Compassion-focused initiative launches in Peters Township

Say you’re going grocery shopping, and you have the type of encounter that Jennifer Handke likes to discuss.
“I can still picture the man’s face, an older man,” the Peters Township resident said. “He was walking in and I was walking out, and I was in a hurry, because I’m always in a hurry.”
See if you’d do something along the lines of what happened next:
“Now normally, people just keep walking. No one ever pays attention. But we looked at each other. We both said, ‘Good morning,’ and it immediately brought smiles to our faces.”
If you prefer smiling faces to the alternative, welcome to the notion propelling PT 4 Kindness, which Handke and other positive Peters people envision as a movement to help us all feel a bit better.
A meeting is scheduled for 7 to 8 p.m. Jan. 15 at Peters Township Public Library to help launch the initiative as part of the township’s longstanding Character Counts program.
“I’m hoping that we can come out of that meeting with a team, a core group of people who are committed and say, ‘Yes, I’m in,'” Handke said.
The impetus for PT 4 Kindness started with the township’s hosting of Rachel’s Challenge, an international program that spreads the message of Rachel Joy Scott, the first victim of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado.
At the core is an entry in her journal: “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go.”
Handke was among the nearly 1,000 people attending the Sept. 25 presentation at the Bible Chapel.
“As I sat there and I heard Darrell Scott, Rachel’s father, talk about his daughter, one of the things that stuck with me was that he said Rachel was for things. She wasn’t against things,” Handke explained. “I thought, if we could be a community of people who are for things instead of against things, what a difference that would make.”
Two PT 4 Kindness kickoff sessions took place in early December.
“Some really great ideas were shared, and those ideas and those questions that were raised and all of the input that came through those two sessions are what’s going to fuel the first meeting of PT 4 Kindness,” Handke said.
One idea is to set up an online guide for opportunities to share acts of kindness.
“That came through loud and clear in our kickoff sessions,” Handke asserted. “We need a place where people can go to find out: Where can I volunteer? What options are out there for me and my family? What can I do as a business to make a difference?”
The answer, though, may be as simple as something along the lines of her smile-generating supermarket experience.
“As I left that brief encounter, I thought, gosh. Why can’t that be the norm? Instead of thinking – surprise! – someone showed some kindness today, what if that were the norm? And the person who doesn’t make eye contact, the person who doesn’t hold the door, becomes the exception.”
For more information, visit pt4kindness.com and www.facebook.com/PT4Kindness.