Participating in the postcard kindness project Mary Latham seeks to spread ‘More Good’
Two sixth-grade girls in Orient went trick-or-treating for a friend who was too sick to celebrate Halloween. A woman in New Jersey held a door for a stranger on a difficult day. A man in Greenport helped a grieving friend by sharing a personalized playlist to lift her spirits.
These tiny, seemingly unrelated acts share a common thread: Mary Latham.
For the last several years, the Orient resident has dedicated her life to seeking out these stories in an attempt to prove — first to herself, then to the world — that it is good out there.
Mary’s three-year journey for “More Good Today” took her to all 50 states as she collected stories from strangers that she’s currently compiling into a book about generosity, kindness, and compassion.
As the holiday season nears, she’s inviting people to once again share stories and acts of kindness for a new project, an offshoot of More Good, which will ultimately be turned into a heartwarming display in Greenport.
The concept behind the Postcard Project is simple: do one act of kindness, write it down (anonymously, if you prefer) on a postcard or small piece of paper along with your city and state, and mail it to Mary in Orient. She’ll collect the stories and display them at Floyd Memorial Library in Greenport starting Wednesday, Dec. 14, which in many ways is More Good’s 10th birthday.
“It’s a small-scale project where I’m just trying to bring back the spirit of the movement,” Mary explained. “Because it really all began with one small moment of kindness.”
It was a random act of kindness, as told by a co-worker that led Mary to consider the simple good deeds that people pay each other daily across the country, the ones that we often never hear about.
Mary had been sitting in her work cubicle, reading the terrible news of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on her computer screen, when a co-worker approached. He told her of a man who had gone into the coffee shop earlier and had told the barista to pay for the orders of all of the customers in line behind him with a $100 gift card.
What a nice thing to do, Mary thought. The act was in stark contrast to the news she had been reading. She thought of how she had always heard of these random acts of kindness but had never seen one firsthand.
Later that night, as she lamented that it was hard to stay positive in a world with so many negative headlines, her mother, Pat, urged her to stay focused on the good.
“She said ‘Mary, you’ve got to remember the other story you told me. There’s always going to be tragedies and horrible things that will inevitably happen in our lives and in the world, but there will always be more good out there if you look for it.’”
As Mary tells it, those words became a “life raft” as she found herself coping with the loss of her mother from cancer just 10 weeks later on March 1, 2013.
In late 2016, she would embark on her mission of traveling the country, relying on the kindness of strangers, all while collecting their stories of random acts of kindness.
As of late November 2019, Mary has completed her mission of personally collecting stories from every state.
On November 30th at 3:15 p.m., after three years and thirty-one days, Mary’s journey came to a close when she arrived home in Orient, New York.
Since the start of her road trip in 2016, Mary has traveled to all 50 states, compiled stories of human kindness across 43,000 miles, and has been hosted in 154 people’s homes.
The subsequent cross-country trip was more than just a soul-searching journey or passion project. It reminded Mary of the ever-present beauty surrounding us: The kindness of strangers. The ways — big and small — people rally to make the world a better place.
Sometimes, these stories do come in the form of a life-altering kidney donation or foundation started in memory of a deceased child. But more often, Mary said they came in the form of small, simple acts that made someone’s day. Returning a shopping cart to the corral in a parking lot. Allowing a driver to merge into your lane. Taking the trash out when you see the bin is full. Smiling. Saying “good morning.”
When asked to reflect on the most surprising parts of her mission, Mary said she’s still amazed at how simple it can be to impact someone’s life in a profound way.
“When we just take the time to look around, look up from our phones, and see what’s going on in our communities or at our neighbor’s house or wherever we’re looking, to see the need and offer a little bit of help … It could be nothing to us, but so much to them.”
Taking that time, she said, is what it comes down to.
“Really, that’s what kindness is: giving your time to think of another person and then actually carry out whatever it is you’re going to do, whether it’s a postcard or a kidney or flowers.”
As she embarks on this new project, Mary isn’t sure what to expect in terms of a response. But judging by the handful of postcards she’s already received and comments left on a social media post announcing the initiative, the message has already been spread across the North Fork and beyond, from Portsmouth, N.H., to Marshfield, Wis., Alaska, Hawaii and even overseas to the United Kingdom.
Do you have an act of kindness to share? Create your own postcard and mail it to P.O. Box 455, Orient, NY 11957 or text your story and an image that goes with it to 844-958-4397. Submissions can be anonymous but please include your city and state. For more information, visit moregoodtoday.com or follow More Good Today on social media.
Sources:
- https://youtu.be/yiidGVVpJBM
- https://suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2022/11/mary-latham-seeks-to-spread-more-good-through-postcard-kindness-project/
- https://www.kaslradio.com/an-act-of-kindness-a-devastating-loss-leads-woman-to-find-more-good-good-news-week/
- https://suffolktimes.timesreview.com/2019/12/journey-complete/
- https://readloud.net/
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