Back in 2010, I was a program leader with the YMCA at Virginia Tech.  One of my mentors, a woman named Jen, told me about a bus she had seen in Christiansburg while shopping at Target. She came back to campus and did a little bit of research, and shared with me a website.  Turns out, it was the Kindness Bus. Little did I know, this bus spoke for so many things that would become important to me in the next few years.

 

Jen mentioned the bus to me because I just so happened to be involved with planning a Kindness Week for the YMCA at Virginia Tech.  It was an idea concocted by many of us in the office, explained in that linked document that I found on Google.  Little did we know, Actively Caring was gaining steam, and after we planned the week we learned much more about how both movements definitely overlapped in their mission and their values.  It was unique and impressive.

We brought Bob to Virginia Tech and he met with some of our students about the importance of kindness, spreading kindness to others, and living it out in our everyday lives.  Bob has given all of his meaningful belongings in order to have his bus that he drives across the country – with his dog Bogart, whom I had the honor of meeting – and continues to spread the good message.

Over the weekend Bob, the man behind the idea of the One Million Acts of Kindness Bus Tour, shot me an e-mail.  I hadn’t heard from Bob in a few years, as he continued his meaningful trek across the country and I finished up my first round of studies in college.  But I was beyond happy to see this article that, once again, is giving national coverage to the kindness that he is spreading, just as Actively Caring does.

Check this article from CNN for more about Bob and his bus tour.  Keep fighting the good fight, Bob!