A World Craving Kindness

There are a lot of bullies in today’s world. We see them on social media all of the time. For some reason, it seems to be OK to hide behind a keyboard and make fun of or put down other people. It would seem kindness has become a forgotten or lost virtue. But, thanks to a large number of people in a new Facebook group, that can be changed.

The group began in late August 2019 when one woman saw another woman receiving rude comments to her post in a buy/sell/trade group. Instead of attacking those who were making the rude comments, she chose to comment kind words to the original poster, offering love and support. Wendy Babcock is a member of the group and saw the exchange.  She recognized the potential in the actions of the second woman.

Beginning of The Kindness Bucket Brigade

From that moment #kindnessbucketbrigade began. A Facebook group, The Kindness Bucket Brigade, was formed. Wendy spoke with some of us about her idea and we jumped on board with her. She invited her friends. We invited our friends. Our friends invited their friends. The idea spread like wildfire.

The “idea” that spread is to help combat bullying with kindness. When a member of the group sees someone being bullied, they respond with a kind comment. Then they tag a few members of the group to alert them to the post. And they include the hashtag #kindnessbucketbrigade. This tells them why they are being tagged in the post.

Share Support Instead Of Attacking Bullies

The concept behind this process is to drown out the bullies with love. There is no interaction with the bullies. Instead, the focus is on sharing kindness and support with the victim of the bullying. Once tagged, a member makes her own kind comment and tags more members, including the hashtag. As you might imagine, a chain of kind comments begins to appear fairly quickly.

Almost immediately it branched out a little bit. It began to include people who were asking for prayers or positive thoughts for a struggle in their lives. Or, if a member herself was having a rough day, she could just post the hashtag as her status and the brigade would be activated.

What became obvious from the start is how badly our world is craving kindness. Wendy initially hoped to get at least 100 people in the group. It’s hard to get people to join a Facebook group and even harder to encourage them to be active within the group. The Kindness Bucket Brigade blew through all the norms.

Group Grew In Record Time

About two and a half hours was all it took to get 100 people to join. In two days it had become 500 members. And two weeks later it was 2000 members. The count as of this writing, a mere three weeks later, is 3300+. What’s the deal? Are we giving away freebies? Or, are we paying people to join?

No. The only thing the group gives away is kindness and love. From the beginning, people joined craving the feeling of companionship and compassion one usually finds with close friends and family. They want to be able to show kindness to others without being afraid to stand alone. With the activation of the brigade, nobody stands alone.

It takes courage to stand up to a bully, both in the physical world and online. It’s even harder when you have to stand up alone. With The Kindness Bucket Brigade, there is an army of kindness warriors ready to stand behind you as you help and encourage the victim of the bullying. Or, they are willing to offer you prayers and support as you struggle through hardship in your life.

The group is unusually active as well. There are an average of 100 posts a day, which include memes of kindness and love, stories of people performing acts of kindness and goodwill, and some posts asking for prayers and support. Within minutes of posting most posts have comments showing support and love.

Drowning In Kindness

I was one of the original members to join when it began. One of the first things I noticed was the increase in positive posts in my feed. I literally felt like I was drowning in kindness and love for the first few days. It was like a good drug. Yes, I inhaled. Deeply.

When it was obvious the group was growing quickly, Wendy took on three moderators to help her. I was honored to be asked to be one of those. It has been a pleasure. With so many members, you might expect to see differences of opinion become rowdy, or a rude person sneak in and start trouble. However, I can honestly say, there have been very few issues any of us have had to address. Most of those have been members who neglected to read the rules about posting links for self-promotion.

My heart explodes when someone who asked for prayers posts an update that their prayers were answered. In a way, it completes the circle for me. It’s nice to feel like a part of that happiness, to know that the prayers I said for that person may have contributed to the smile they are now wearing.

Personally, I have copied prayer requests from some of my non-member friends to my own page to ask for prayers from the brigade. And I was not disappointed. My friends were grateful for the support from perfect strangers. It is definitely a win-win scenario.

Group Is Worldwide

Although the group is still new, it has gone worldwide. There are members from Australia, Canada, UK, and Italy to name just a few. I believe we have reached almost all of the 50 United States. IN THREE WEEKS! The potential to change the world is there.

One does not have to be a member to spread the kindness, but it certainly is easier to find partners to tag when there is a post that needs it. The group has a thread of people who are willing to be added as friends, a sister group for those looking for a little extra support for self-esteem or issues with trauma, and bracelets and T-shirts to identify members in public. There are instructions to help you deal with the numerous notifications the group generates.

The Rules

And, there are a few rules. Wendy posts these when she welcomes new members. They are simple rules that need no explanation:

Be Kind

No Self-Promotion

No GoFundMe pages

Keep Posts Relevant To The Purpose of the Group (which is to combat online bullying with kindness)

JOIN US

There is a website: http://kindnessbucketbrigade.com. You can find the group quickly using the hashtag #kindnessbucketbrigade. Maybe you already have friends who are a part of it. Will you join and help us change the world?