[Applause]
i’li how you doing doing good I am a gen
Xer who grew up in Brantford and there
is nothing than the gen Xer hates more
than everything and when you grew up in
Brantford as a generation Xer there was
a reason to dislike the city that you
lived in Brantford when I was growing up
kind of looked like this this is what my
downtown looked like the mayor of the
city called Brantford the worst downtown
in Canada and he was 100% correct
the city had fallen to pieces the
downtown was in disrepair industry had
moved out culturally it was a mess
socially it felt oppressive this is the
downtown and this is the city that I
grew up in as a gen Xer struggling to
find a way to be able to live my life
here in Brantford in fact the worst that
it ever got was when they filmed the
movie Silent Hill in the downtown of
Brantford now Silent Hill is a movie
about a post-apocalyptic zombie
wasteland and they thought where in the
world could we film this let’s go to
Brantford and they didn’t have to do a
heck of a lot to it to be able to make
it look like a post-apocalyptic zombie
wasteland that was the culture that I
grew up in fun thankfully I grew up and
I thought I want to make a difference I
want to do something to be able to make
the world a better place and so I did
what many young people who want to
change the world do you leave my wife
and I we moved to West Africa for a
short time we went there when we were we
were young we were married we were
zealous we wanted to make the world a
better place we got to do some really
neat things like I started a baseball
league for those in the in inner cities
where we were able to teach job skills
and life skills as well as sports but
the truth is is that the thing that
impacted me most was experiencing
experiencing a culture that I had never
seen before in fact the one attribute
that stuck out the most was kindness
there was a culture
that I experienced where people would
invite you into their homes without
expectation they would talk to you on
the street they would greet you as he
walked along there on the road and I was
confronted by this and I began to
realize that my culture Canadians were
not cold to each other but we’re also
not in each other’s lives on purpose
like we used to be and maybe should be
again it confronted me and made me think
not necessarily just about what I was
going to do in Africa but how I was
going to take what I learned in Africa
back to Bradford my heart broke for my
own City and so I came home I came home
and I looked for a bunch of other people
who had helped dream with me and so we
started a church called Freedom House
only a few blocks from where we stand
today it was an old blue bar that we
bought and we thought let’s do this
right the church but has stopped being
involved in the community let’s find a
way to be able to go back into the
community and see legitimate city
transformation through what we’re doing
and so we bought this ugly blue bar when
we bought this bar
they were running drugs out of the
kitchen people were turning tricks in
the parking lot and right across the
street from this blue bar one night as
we came out we experienced something
that I’d never seen before growing up in
a more affluent part of town I saw a
crack house where there were eight to
ten eight to ten-year-old boys sitting
on lawn chairs at midnight or one
o’clock in the morning a long Market
Street the guy who ran the crack house
would whistle when the kids would come
up into the house and be essentially
used as drug mules to get on their bikes
and go riding off into the night at
midnight one o’clock in the morning on
Market Street and I thought what can we
do how do I get into this world how can
I with what little skills I have I got
energy from that baby it what can I do
so we took kindness we thought what can
we use kindness for to be able to do
something we don’t know what to do so
let’s do something so we set up a
barbecue from 10 o’clock at night until
2 o’clock in the morning right there on
Market Street and we brought some of the
cheapest burgers and hot dogs you can
get not even the good stuff like chicken
wieners terrible stuff and we set up
this barbecue and we began
into the midnight sky people showed up
as it turns out you we began to build
relationship with people they came for
the free burger and we begin to
understand who they were we began to
hear things about their life they began
to tell us their stories and all of a
sudden for somebody like me that this
was just an issue they became real
people to me all of a sudden with real
stories and men me being charged with
all right what do I do with this how do
I help how do I use this to be able to
go and help seed transformation on this
street
it wasn’t easy though in fact sometimes
it was dangerous one night the barbecue
was taken inside the big blue bar
because it was raining and I was alone
in an alley grilling up meat and I
started I saw two shadowy characters
walking down Market Street and as was my
custom I began to yell well they came
over it was a big guy in the little guy
the little guy goes hey be careful of
the big guy and I realized why when he
took out a knife and he stuck it in my
