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WHISTLER, B.C.
Over two million people from around the world escape to the resort
each year to experience its world-famous ski slopes in the winter
and its equally famous downhill bike parks in the summer. With its
wide range of services and attractions, Whistler is renowned as a
top destination for those looking to get away from the daily
monotony of life and worse, work.
But even here, the problems of our
increasingly complex world penetrate into this town -- and for local
Whistler resident and business-owner Kelly Oswald, that is a big problem.
So Oswald has borrowed a simple concept, applied a little bit of
mathematics, and started a campaign that is quickly growing in popularity.
"If I do something for three people, and those three people do something
for three more people, and then those 27 people do something and it goes
on....In two weeks you'd be at five million," says Oswald.
She borrowed the idea from the
Hollywood movie, "Pay it Forward," starring Kevin Spacey, Helen
Hunt, and relative newcomer Haley Joel Osment, who plays a boy
hoping to change the world with the same concept of kindness.
With the help of a local newspaper, Oswald began printing "Pay it
Forward" kindness cards -- booklets containing ten simple acts of
kindness for others, such as doing the laundry, bringing flowers for
a friend, or buying a cup of coffee for a stranger.
"And that happened to me one day," said Oswald. "I came into work
and there were flowers for me there, anonymously. That was really
nice."
Already, the random acts of kindness are spreading throughout the
town.
"People are holding doors more often than not, and actually, I see
people looking into each other's eyes more than they normally
would," said Stephanie Matches, publisher of the Whistler Question
Newspaper. "So I think it has opened up the town and people are
really feeling happy for a change."
And there are other stories: reports of a Whistler resident giving
away his car to an Australian visitor in need of transportation.
"I think I've changed the way I see people," says Oswald, who has no
idea how far and wide the kindness movement has spread.
"Like maybe everybody should just help everyone and then the world
would be a lot more peaceful."
And for this reason, Kelly Oswald is this week's Everyday Hero.
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