Nashua Woman Hopes To Spread Kindness Via Fortune Forward Org

NASHUA, NH — One of the best parts of eating Chinese food comes at the end of the meal when fortune cookies are delivered to your table with the bill. Opening up a fortune cookie and reading the passage inside can often be a moving experience (and sometimes, a dud or a bit quirky, too). The numbers in some cookies can even lead to lottery winnings.

But those simple sentiments taken home when leaving the restaurant with a full belly can often be meaningful and thought-provoking.

Cecilia Ulibarri, a Nashua artist, mother, and grandmother, has been saving fortunes from cookies for years. She never knew why. Ulibarri thought she might use them in a mixed- or multi-media art project, maybe as part of another org she's involved with, Positive Street Art, or something entirely different. She didn't really quite know but saved them in a silver box anyway.

"It didn't really have any meaning behind it," she said, "but I thought, 'If I'm saving them, they have to have something more valuable behind their purpose.'"

While working at a nonprofit, she began to feel a bit down about her leadership skills and what she was doing with her life. Ulibarri said she was ready to give up. And then, one of her friends – who didn't know that she saved fortunes – gave her one to cheer her up.

"She thought it was meant for me," Ulibarri said. "It was about leadership and it really resonated with me. So, I didn't give up because I had a really profound feeling that this message was meant for me at that point in time."

That moment of clarity clicked with Ulibarri and she realized she needed to share the feeling, and all the inspirational messages found in past fortune cookies that she had been saving, with others.

But what to do, exactly, eluded Ulibarri, and the fortunes took a backseat as she continued her work. She then became a fellow this year with the New Leaders Council. As part of the program, fellows need to create a capstone project that would initiate change, of some form, within New Hampshire. Ulibarri then had another epiphany – and Fortune Forward was born.

"I truly believe that kindness is the foundation for change," she said. "Because if we don't have kindness, what kind of change are we expecting? We can't force change on other people. So, there is a foundation there for being kind to others. It came full circle and I knew what to do with these fortunes."

On the Fortune Forward website, Ulibarri has how-to templates to create fortunes. Some templates offer the fortune messages themselves, with positive sayings, that can be slipped into origami paper "cookies." Others are blank sheets where the user can create their own message. She said that the fortunes can be put into anything. The point is to be a little crafty while also sharing kind words.

"When you give this to someone, someone sees that you actually put effort into it," she said. "And they chose to give it to you. And I think that that's part of the special quality in this ... it's not just, 'Here's a message and I'm passing it to you.' It's the delivery of it. That was important."

A future idea Ulibarri has is to create a gift certificate or voucher program – like a free coffee or meal or some other type of offering – to go along with the fortune. Cookie recipes might be created, too, or maybe something involving clay. Either way, the project will stay nonprofit and be open to others to participate with their own messages and concepts. The messages, she said, are generic and not geared to a specific type of person. This way, they can be given to nearly everyone.

"I can make a bunch of these and just give them out," she said, "to whoever I want and, hopefully, that message can resonate with them. If not, at the very least, hopefully, they will smile. Then, I've done my job."

For more information about Fortune Forward, visit FortuneForward.life.