face and he looked at me and he said do
you want to die have you ever wondered
what you would say if someone stuck a
knife in your face and said do you want
to die because I always wondered and as
it turns out what I said was no do you
want a burger
and the big guy looked at me anyway yeah
and he stumbled in Thai inside our
church he had a burger and we distracted
him for a little bit because all of a
sudden I got in this conversation with a
little guy he says what am i doing out
here why am i with this maniac in my
life why am i here you wouldn’t believe
this guy just did and I said listen you
came here for a purpose you came here
for a reason
kindness intercepted your life tonight
and tomorrow I’m gonna call you at home
and I want you to tell me how you know
that what happened here was on purpose
and he said okay and he left they went
off into the midnight sky I called him
the next day at home and I said Ryan how
do you know that kindness intercepted
your life and you’ve got a purpose he
said Dave let me tell you a story
when we left here that big guy went down
the street to one of those bars and he
stabbed a guy nearly to death he said
he’s in jail but the truth is I was
planning on killing that person tonight
he said I’m home and I’m safe and he’s
in jail and kindness intercepted my life
tonight and I went oh my goodness one
little interaction with a guy over a
free burger and being goofy and his life
goes from this to this is nothing I did
and it wasn’t even the burger it’s the
kindness it’s transformational and so we
double down on kindness we said what
else can we do the city Santa Claus
Parade that year’s theme was superheroes
and without thinking much about it we
thought well we’re gonna put a float in
the parade the theme is superheroes
let’s put David a leotard and stick him
up in a flatbed truck and call him
captain kindness and we’ll see what
happens and that was nine years ago we
won the award best float in a Santa
Claus Parade that year I thought it was
a one-off I never expected to be an
adult male the dress like a spree hero
in a leotard on the semi regular basis
and yet we started to get calls to
captain kindness come to my school can
captain kindness cut the ribbon on my
fish and chips stand okay captain
kindness do the retirement birthday
party for the chief legal counsel to the
Children’s Aid Society and I said what
this is for real I got to do this again
that was eight nine years ago I haven’t
been able to get out of this costume I
walk down the street people salute me
and they go captain
like a how is this my life how many
people in this room grew up wanting to
be a superhero anybody I’m living your
dream I’m not one of those guys
I’ve never even owned a comic book I
don’t know the superhero movies I’m
living your dream and yet the truth is
is that this has been used to open so
many doors to impact not just lives but
in the city so we started going to the
city to go your downtown is trying to
come alive what can we do to be able to
help and so they were doing movie nights
in harmony Square the city puts on these
free movie nights every Thursday some of
you have probably been there well
captain kindness goes and does the pre
family show for the movie nights and
four or five hundred people gather and
do movies in harmony square at the end
of this night I have to walk from
harmony Square to Freedom House which is
two blocks but in those two blocks are a
bunch of bars and a bunch of patios and
a bunch of drunk guys who seemed to like
making fun of a guy in a leotard and a
clock walking and down the street as so
they should one night I’m walking the
gauntlet and I hear someone yelling
captain kindness captain kindness I
turned around they said hello citizen ah
and I kept walking he chased after me he
was captain kindness I got to tell you a
story he said I was downtown today and a
homeless man came up to me and asked me
for money so we know what I did I
thought to myself what would captain
kindness do and he said I took him out
for breakfast and we sat there and he
told me his story and I shared mine and
it was fantastic and I wanted to tell
you that that’s what happened in
downtown Brantford today and I went how
is this possible how can these little
things actually make real impacts in
real people’s lives and can it help
change so we double down on kindness
again we went back to the city we said
all right what’s next how do we serve
you how do we use kindness to make the
city a better place well the city said
well I’ll tell you what we have a Jazz
Festival in the summer but we’d love
something in the winter
could you do something in the winter and
we said sure we can do a Winter Carnival
about that and then we went back to our
house and we googled how to do a Winter
Carnival
and we birthed frosty fest frosty Fest
is Bradford’s downtown Winter Carnival
last year 17,000 people came to it and
it’s one of the largest festivals that
the city has every year a bunch of years
ago we were up on the stage and we were
there on the family Day weekend and we
looked over the expanse of people in the
downtown where there didn’t used to be
anything and the mayor said this is the
