Here’s a 13-year-old’s birthday party theme you don’t hear every day: Random Acts of Kindness. When was the last time you heard of a teenage girl who asks her birthday party guests to bring donations for women in a human trafficking shelter instead of birthday gifts? Not recently? That’s probably because it takes an exceptional young leader with a generous heart to come up with such a plan.
Our friend Autumn is, in fact, that exceptional young leader. With a little help from her friends, Autumn carried out her “Random Acts of Kindness” birthday plan with impressive success and, in doing so, made an inspiring impact on the women in our Oklahoma City shelter for victims of human trafficking.
“These girls and women go through so many horrible things that they shouldn’t have to go through . . . ”
Autumn has taken to heart the issue of human sex trafficking. She first heard about Beautiful Dream Society through her mom’s friend, who also happens to work for BDS. Upon learning about what women go through in human sex trafficking, Autumn found BDS’s program for these women inspirational.
BDS helps women recover from their traumatic experiences, Autumn explains, and “helps them with everything they need to get them back on their feet, so that they have a better chance of living a normal life. I can’t imagine what I would do if I were any one of them . . . I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“I just think BDS is super special,” Autumn told us. (We think you’re super special too, Autumn.)
That’s what led Autumn to use her birthday party as a way to impact her community. Her mom contacted her friends’ parents to tell them about the plan. The party focused on the opportunity to help women in need. Autumn asked her friends to bring at least one item from a list of various clothing and toiletry items. In the end, this group of girls aged 9-15 came through in a big way. They gathered several big bags of casual and work clothing, clothing for kids, mini soaps and shampoos, some hair care items, and shoes.
“I wanted my friends to think BEYOND themselves . . . ”
The rest of Autumn’s party revolved around blessing other people, too. Autumn had a couple more fun, meaningful activities in store for her guests.
After checking out the donations each girl had brought for the women in our OKC shelter, Autumn and her friends set about writing notes with encouraging messages of kindness – 85 notes, to be exact. Then they took their party to a local mall where they handed out the notes to shoppers, workers, and passers-by. They also randomly distributed Starbucks gift cards so people could enjoy a coffee courtesy of the girls.
A celebration was certainly in order after their Random Acts of Kindness trip. This was, after all, a birthday party too. The girls enjoyed pizza, cake and ice cream, games, and hanging out with each other before sleeping over. They woke up the next morning to an unexpected birthday activity – playing in the snow!
More Random Acts of Kindness to Come
Autumn’s leadership paid off not only in a great birthday party – and memories the girls can cherish for the rest of their lives – but also in large doses of inspiration. Her friends who attended the party enjoyed their Random Acts of Kindness day so much that they want to do more throughout the year. Imagine the positive ripple effect from
Autumn’s idea! A group of young teens are fired up to spend their free time actively seeking creative ways to bless other people. The result? A whole batch of young leaders making kindness a habit, then implementing that habit as they grow up.
Autumn had a unique idea and took the initiative to try it! Turns out when you offer people the opportunity to reach out to others with kindness, they are more willing to participate in than we might expect. Imagine the potential impact on the movement to end human trafficking if more people would simply try their idea! When one person does something in their corner of the world, then another, then another, then another . . . that’s how we develop momentum to tackle the global issue of human trafficking.
Autumn’s party stands as a shining example of using what you have, right where you are, no matter your life circumstance to help us at Beautiful Dream Society rewrite the future of human trafficking.