River Street location are not furthering the goals and mission of The Redemption Movement, as evidenced by the low attendance and the disappointing lack of visitors. One purpose of our weekly gatherings is to grow the church, which requires support and participation from people--after all, the church is people.

What's Next for the Church?

Kaler preaching 1 of nearly 80 RM sermons.

While the church plant is blessed to have found favor within our community, this favor has not translated into church attendance on the level we need it to in order to sustain the activities of the church, like public fellowship meetings put on every week. It's our hope that the new direction will be able to contextualize the Gospel in such a way that people in our Oneonta mission field will feel compelled to visit and even support the church.

Fridays Feel Beyond Repair

We don't know what the future looks like for The Redemption Movement, but one thing we do know: Friday Evening Gatherings at 148 River Street aren't working, and to quote Albert Einstein, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over expecting different results."

To be sure, in the span of 21 months we tried several different things with the Friday Evening Gatherings in the hopes of seeing different results; only to arrive at the conclusion that, "There is absolutely no changes we can make to the meeting format or to the building that will cause a new person to want to visit." As you can image, this is a rather discouraging place to lead from. Therefore, we feel like it's the responsible move to cease hosting Friday Evening Gatherings while we determine what the next step is.

Advent 2014: Laura leading one of the last Friday worship services.

Our Sunday Morning MCG Will Continue

During this transitional time, Sundays will be the only day of the week when our church regularly meets. Since last Spring we've been holding a Missional Community Group every Sunday morning at 10am. Our MCG is like a Sunday School class, but with more of a focus on the specific mission of The Redemption Movement, as well as a time of personal discipleship. Lunch and a group act of kindness done for our community typically follows.

We use our Missional Community Group to develop leadership for the church, which means that the content is very specific in regards to the Christian faith. Therefore, we encourage newcomers to first contact us before coming to our Sunday morning MCG so that we can first talk with you about what to expect. 

Full of Optimism: Launch 2013

As soon as we come up with a new time, format, and perhaps even a different location for our weekly public gatherings (i.e., a weekly event that a non-Christian seeking truth will be comfortable attending), we will post the information to our website, blog, eNewsletter, and Facebook page. Decisions about this next step will prayerfully be made by our Missional Community Group. 

You are welcome to join this group and give input regarding our plans if you would like to commit to the mission of The Redemption Movement, and you're welcome to visit on Sunday mornings if you're interested in learning more about the mission of this church before committing to be a part of it. Feel free to contact Pastor Kaler for more information.  

Sign Up for Our eNewsletter!

We've worked hard to design an eNewsletter that keeps readers informed with the latest from The Redemption Movement. Whether you're just curious about what goes on at The Ol' Storefront, or you're a committed member, we think that this eNewsletter will provide everyone with a concise, regular, and enjoyable snapshot of our organization.

In this eNewsletter you will find pictures and stories from our acts of kindness, news about community events and shows, information about our church gatherings, and what the next steps and plans are for this movement. In the past, we relied solely on our blog and Facebook page to get the word out about RM. Now, we're excited to offer people a new way to stay informed and keep in touch.

Click the link and fill out the form to sign up: http://eepurl.com/90sFv

The ROI of AoK (The Return On Investment of Acts of Kindness)

2014 was a big year of community outreach for The Redemption Movement. By doing a church-wide act of Kindness every Sunday, along with other various outreaches like designated driving, welcome-back-to-school week, rock shows, holiday care packages, the Town & Gown Gala, and much more, we directly reached more than 1,000 Oneonta residents with "a small act to show God's big love." With so much of our time, money, and resources put into this AoK ministry (45% of our current church budget), we have a responsibility to ask ourselves, "Is it worth the investment?"

More than 1,000 kindness cards passed out in 2014.

The Return On Kindness 

Businesses have a formula called ROI that helps them determine if an investment is profitable or not. Essentially, companies compare the total cost of their investment to the amount of revenue the investment brought in. If all goes well, the ROI formula will show a profit.

