Acts of Kindness

In a world in which everyone seems to hate everyone, it was such a pleasure to meet someone who seems to enjoy life and what she does.

We (17 yr old daughter) found ourselves last Thursday night freaking out about the weather forecast on Saturday afternoon as the North Kingstown Junior Prom was on the docket and pictures were to be taken outside before heading over to the Newport Marriott for the big event. “Dad can’t you find me a place for us to take pictures?” “Well, I am sure your grandparents wouldn’t mind you going down to their house in Narragansett as it is beautiful and located just across the ocean. How many are going?” “19 to 20 people”. Ok, well new plan, as that was 20 kids with 40 more parents and who knows how many siblings.

So, plan B, who do I know that can handle 60 people plus with a days’ notice. So two places came to mind, the Wickford Yacht Club and The Towers in Narragansett. I fortunately know some people at the WYC and reached out and they replied quite quickly on Friday morning, saying absolutely they can use their beautiful “Great room” that overlooks the harbor. Wow thank you to the Brown’s for their generosity helping me out. At the same time I sent the email the night before, I also sent a hail Mary pass to The Towers in Narragansett, I didn’t know anyone their and sort of figured that a last minute request to them for 30 to 40 mins on a Saturday wouldn’t matter, but why not. Well guess what, I got a response the next morning from a wonderful woman, Kate Vivian. She said “I will meet you at the Towers Saturday for a half an hour.” So I quickly turned this into a life lesson with my daughter of course, if one doesn’t ask one will never know the answer.

So I thanked the Brown’s for the WYC offer, but the kids liked the option to take pictures at The Towers and if the rain held off maybe at the beach as well (that didn’t happen). So, we worked out a time to meet Kate at the Towers and we were all set for Saturday. I figured, we could take pictures in the lobby and stay out of the rain and all would be done. Well Kate had other plans. She met us there right on time, then asked me if I would like to take a look upstairs to see how the lighting was for them to take pictures. So up we went into one of the most beautiful spots in Southern RI for Weddings and other social events. She threw all the lights on, showed me around and we shuffled the kids and parents upstairs to take a thousand pictures it seemed. We were certainly up there more than 30 mins and I started breaking things up around 45 mins later. Kate was so welcoming and nice to us. She even mentioned that it would be nice to see some of these beautiful young ladies and gentleman back at The Towers in the summer to volunteer as greeters for events and she would write them a very nice recommendation letter for future college plans.

I just found myself smiling in Kate’s presence. She didn’t have to come down as there was not an event at The Towers on Saturday, so she did it on her own time just to accommodate my daughter and her “small” group of friends. Thank you Kate for being so nice and making someone smile even during a time when everyone seems to be angry at the world. A simple act of kindness goes a long way.

Matt Bourgeois