watershed moment in the transformation
of our downtown today and what all we
did was say how do we serve you how do
we bless you how do we be kind and we’re
watching ripples and ripples and ripples
and ripples if we’re just willing to do
something with what you have let me
share with you something about kindness
kindness for the amount of time that I
talk about it and participate in it is
actually somewhat difficult to define
the definition of kindness is
technically showing benevolence
benevolence is another interesting word
benevolence means the disposition to do
good so go down one more level
disposition is your state of being who
you are who you are your spirit your
insides so take it back up that ladder
kindness is actually something good that
you do out of something good that you
are kindness is something good that you
do out of something good that you are
that’s what kindness is but some of us
don’t believe that we have goodness
inside of us so people don’t buy it some
people don’t know it I get to go into a
lot of elementary schools and when I go
into the school I’ll talk about the
areas and the concentric circles of how
you can use kindness in your life and I
just start with kids about you have
goodness inside of you and then I go to
how do you show kindness in your family
unit how do you show kindness in your
school how do you show kindness in your
community well the one class a number of
years ago in a first grade class I
walked in and I said Billy how do you
why are you a superhero and he looked at
me he goes I know superhero
and I thought okay this is gonna be a
tough nut to crack here and I went on
and they said how do you show kindness
and your family nothing so how do you
show kindness inside your classroom
nothing and I got to community and I
said Billy how do you share kindness
inside your community and he stood up
and he looked at me right in the eye and
he said somebody broke into my house and
beat up my mom and dad and I thought
that’s not the question I asked but this
idea had flushed something up out of him
and I thought what do I say I’m just a
guy in a leotard in a classroom here and
I knelt down I looked at him in the eye
and I said you guard your heart little
man you have goodness inside of you and
don’t let anybody take that away and he
broke down
and he hugged me and I watched the
teacher crying in the background and as
it turned out this little guy was the
reason why she wanted me to come into
the classroom in the first place
kindness is something good that you do
out of something good that you are and
when you know that you have goodness
inside of you all it takes is for you to
be able to go I’m gonna do something I’m
gonna do one thing I’m gonna do
something with what I have today I want
to tell you a story of something that
happened in my young adult program that
I helped run just a couple days ago the
background of this is that we do
something every year called the $1 car
wash in Brantford so what we do is we
have a whole team of people and they
stand there with a sign this is one
dollar and we go what about a car wash
what about a car wash she wants a one
dollar car wash and we get cars to come
in and when a car pulls into the carwash
I lean in and I give them a loonie and I
say here you go this is for the honor of
serving you today and their brains blow
up
and then they pull it in and we do a
free barbecue for them as we wash their
car and they’re like I want the loonie I
can afford a car wash I was gonna and
they don’t know to do with this charge
of kindness that we have forcefully
given to them and often they’ll come
back and tell the stories of well I went
inside the grocery store and I bought
some one up i bought some of the
sandwich
there you go I don’t have your luni
anymore yeah and that was exactly the
point this past weekend our young adult
program a Laurier grad who we’ve been
able to mentor in the idea that kindness
can transform a city was leading a
discussion group of some who are now
current Laurier peers and she gave them
each of Lunia so amazed to hear this
story
she came armed with loonies and she gave
each one of the maleeni and he said this
is your charge to go and do one kind
thing to somebody this week keep it in
your pocket think about it wait for the
moment but do something with this loonie
this week one week later she came back
and heard stories that people had paid
for others bus fares that they’d gone to
the grocery store and bought somebody a
snack that they paid it for it at a Tim
Hortons coffee line and one young man
actually kept it in his pocket as a
weight to remind him that he’s charged
with doing tensional acts of kindness
that there’s sometimes there’s nothing
random about it at all you have to plan
to be able to do something good out of
something good that you are and so my
challenge to us all today an idea worth
sharing it’s put a loonie in your pocket
stick a loonie in your pocket on purpose
today and remember that even one kind
thing can actually change someone’s life
and even more when you continually do it
it can change an entire community for
the better thank you very much
you
[Applause]