Due to the fact that churches are non-profit, it's difficult to apply this financial ROI formula to church expenditures. Instead, for a church, a more appropriate ROI-type question to ask would be, "Are these investments furthering the goals and mission of the organization?" For our church, these acts of kindness furthers some of our goals, but not all of them.

Goal #1: Church Growth

Like any organization, every church desires to grow and will use much of its resources to meet this goal. For the majority of Christian churches, the goal of growth is spiritualized and made the primary goal of the organization. This is due to the fact that adherents to the faith believe that church growth is directly tied to Jesus' Great Commission. This is true of the mission of The Redemption Movement, and it's one of the defining traits of what it means to be an Evangelical Church.

Therefore, let's first take a look at how much our kindness efforts in 2014 have impacted church growth. Pastors and leaders from other churches who are considering doing acts of kindness for the sole purpose of growing your church, take note.

50 care packages with candy and a $2 bill given to people working on Christmas.

Concerning the 2014 acts of kindness completed by our church, the ROI for church growth is rather dismal. Of the more than 1,000 Oneonta residents reached by acts of kindness (and 1,000 is a conservative estimate, the actual totals for the year include a few hundred more), not one of these people visited our church. Zero, zilch, nada; not one person that we directly showed the love of God to with an AoK in 2014 stepped foot inside of our doors. This includes the dozens and dozens of people that enthusiastically received our kindness and replied, "This is great! This is the nicest thing that anyone has done for me. I'll be sure to visit your church!"

Granted, we weren't trying to use our AoKs as a heavy-handed method to invite people to church, but the conversations often went in the direction of a church invite, and every kindness card we passed out includes our church address, meeting times, website, and contact information. Therefore, I want to communicate to my fellow church leaders that, if you're considering doing acts of kindness for the sole purpose of growing your church, then you will be disappointed with the results (or the lack thereof).

Goal #2: Reputation Improvement

In today's headline-driven culture, people outside the church don't have to look very far to find a story about something rotten a Christian leader has done; or worse, a person may have had something rotten or judgmental happen to them at the hands of someone belonging to a church. Unfortunately, a far-too-common reaction to these negative stories and experiences is for a person to write off all of Christianity as rotten to the core. If somebody who makes such generalizations about Christians only surrounds themselves with others that share their negative worldview, then they will have no reason to believe otherwise about the faith.

Donating 1,200 pounds of concrete mix to our friend Jo for an AoK.

The beauty of reaching out with acts of kindness is that it breaks unexpectedly into a stranger's life and lovingly challenges negative and false generalizations about Christianity. For us, the ROI for kindness concerning improving the reputation of Christ and His followers has been very good. Thanks to all the outreach and kindness that we've shown, our community thinks very highly of our new church, and we've forged positive relationships with several individuals who strongly disagree or may even feel hostile towards the faith.

For The Redemption Movement, improving the reputation of Christianity and the church is a huge goal that we've met through acts of kindness. In fact, we feel that our church is called to sow goodwill and the good news in a community known for having a hardened heart. Therefore, we will continue to do this work of reaching out and loving people in practical ways, knowing that it's a much needed first step towards healing, and that this healing must happen before a person would even think about visiting a church or seriously consider the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Goal #3: Showing the Love of God

Free funnel cake!

Showing God's love with acts of kindness is the primary reason we do them. For us, showing kindness is all about being obedient to God's commands to, "Love our neighbors as we love ourselves."

As Christians, we feel like it's our duty to display God's character to those around us, which means loving others sacrificially. When it comes down to it, continuing to show our neighbors kindness isn't a matter of, "If there's an adequate return on the investment or not;" instead, it's a matter of being obedient to the commands of our Lord. And regarding obedience, one never questions the cost of doing what they're supposed to. After all, Jesus Christ our Savior invested everything he had for the sake of our salvation, which meant being obedient to death on the cross. For Jesus, He didn't get to see the return on His investment until His resurrection. As followers of Christ, we've been given the promise that we will one day see a great harvest (i.e., a reward) on our investments of kindness that we've shown.

