Creating Smiles

Fifth grade student, Olivia Dudas is a rock star when it comes to caring for others!  In November, she decided that she wanted to do something different for the holiday season.

“Olivia saw on the news that the Pacers were visiting Riley Children’s Hospital and the nurse mentioned that it was nice to see the children smile.  Olivia then came up with the idea for The Traveling Bag of Kindness,” said Olivia’s mom Andrea Dudas.  

“Giant gift bags were distributed to family and friends with items that they thought a child of any age would need.  Then the bag was passed on to a friend, and they would do the same.   The bags traveled from friend to friend filling up along the way,” Mom added. 

The Traveling Bags of Kindness were also in Delaware and Columbus OH, Georgia and Florida as Olivia had people who wanted to start it in their hometown to honor her endeavor.  Olivia ended up with 63 bags, a large box of diapers, two scooters and three boxes of books that she delivered to Genesis.  In addition, there were four bags that she delivered to Riley Hospital. 

As word spread of her project, The Traveling Bags of Kindness began receiving publicity from Richmond area newspaper and radio stations.  Then it spread further and was picked up by newspapers across the country and NBC’s The Today Show.   Since that time, Olivia has been contacted by Elizabeth Higgins Clark.  Clark is involved with the #keepamericakind project and is also an actress.  She had read the article about Olivia and wanted to inspire Olivia to keep it going into 2017.  Clark has challenged Olivia to continue the kindness, and is sending her valentines to hand out.  Olivia has taken it a step further and is starting a new project to spread kindness. 

Olivia’s goal is to deliver homemade valentine cards to area nursing home residents.  Her mother reports, “We are going to put the call out over Facebook today.  Our goal is to have 1,000 valentines that way every resident will get one.  We are also asking for volunteers not only to make the cards, but be our delivery helpers.” 

And dropping them off at the front desk won’t be enough.  The goal is to personally deliver them to each area resident.

Do you want to share in Olivia’s kindness this valentine season?  You can make and drop off homemade valentines on or before February 10 to RMD Patti, 36 South 9th Street in Richmond.  The delivery date will be Sunday, February 12.  Any extra valentines will be sent to Riley Children’s Hospital.  If you are interested in making the cards or delivering, them they can email [email protected] .