Kindness — and a bit of caffeine — gave some Port Coquitlam coffee drinkers a positive jolt last Friday.
Twenty five kids from Pitt River middle school chipped in $68 from their allowances and, after that total was topped up by other School District 43 students and matched by the school’s Real Acts of Caring fund, delivered $100 gift cards to two Starbucks stores in the city.
The students don’t want their names or the class published because a real act of caring is something that is done selflessly for others, they say.
“In the end, we were able to buy drinks for over 60 strangers,” said their teacher whose students took part in the project last week.
Staff at the Starbucks outlets at the corner of the Mary Hill Bypass and Broadway Street and on Shaughnessy street used the cards to dole out free java, then handed customers “pay it forward” cards made by the students.
Read more about Real Acts of Caring in School District 43 here.
Upon receiving their free coffee, many customers returned the favour by buying coffee for someone else.
“As we are a drive-thru store, it sparked a 'pay-it-forward' line, where a line of cars all paid for the orders of the car behind them. I thought the initiative was so wonderful, and it brought so much joy to the store at that moment that I wanted to bring it to your attention,” said Jessica Hendriks, manager at Broadway Junction Starbucks, in an email to The Tri-City News.
In addition to purchasing coffee for people, the students did a different activity each day to promote Real Acts of Caring Week Feb. 9 to 15.
On the Monday, they wrote gratitude letters to an elementary school teacher or one of their coaches who had left a positive impact on them. On Tuesday, they did a staff appreciation at recess with coffee and treats for teachers. On Wednesday, they put gift bags of appreciation together for the school’s PAC executive committee. And last Thursday, they handed out cookies to every student in the school and made cards with students’ names on them.
“These were the five ideas the kids liked best,” the students’ teacher told The Tri-City News.