In conclusion, instead of calling this ministry "Acts of Kindness, or AoK," perhaps a more accurate description would be IoK, or an "Investment of Kindness." Be on the look out Oneonta for more kindness invested in you for 2015!

120 Thanksgiving Workers Given Care Packages

Last year, we did our first act of kindness to Thanksgiving workers and blessed 50 people with thank you cards containing 2-dollar bills. For this year's Thanksgiving outreach to workers, we increased our goal to 150 people and included the card/2-dollar bill in a decorated care package that also contained candy and baked goods. As much as we wanted to pass out all 150 Thanksgiving care packages, we were only able to giveaway 120, which by all accounts, isn't too shabby.

One practical lesson here is that, for our method of simply driving around and seeing what's open, 120 is the maximum number of gifts that a team of two can distribute in a four hour time period. If we had planned our route more in advance, or had a second team, then we might have been able to accomplish our goal of 150. Regardless, 120 acts of kindness in one evening is something to be proud of, and as a bonus, the thirty extra bags of goodies and money won't go to waste because we plan on going out and doing this again in the near future, and we can use the unused Thanksgiving cards for next year.

Onto this year's Thanksgiving act of kindness adventure. After a delicious meal with friends and family, we added the final touches to the care packages by; adding chocolates and baked goods to the bags, putting money into the thank you cards, and then loading all 150 bags into the car. It was a pretty involved process that made cleaning up after Thanksgiving dinner look easy. Even though it took awhile to bag up everything, we had fun and it looks like we've got ourselves a new post-Thanksgiving meal tradition.

With the backseat overflowing with care packages, me and my visiting mother put on Santa hats and headed down River St. to our first destination, Sears.

