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Red Deerian spreads kindness with one card at a time

One Red Deerian wants to combat bullying by spreading kindness in the world.
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One Red Deerian wants to combat bullying by spreading kindness in the world.

Kelly Karius, co-founder of Moment of Kindness Foundation in Red Deer, started the non-profit organization in 2015 to combat bullying in schools and work places.

As a way to encourage people to be kind to one another, Karius distributes the action cards at Central Alberta events. The cards, which come with instructions, ask people to do something kind, register the card number online, and pass it on to someone else.

“And when the other person registers the kindness card you get an email back saying ‘hey your card was used’ and they pass the card, and when it gets passed on again — you both get an email back, and so on,” the 49-year-old explained.

Karius said 10,000 action cards have been given out and they’re moving around Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C, Ontario, and in the U.S., South Africa and as far as Australia among other places.

“The purpose is to keep kindness at the forefront of people’s minds,” she said. “That’s why we started the action cards so it’s random acts of kindness meets technology so we can get one person’s behaviour influencing other person’s behaviour and so on.”

The types of kindness acts people are doing are paying for meals at drive-thrus, or watching out for children who may need help, for instance, they need to have a parent or guardian located, she said.

“The intend for it is to keep that idea of ‘hey there might be something I can do for someone’ right in people’s consciousness.”

The Red Deer resident is also a mental health counsellor at Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis.

In her pursuit of making the world a kinder place, she also gets people to write a kind message on her personal Honda Civic car when she goes to events.

Recently she was at one the Central Alberta Pride Week events handing out the cards and asking people to write a message on her car.

In the past two and a half years, about 1,000 people have written kind words on her green car, she said Tuesday.

Karius started combating bullying as a social worker in Melville, Sask., before moving to Red Deer about four years ago.

She started the foundation with the hope of what she calls “a culture change — a move towards kindness and a move towards awareness of our own reactions and responses in difficult situations.”

She said people react with bullying, aggression or addiction when they face mental health issues such as depression or anxiety, and with kindness, those actions can change.

For more information visit momentofkindness.com.