GIFT: Home- A Wave of Human Kindness

The 'GIFT' that keeps on giving -
By Ray Hainer - Special to the Town Crier (2004)

Wayland Resident Spreads Goodwill Across the Globe on His Website

An orphanage director in Nairobi, a pastor's wife in Brownwood, Texas, a toll collector on the Mass Pike - these individuals are just some of the thousands who make up an ever-widening circle of people inspired by a local 11-year-old boy.

Each day Alex Southmayd of Wayland, a sixth-grader at the St. John the Evangelist School in Wellesley, receives a handful of testimonials and messages of support from people who have been touched in some way by the Give It Forward Today project, a movement that Southmayd created this spring to promote kindness across the world.

The premise of the project, known as G.I.F.T., is that if people do two good deeds and encourage others to do the same, the resulting ripple effect will produce a "wave of human kindness" that will gradually change the world.

The G.I.F.T. project is modeled after the "Pay It Forward" movement, which grew out of a novel of that title by Catherine Ryan Hyde and a subsequent Hollywood movie.

Like so many, Southmayd was inspired by the book and movie but, wanting to do something original, set out to begin a mini-movement of his own.

An A-student who plays several sports and the piano, Southmayd is the type of kid who sounds dead serious when he says he wants to be the president of the United States, so it was perhaps no surprise that he tackled the task with such purpose.

After more than a month of preparation, Southmayd launched the G.I.F.T. Web site in March with the help of his father, Mr. Southmayd, a managing partner at a Boston consulting firm, and some volunteer Web designers. The site, "www.giveitforwardtoday.org", has logged some 10,000 hits since then.

Among other things, the site contains several motivational passages written by Southmayd and his dad, a personal note from Catherine Ryan Hyde herself, and a list of about 30 "G.I.F.T. ideas," which range from neighborly favors (walking someone's dog) to monumental acts of generosity (paying someone's mortgage for a month).

But the "heart and soul of the project," as Southmayd puts it, are the personal messages posted on the site from people all over the world.

Many describe the positive effects of the G.I.F.T. project, and the Southmayds hope these stories will inspire others to good deeds.

"The whole point of the Web site is to inspire people to make a difference," Alex explains. "If one in 100 people get inspired, that's all that matters."

The Southmayds have always made a habit of committing random acts of kindness. Whether it is leaving large tips at restaurants or stopping for stranded motorists, they have been practicing for years what they now preach. But while most people would be content to do an occasional good deed, the Southmayds have adopted what might be described as an entrepreneurial approach to altruism.

Now less than a year old, the G.I.F.T. project already resembles something akin to a small business. The Southmayds had a batch of yellow-and-white G.I.F.T. pens made up, and they created wallet-sized "G.I.F.T . cards" on their Web site for visitors to print and hand out. Ultimately, they would like to collect some of the better messages they've received in a book that would benefit the Pay It Forward Foundation.

Unlike real business owners, of course, the Southmayds measure their success by the number of people they affect, not the money they take in. As Alex puts it, "The only benefit is knowing you've made someone's life a little brighter."

They don't solicit donations, preferring to leave it up to individuals to find ways of their own, financial or otherwise, of helping people. "So many nonprofits have to do with raising money," says Mr. Southmayd. "This has to do with human capital."

Yet, in spite of the G.I.F.T. project's modest premise, the Southmayds have lofty goals. They hope to eventually draw one million people to their Web site, and they are aiming at nothing short of an overhaul of what Alex calls our "culture of 'get.'"

"Get a better job, get a better house - people have transformed their vocabulary from 'give' to 'get,'" he says. "People ask, 'What'd you get for Christmas.' Well, how about, 'What'd you give for Christmas?'"

While these ingrained "get" attitudes may prove difficult to overcome, they may also be one of the factors working in favor of the G.I.F.T. project.

Judging from the typical reaction the Southmayds receive when they do a good deed and hand out a G.I.F.T. card, the low expectations most people have for their fellow man these days only serve to heighten the effect.

"People look a little stunned," Southmayd says. "They think it's so great."