i’li how you doing doing good I am a gen
Xer who grew up in Brantford and there
is nothing than the gen Xer hates more
than everything and when you grew up in
Brantford as a generation Xer there was
a reason to dislike the city that you
lived in Brantford when I was growing up
kind of looked like this this is what my
downtown looked like the mayor of the
city called Brantford the worst downtown
in Canada and he was 100% correct
the city had fallen to pieces the
downtown was in disrepair industry had
moved out culturally it was a mess
socially it felt oppressive this is the
downtown and this is the city that I
grew up in as a gen Xer struggling to
find a way to be able to live my life
here in Brantford in fact the worst that
it ever got was when they filmed the
movie Silent Hill in the downtown of
Brantford now Silent Hill is a movie
about a post-apocalyptic zombie
wasteland and they thought where in the
world could we film this let’s go to
Brantford and they didn’t have to do a
heck of a lot to it to be able to make
it look like a post-apocalyptic zombie
wasteland that was the culture that I
grew up in fun thankfully I grew up and
I thought I want to make a difference I
want to do something to be able to make
the world a better place and so I did
what many young people who want to
change the world do you leave my wife
and I we moved to West Africa for a
short time we went there when we were we
were young we were married we were
zealous we wanted to make the world a
better place we got to do some really
neat things like I started a baseball
league for those in the in inner cities
where we were able to teach job skills
and life skills as well as sports but
the truth is is that the thing that
impacted me most was experiencing
experiencing a culture that I had never
seen before in fact the one attribute
that stuck out the most was kindness
there was a culture
that I experienced where people would
invite you into their homes without
expectation they would talk to you on
the street they would greet you as he
walked along there on the road and I was
confronted by this and I began to
realize that my culture Canadians were
not cold to each other but we’re also
not in each other’s lives on purpose
like we used to be and maybe should be
again it confronted me and made me think
not necessarily just about what I was
going to do in Africa but how I was
going to take what I learned in Africa
back to Bradford my heart broke for my
own City and so I came home I came home
and I looked for a bunch of other people
who had helped dream with me and so we
started a church called Freedom House
only a few blocks from where we stand
today it was an old blue bar that we
bought and we thought let’s do this
right the church but has stopped being
involved in the community let’s find a
way to be able to go back into the
community and see legitimate city
transformation through what we’re doing
and so we bought this ugly blue bar when
we bought this bar
they were running drugs out of the
kitchen people were turning tricks in
the parking lot and right across the
street from this blue bar one night as
we came out we experienced something
that I’d never seen before growing up in
a more affluent part of town I saw a
crack house where there were eight to
ten eight to ten-year-old boys sitting
on lawn chairs at midnight or one
o’clock in the morning a long Market
Street the guy who ran the crack house
would whistle when the kids would come
up into the house and be essentially
used as drug mules to get on their bikes
and go riding off into the night at
midnight one o’clock in the morning on
Market Street and I thought what can we
do how do I get into this world how can
I with what little skills I have I got
energy from that baby it what can I do
so we took kindness we thought what can
we use kindness for to be able to do
something we don’t know what to do so
let’s do something so we set up a
barbecue from 10 o’clock at night until
2 o’clock in the morning right there on
Market Street and we brought some of the
cheapest burgers and hot dogs you can
get not even the good stuff like chicken
wieners terrible stuff and we set up
this barbecue and we began
into the midnight sky people showed up
as it turns out you we began to build
relationship with people they came for
the free burger and we begin to
understand who they were we began to
hear things about their life they began
to tell us their stories and all of a
sudden for somebody like me that this
was just an issue they became real
people to me all of a sudden with real
stories and men me being charged with
all right what do I do with this how do
I help how do I use this to be able to
go and help seed transformation on this
street
it wasn’t easy though in fact sometimes
it was dangerous one night the barbecue
was taken inside the big blue bar
because it was raining and I was alone
in an alley grilling up meat and I
started I saw two shadowy characters
walking down Market Street and as was my
custom I began to yell well they came
over it was a big guy in the little guy
the little guy goes hey be careful of
the big guy and I realized why when he
took out a knife and he stuck it in my
