A teenager who surprised a neighbor with homemade brownies, a man who clears snow so his neighbors can reach their cars in an emergency, and a physician who brings people together over ice cream received Kindness Commendation Awards from Mayor Alison Lintal at yesterday’s council meeting.
Lintal proclaimed Nov. 7–14 Kindness Week in Gettysburg and invited residents to share stories and nominate people whose acts of kindness had made a difference. She said the effort grew out of a conversation with Kathy Gaskin of Healthy Adams County, which joined Collaborating for Youth in a recent film screening about how one act of kindness inspired a wider movement.
Lintal said she received nearly 20 nominations in the awards’ first year and spoke with some of the people who had nominated the honorees. She said she plans to work with her interns to share some of the other nominees’ stories in the coming weeks.
“I think it shares an aspect of our community we don’t always get to see,” Lintal said of the initiative. “I’d like to do it each year.”
Olivia McClure, the oldest of four children, baked brownies in September and walked through the woods and across railroad tracks to surprise a neighbor. Lintal said she was struck by the teenager’s initiative and the connection she made with someone of another generation.
Michael Casamassina has helped neighbors get up after falls, cleared paths to their cars in case they needed to leave in a medical emergency, and taken care of their trash cans. Lintal said the people she spoke with described him as someone they could count on for everyday help.
Dr. Smitha Nair started the SOUL Project after noticing that many of her patients were lonely. The free, twice-monthly gatherings at Mr. G’s give people a chance to share ice cream, talk and make friends. Lintal said more than 30 people have attended, with many returning each month.
Borough Council President Matthew Moon thanked the honorees after the presentation. “The town is made up of the people who live there and take care of each other,” he said, suggesting that people think of November and the first two weeks of December as a “kindness season.”
In an interview after the meeting, Lintal said neighborly ties grow from “living in a place where you have opportunities to overlap with other people’s lives.” She said those encounters can happen on a walk, at the grocery store or out in the yard. Public events offer another chance to cross paths, she said, as do places where “people can go and hear live music, or they can appreciate art, or they can grab a coffee.”
Lintal said communities can encourage kindness by giving more attention to the ways people already help one another. She pointed to work that often goes unseen and said even spending a little time with someone or anticipating what they might need can help make a town feel like home.
“I just think we can all challenge ourselves to think of ways that we can make an impact on others, and it doesn’t have to be a big one,” Lintal said.
Featured image caption: Lintal and Casamassina [Alison Lintal]
