Kindness to South Dakota

Within days of the Newtown tragedy in December 2012, gifts and donated items began arriving unannounced at the local post office and fire house. Many were intended for the families of the victims. The Bacon Family realized that from these many generous acts of kindness, they could extend kindness and offer hope to others by sending children’s items where they might truly help.

As the Bacon family received the toys, school supplies, books, backpacks, handmade furnishings, etc. – more than their family could ever use – they decided they would honor their child Charlotte, by reaching out to others. The family had a sincere wish to connect with One Spirit in Rapid City, South Dakota. They decided to designate (donate) many of their gifts in Charlotte’s name to this community that was desperately in need of items for their children.

Newtown Kindness Board Member and CIO for Save the Children, Ken Murdoch teamed up with Susan Vogelman from Trinity Episcopal Church to prepare the gifts for shipping.

Ken then reached out to one of his key technology partners, Aidmatrix to see how this could be coordinated. The Aidmatrix & Microsoft Government Services team immediately responded. Aidmatrix entered this “transportation need” into their system and their partner, the UPS Foundation immediately matched the request with donated transportation services and scheduled all the logistics free-of-charge. UPS picked up the shipment and transported it all the way (completely) to South Dakota.

This collaborative effort emulates the Newtown Kindness mission. It promotes kindness as a guiding principle of humanity.