face and he looked at me and he said do
you want to die have you ever wondered
what you would say if someone stuck a
knife in your face and said do you want
to die because I always wondered and as
it turns out what I said was no do you
want a burger
and the big guy looked at me anyway yeah
and he stumbled in Thai inside our
church he had a burger and we distracted
him for a little bit because all of a
sudden I got in this conversation with a
little guy he says what am i doing out
here why am i with this maniac in my
life why am i here you wouldn’t believe
this guy just did and I said listen you
came here for a purpose you came here
for a reason
kindness intercepted your life tonight
and tomorrow I’m gonna call you at home
and I want you to tell me how you know
that what happened here was on purpose
and he said okay and he left they went
off into the midnight sky I called him
the next day at home and I said Ryan how
do you know that kindness intercepted
your life and you’ve got a purpose he
said Dave let me tell you a story
when we left here that big guy went down
the street to one of those bars and he
stabbed a guy nearly to death he said
he’s in jail but the truth is I was
planning on killing that person tonight
he said I’m home and I’m safe and he’s
in jail and kindness intercepted my life
tonight and I went oh my goodness one
little interaction with a guy over a
free burger and being goofy and his life
goes from this to this is nothing I did
and it wasn’t even the burger it’s the
kindness it’s transformational and so we
double down on kindness we said what
else can we do the city Santa Claus
Parade that year’s theme was superheroes
and without thinking much about it we
thought well we’re gonna put a float in
the parade the theme is superheroes
let’s put David a leotard and stick him
up in a flatbed truck and call him
captain kindness and we’ll see what
happens and that was nine years ago we
won the award best float in a Santa
Claus Parade that year I thought it was
a one-off I never expected to be an
adult male the dress like a spree hero
in a leotard on the semi regular basis
and yet we started to get calls to
captain kindness come to my school can
captain kindness cut the ribbon on my
fish and chips stand okay captain
kindness do the retirement birthday
party for the chief legal counsel to the
Children’s Aid Society and I said what
this is for real I got to do this again
that was eight nine years ago I haven’t
been able to get out of this costume I
walk down the street people salute me
and they go captain
like a how is this my life how many
people in this room grew up wanting to
be a superhero anybody I’m living your
dream I’m not one of those guys
I’ve never even owned a comic book I
don’t know the superhero movies I’m
living your dream and yet the truth is
is that this has been used to open so
many doors to impact not just lives but
in the city so we started going to the
city to go your downtown is trying to
come alive what can we do to be able to
help and so they were doing movie nights
in harmony Square the city puts on these
free movie nights every Thursday some of
you have probably been there well
captain kindness goes and does the pre
family show for the movie nights and
four or five hundred people gather and
do movies in harmony square at the end
of this night I have to walk from
harmony Square to Freedom House which is
two blocks but in those two blocks are a
bunch of bars and a bunch of patios and
a bunch of drunk guys who seemed to like
making fun of a guy in a leotard and a
clock walking and down the street as so
they should one night I’m walking the
gauntlet and I hear someone yelling
captain kindness captain kindness I
turned around they said hello citizen ah
and I kept walking he chased after me he
was captain kindness I got to tell you a
story he said I was downtown today and a
homeless man came up to me and asked me
for money so we know what I did I
thought to myself what would captain
kindness do and he said I took him out
for breakfast and we sat there and he
told me his story and I shared mine and
it was fantastic and I wanted to tell
you that that’s what happened in
downtown Brantford today and I went how
is this possible how can these little
things actually make real impacts in
real people’s lives and can it help
change so we double down on kindness
again we went back to the city we said
all right what’s next how do we serve
you how do we use kindness to make the
city a better place well the city said
well I’ll tell you what we have a Jazz
Festival in the summer but we’d love
something in the winter
could you do something in the winter and
we said sure we can do a Winter Carnival
about that and then we went back to our
house and we googled how to do a Winter
Carnival
and we birthed frosty fest frosty Fest
is Bradford’s downtown Winter Carnival
last year 17,000 people came to it and
it’s one of the largest festivals that
the city has every year a bunch of years
ago we were up on the stage and we were
there on the family Day weekend and we
looked over the expanse of people in the
downtown where there didn’t used to be
anything and the mayor said this is the
