A pair of locals are preparing to embark on a journey they hope puts kindness on the map.
Calan Breckon, who grew up in Coquitlam, will be joining Jessica Schafer on the Random Acts Of Kindness Tour (#GetRAOKT), which departs from Vancouver on Sept. 1.
The pair will be travelling across North America performing random acts of kindness while volunteering with community groups and providing relief in areas hard hit by disasters.
"It encourages people to get involved in their communities, do some volunteer work or a random act of kindness for a stranger, and start connecting again with others on a more meaningful level," said Breckon.
The tour also fits in with Breckon's view on life: "You can't change the world in one day but in one day you can change someone's world."
The tour starts in Calgary because of last month's flooding. "We want to go and volunteer there and help clean up," he said. "Then we're going to move down to Oklahoma, where they had the tornados."
From there, the pair will head over to the east coast, hitting Toronto, Montreal and New York before heading down to Florida and across to New Orleans. The tour also has planned stops in Texas, Colorado and California before returning to Vancouver next August.
"We're two people who have not had the best childhoods per se, and without the kindness of other people, we wouldn't have ended up where we are today," said Schafer. "It's just kind of our way of giving back and along the way meet incredible people. We get to travel and see the places we want to see as well as make a difference."
Not only will the pair be criss-crossing the continent, helping communities and making a difference in lives along the way, the travel promises to be its own type of experience. Breckon and Schafer plan to ride share and couch surf to save money on travel, using websites to arrange rides and places to stay. While the prospect of staying with local people to build a connection with the communities they visit does appeal to them, it also brings its share of apprehension.
"Calan and I are both very strong people but I'm a girl and he's a gay guy and we're going to be travelling around North America and the south, and we don't know how people are going to respond to us. You never know what's going to happen," Schafer said.
Taking on causes is nothing new for Breckon, who organized the Diversity Project, putting out a message about bullying, homophobia and racism.
"[The Diversity Project] is dedicated to promoting love and compassion through diversity, education and understanding for not only the LGBT community but for all walks of life," said Breckon.
The pair have already got a jump-start on their project, performing a random act of kindness in Vancouver. They arranged a helicopter tour of the area for Yogi Omar, who does a lot of volunteer work and fundraising for local causes.
While Breckon and Schafer have been pulling long shifts at their serving jobs to save enough cash to fund their trip, they have also set up a fundraiser page at www.fundmytravel.com, a website dedicated to funding purposeful travel. You can find more information about the #GetRAOKT tour at www.discoveringyourtruth.com/p/getraokt.html.