• Sears: It was 6:30 pm and we knew that Sears had just started their Thanksgiving sale. In their newly remodeled store, many workers were at a station in the middle of the store. We introduced ourselves to one of worker, gave her a care package, and because the other workers appeared busy, we asked her how many workers they had on staff that night. We then left her with the appropriate number of bags. While we were passing out the bags, the store manager came out and seemed appreciative of our efforts. This was a big sigh of relief because whenever we do outreaches like this, we halfway expect to get told to leave by store management. Over the course of the night, our fear was proven false by multiple managers. 
• Hampton Inn: This was a quick and easy stop and we blessed one night manager. 
• Stewart's: There were two employees working at Stewart's. One seemed touched by the AoK and the other remembered us from last year and shook my hand.
• Country Store: A young lady was working the counter. We put a big smile on her face.
• PC Pro Solution Inc: A multigenerational family was working the store with two small boys playing with toys on the showroom floor. We gave two bags to a man that appeared to be the grandfather and told him that the children would enjoy the candy.
• Hess Gas Station Main Street: We showed up during a shift change and were able to bless employees from both shifts.
• Dunkin Donuts Main Street: The two employees seemed very appreciative and the manager gave us both a cup of coffee.
• A O Fox Hospital Nursing Home: We followed a middle-aged couple into the nursing home, it turns out that they were visiting their daughter who had to work on Thanksgiving. The daughter oversaw the wing. She informed us that there were six workers on shift that night in her wing so we left her with six care packages.
• Holiday Inn: We gave two bags to a very friendly and appreciative lady at the front desk.
• Office Max: We first approached two employees outside on a smoke break. One knew me by name and was super excited that his bag had pictures of ducks on it. Inside the store, we met up with a manager that pointed us in the direction of all the employees. Additionally, we were able to giveaway care packages during an employee meeting. Before we left, we gave packages to employees at the cash registers, and one cashier said that she'd like to visit our church. Office Max was a very positive experience.
• JCPenny: One of the first people that we ran into was the store manager as he was passing out candy canes to customers. He seemed genuinely appreciative of what we were doing and he even remembered hearing about us passing out thank you cards in his store last year. He told us to make sure that every one of his employees gets a care package. We proceeded to follow his orders and track down workers from all corners of the store. As we were about to leave, a supervisor approached us and told us that, "The girls in jewelry want to see us" (we forgot about them). We paid them a visit and they smiled extra big when they saw the 2-dollar bills. 
• Dick's Sporting Goods: Dick's was yet another example of finding favor with store management. After giving care packages to a few employees, we encountered the store manager. We explained ourselves and had a nice chat. He also told us to give the gifts to his employees and to especially make sure that the seven cashiers up front are included because of how hard they're working. By the time we made it to the front, a manager was expecting us and helped us distribute the care packages.
• Southside Mall Cinema: Our friend Peter Elkund from Campus Ambassadors was working and we got to have a nice chat about ministry and bless him and his coworkers with care packages.
• Super 8 Motel: We got to bless a nice lady working the front desk that told us she had to work two jobs and seven days a week to make ends meet.
• Hess Gas Station Hwy. 23: The clerk on shift was trying to fix a coffee machine that had spilt coffee all over the floor. You can tell that he really needed an act of kindness and he told us that it really cheered him up and that he wants to visit our church.
• Denny's: At Denny's, we were greeted by another manager. We told him what we were doing and he seemed touched by it. He volunteered to pass out the bags to his staff and he even hooked us up with more coffee! 
• Cooperstown Medical Transport: We went across the street to another gas station and encountered two ambulance drivers heading back to their ride. I approached their vehicle and passed out a care package to them. They appreciated the gesture and shook my hand.
• Red Barrel Food Store: There were two lady's working at this gas station and they both had big smiles on their faces upon receiving the gift. There were some customers in line behind us that saw the exchange take place, and as we were leaving we overheard them comment to each other, "That's so cool."
• Courtyard Marriott: Here, two more hotel employees told us that this AoK made their night.
• NY State Trooper: We even saw a State Trooper parked on Hwy. 23 watching traffic. We pulled up alongside him and give him a care package. He thanked us and shook my hand.
• Walmart: This was the big one. We were putting off Walmart until the crowds died down, and by now it was 9:30 pm and the store was manageable to maneuver through. Walmart had extra staff on hand and they were easy to spot in their bright yellow vests. We began by approaching a group on their smoke break and they were appreciative. Next, we moved inside and passed out gifts to employees that we came across. Eventually, a manager saw us and told us that it would be better if we dropped off the care packages at customer service. As we waited in line at customer service, we assessed the situation. Seeing how busy they were, it seemed to us unreasonable to leave 50+ bags with $100 worth of cash to someone that we didn't know. We left the customer service rep. with five bags and moved on from Walmart. It's worth noting that several of the Walmart employees that we offered care packages to refused the offer because they thought it would get them in trouble. It was sad that we were unable to freely distribute the care packages to Walmart workers because there were so many of them. We could have easily passed out 100 bags and blessed a lot people. On a positive note, the half dozen Walmart workers that passed out care packages to were very appreciative of the AoK.
• McDonald's: Inside Walmart is a McDonald's. We gave their staff of three care packages. They seemed very thankful. There were also a few Walmart workers in McDonald's that just got off their shift. We made sure to give them some care packages too.
• Budget Inn: At this hotel we might have disturbed the guy who ran it/lived there, seeing at it was now past 10 pm. Still, he seemed thankful for the gift.
• Clarion Hotel: The employee running the front desk only had half an hour left until he got to go home. He seemed very thankful for the gift and told us that it made his night, and he shook my hand.
• Kwik Fill (Red Apple): There was one employee on shift and she said that the AoK really cheered her up. 
• Dunkin Donuts Chestnut Street: It was now close to 10:30 pm and we saw that Dunkin Donuts was open. We gave out two care packages and the guy working the register gave me a big thank you accompanied by a big handshake.                                 

At this point in the night, it was late and we couldn't think of a local place that was open that we hadn't already visited. We saw some plow trucks drive by and thought about the City Works department, but upon arriving at their facility, alas, nobody was there. Therefore, we called it a night and decided to save the 30 extra care packages for another outing.

And when I got home, I found myself tagged in this Facebook post :)