watershed moment in the transformation
of our downtown today and what all we
did was say how do we serve you how do
we bless you how do we be kind and we’re
watching ripples and ripples and ripples
and ripples if we’re just willing to do
something with what you have let me
share with you something about kindness
kindness for the amount of time that I
talk about it and participate in it is
actually somewhat difficult to define
the definition of kindness is
technically showing benevolence
benevolence is another interesting word
benevolence means the disposition to do
good so go down one more level
disposition is your state of being who
you are who you are your spirit your
insides so take it back up that ladder
kindness is actually something good that
you do out of something good that you
are kindness is something good that you
do out of something good that you are
that’s what kindness is but some of us
don’t believe that we have goodness
inside of us so people don’t buy it some
people don’t know it I get to go into a
lot of elementary schools and when I go
into the school I’ll talk about the
areas and the concentric circles of how
you can use kindness in your life and I
just start with kids about you have
goodness inside of you and then I go to
how do you show kindness in your family
unit how do you show kindness in your
school how do you show kindness in your
community well the one class a number of
years ago in a first grade class I
walked in and I said Billy how do you
why are you a superhero and he looked at
me he goes I know superhero
and I thought okay this is gonna be a
tough nut to crack here and I went on
and they said how do you show kindness
and your family nothing so how do you
show kindness inside your classroom
nothing and I got to community and I
said Billy how do you share kindness
inside your community and he stood up
and he looked at me right in the eye and
he said somebody broke into my house and
beat up my mom and dad and I thought
that’s not the question I asked but this
idea had flushed something up out of him
and I thought what do I say I’m just a
guy in a leotard in a classroom here and
I knelt down I looked at him in the eye
and I said you guard your heart little
man you have goodness inside of you and
don’t let anybody take that away and he
broke down
and he hugged me and I watched the
teacher crying in the background and as
it turned out this little guy was the
reason why she wanted me to come into
the classroom in the first place
kindness is something good that you do
out of something good that you are and
when you know that you have goodness
inside of you all it takes is for you to
be able to go I’m gonna do something I’m
gonna do one thing I’m gonna do
something with what I have today I want
to tell you a story of something that
happened in my young adult program that
I helped run just a couple days ago the
background of this is that we do
something every year called the $1 car
wash in Brantford so what we do is we
have a whole team of people and they
stand there with a sign this is one
dollar and we go what about a car wash
what about a car wash she wants a one
dollar car wash and we get cars to come
in and when a car pulls into the carwash
I lean in and I give them a loonie and I
say here you go this is for the honor of
serving you today and their brains blow
up
and then they pull it in and we do a
free barbecue for them as we wash their
car and they’re like I want the loonie I
can afford a car wash I was gonna and
they don’t know to do with this charge
of kindness that we have forcefully
given to them and often they’ll come
back and tell the stories of well I went
inside the grocery store and I bought
some one up i bought some of the
sandwich
there you go I don’t have your luni
anymore yeah and that was exactly the
point this past weekend our young adult
program a Laurier grad who we’ve been
able to mentor in the idea that kindness
can transform a city was leading a
discussion group of some who are now
current Laurier peers and she gave them
each of Lunia so amazed to hear this
story
she came armed with loonies and she gave
each one of the maleeni and he said this
is your charge to go and do one kind
thing to somebody this week keep it in
your pocket think about it wait for the
moment but do something with this loonie
this week one week later she came back
and heard stories that people had paid
for others bus fares that they’d gone to
the grocery store and bought somebody a
snack that they paid it for it at a Tim
Hortons coffee line and one young man
actually kept it in his pocket as a
weight to remind him that he’s charged
with doing tensional acts of kindness
that there’s sometimes there’s nothing
random about it at all you have to plan
to be able to do something good out of
something good that you are and so my
challenge to us all today an idea worth
sharing it’s put a loonie in your pocket
stick a loonie in your pocket on purpose
today and remember that even one kind
thing can actually change someone’s life
and even more when you continually do it
it can change an entire community for
the better thank you very much
you
[Applause]
Please follow and like us: