SOLD: Beautiful Happyzine

Christchurch Boys Highschool student Duncan Mazza wins an ipad for his essay on Random Acts of Kindness Day – from left.Sue Swift,Shannon Mazza,Duncan Mazza,Nick Hill principal,Kevin and & Feebee Newlands,Mark Smith Manager of Noel Leeming

Winning essay By Duncan Mazza, 13 years old.

The car slowed to a halt next to Latimer Square.  “Remember to keep your heart open – you’ll probably see a wide variety of personalities,” my dad

“Okay, I will.  Thanks Dad.  I’ll see you later,” I replied.  I shoved my hands in my pockets and walked towards a growing group of people.  I spotted Mr.
Newlands, and walked over to him.  “Hello, Mr. Newlands!” I called out to him.  He greeted me, then directed me over to his camper.  “How can I help?” I
asked, clueless as to what to do.

“You can start by putting these tables out,” he said back, then handed me a foldable plastic table.  I came back and was handed several packages of purple blankets.  Immediately, a horde of people swarmed around me and began grabbing the blankets from my hands. I went back to the camper and grabbed another few, which were instantly snatched away.  I never thought that blankets could be so valuable to a person.  I always had grown up in an area without poverty, and even though Christchurch has a very low poverty rate, I was still taken aback by the enormous line of about 100 homeless people patiently waiting to be fed.

My vision of the poor was a little different than what I experienced.  I imagined them with hardly any clothing, messy hair, and secluded personalities.  What I saw though, were families – young children too – with a wide variety of personalities ranging from playful little three-year-olds to young adults conversing with their friends to secluded old men.  This was something I have never experienced – I was, in a way, out of my environment.  It was
something that I had always thought about doing, but I had never done before.

When the food arrived, it was all hands on deck.  I was assigned to help prepare the desserts, but ended up spending most of my time separating the
plates.  For dessert, there was Watties Tropical Fruit Salad with ice cream.  It must have been a rare treat for the homeless to have a sweet at the end of a
meal.  Their way of life was starting to sink in, and it made me realise just how fortunate my family and I are.  I was more than happy to help those in need.

Probably the most memorable part of feeding the homeless was when a little boy – probably about 6 years old – came up and asked for a second helping of
ice cream.  It was memorable  because he was such an innocent little boy who likely grew up without the certainty of food being on the table at the end of the day, without a roof over his head, or a bed to sleep in at night.  That little boy and others really made an impact on my life, softened my heart, and made me want to help out more in the community to help shed a light on someone’s heart and make a difference in their world.

From the square, I travelled to a hospice facility where a few other men and I were supposed to hand out flowers to the patients.  Once I was handed a
handful of flowers, though, I suddenly thought about how awkward it may be to go around handing out flowers to elderly people. But, at the end of the day, I realised that it was just about making the patients feel loved and helping make their day a little more special when they are nearing the end of their life.

On the last leg of the journey, I was to help hand out presents to random people on New Regent St.  I felt nervous just walking up to people and handing out gifts while telling them about the pay-it-forward concept.  When I was given the task of handing out candy to little kids, I felt relieved, as I felt a bit more comfortable dealing with youngsters.  Once engaged, I stopped worrying and focused on doing the good deeds and start a chain reaction of passing-it-forward.

Overall, I grew a lot in this experience and will have a new perspective on not only helping feed the homeless and visiting a hospice, but volunteering in
the community.  Since this is my first time doing this type of volunteering, I now see why many people continue to help out others: it makes you feel warm in such a way that you can only understand it through experience.

I am definitely looking forward to volunteering again next year!  The reason why I said yes at school to volunteering is because I felt compelled to help
out in the community because I had never had that experience yet.  I’ll definitely recommend the volunteering to other Christchurch Boys High students when September 1st rolls around next year. Can’t wait.

Tags: kindness, RAK, random acts of kindness, Youth