Just One Small Act of Kindness

'Tis the season to be helpful.

Right now, your staff may be serving up wonderful acts of kindness in the community they serve and you may not even know it.

Your staff might consist of a variety of community contributors like clergy, pastors, fundraisers, human rights activist, hunger fighters, mental health leaders and even youth services like the Scouting America .

One week before Thanksgiving the team at Dispatch Tree Marketing got together and challenged each other to do something kind for a stranger. As we went around reflecting on all we have to be thankful for the ideas started flying once we got the conversation started.

We learned our staff would be hustling at a coat drive, serving plates for veterans and donating to a pet food drive; these were just a few of the acts of kindness that our team took action on in their personal lives.

Since 2010, I have been a huge supporter of local food banks across central Texas, Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. At 6am on donation day Friday, I had one thing on my mind in the morning; head to store, buy baby formula, diapers and canned goods to donate.

At 10am the same Friday morning, our production team was informed that our company received a request to produce a tribute video of a community member who passed away.

We had the option to politely decline and stick to our business policy, but instead we decided help a grieving family without any hesitation. Our team quickly learned that our tribute video subject dedicated his life to the service of others. This man was a Veteran, Firefighter, Community Activist, Church Elder, Cubmaster and a Scoutmaster for over 35 years.

So what did we do?! We lived out our mission of kindness as a team.

Dispatch Tree delivered a 5 minute long tribute video at no cost to the family along with the following note:

"Please accept this tribute video of your husband free of charge as a token of appreciation from all us at Dispatch Tree for all of the wonderful acts your husband inspired. The world would be a better place with more men like him. We send our deepest condolences to you and the entire family."

Do something kind for someone soon and show off your gratitude.

Thanks for reading!

-Roy Austin, A Fellow Scout, 1993 - 1996