A Present from a Stranger
This is a project with the simple aim making a stranger smile by giving them a Christmas Card with a present of money inside.
I have been handing out cards since 2011.
Everybody has their own battles, concerns and problems to overcome, whether you know it or not. Everybody can benefit from genuine kindness from a stranger.
These cards have meant different things to different people, they have made peoples days, they have given people the opportunity to help a charity close their hearts and they have reminded people that their is kindness in the world and have inspired them to be kind to themselves and other around them.
I try to get any many people involved in the project as I can. I run a fundraiser so people can donate, I involved community groups in the making of the Christmas Cards and I invite people to come and hand them out to strangers on the street with me. Each year I hand them out in a different place.
“Happy New Year,
A year ago you stood in Penrith handing out Christmas Cards and gave one to me which made me smile. It may have felt like a little token of spreading Christmas cheer, an act of kindness or simply a way of satisfying your own curiosity but your one pound coin has turned into so much more for me. Here’s the story...
A year ago my long term partner and best friend left me. He is a good man, just didn’t love me anymore. It wasn’t an easy decision for him but broke my heart all the same. So when I say your card made me smile you may now see that smiles were in short supply at the time.
I thought long and hard about how to spend your one pound and it has sat on my mantlepiece all this time. In a move round this Christmas I found your card (which had been misplaced) and again it made me smile. Without meaning to your one pound coin has become a little reminder that there is kindness in the world, it reminds me everyday to be a good person and not to let life’s ups and downs make me bitter. It’s my little coin of sunshine and hope.
For that reason your pound coin will never get spent it will stay with me until someone I care about needs it more than me at which point I will pass it on with your card and a story.
Thank you for your gift, I love it and have probably needed it over the past year.
I’m sorry it’s taken a year to let you know what happened to it but I guess it has taken me a year to work it out!
May your 2016 sparkle for you!
Big hugs”
“To wonderful stranger
Your gift certainly did make me smile.
With your generosity it’s going towards posting cost of xmas cards to random prisoners in the USA, that don’t have family contact over festive season.
Best wishes to you and ur loved ones.
Thank you xx”
“Hey there. My. Name is Emma I received a Christmas card today in Carlisle Town I would just like to say thank you very much for the card and the five pound note that was inside I did not expect that and its was lovely even to just get the card, so I would like to say a great big thank you xx”
“Katarina,
Thanks for your card, it made me smile.
My Dad got a card too. We put ours on the lucky dip lottery on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, we didn’t win any cash!
I hope you had a lovely Christmas and all the best for 2015.
Lauren”
“Hi, thank you very much for the card only just opened it as I left it on the side didn’t expect it to be the nice card it was. A lovely gesture bet not many people opened it cos people don’t seem to care these days. have a lovely Christmas Katarina”
“It made me smile with a tear in my eye thank u so much u beautiful stranger I will be able to get a little bit of for over Xmas so thank you from the bottom of my heart xxxx”
“Thank you for the fifty pence present in the beautiful card. It was handed to me by my boss the manager of a Mind shop, she said “I think this should be for you”. I am a volunteer who lives on benefits and was sent to work at Mind by the Jobcentre. I bought a pincushion from the Mind shop as my present, it is pretty, red velvet and satin with sequins. I need a pincushion because I spend a lot of time making dollies clothes for my grandchildren. The fifty pence will go toward Mind projects in Eden such as “The Befriending project” organising volunteers to help people with mental health problems, also to pay for information leaflets we keep in the shop about different mental health issues. So the answer to your question “Did it make me smile?” Yes, and there’s a good chance it will help many others smile in the future.
Merry Christmas, Happy New year.”
“Hi I was handed a lovely Christmas card in Workington town centre today. I would just like to say Thank you, I have been having a bad couple of days at work and his really brightened up my day and made me smile. Thank you again and I hope you have a fantastic Christmas x”
“Hello Kat, yesterday at 14:05pm I was stopped by yourself and you friend on the corner of John street in Maryport, you asked if I would like a Christmas card which at first I was a bit sceptical about and even thought what’s the catch, however I accepted your card with a thank you, when I got home and opened the card it did make me smile, I think it’s a lovely thing that your all doing and I have decided to donate the money along with a little more from myself to a charity, as I think they may need it more than me, so thank you all very much and happy Christmas 🎄 and a wonderful new year”