The 32-year-old Duquesne University employee only recently revealed herself as the woman behind “Secret Agent L,” a giver of random acts of kindness that has been brightening the days of unsuspecting Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, residents since July 2009.

The project began, Miller says, with the birthday of one of her blog readers who had become a close friend. But instead of asking for the latest book on the best-seller list or an iTunes gift card, the friend suggested Miller perform an act of kindness in her name.

So with a single, lavender hydrangea bloom tucked under the windshield wipers of a random vehicle, Secret Agent L was born.

Miller used her friend’s birthday idea to launch a new blog documenting subsequent secret missions, posting photos of the gifts — all inexpensive to fit within her administrative assistant salary — that have included $5 Starbucks gift cards, a roll of quarters at a laundromat and decorative cards emblazoned with uplifting quotes.

The gifts are all tagged with a business card printed in “secret agent-y” type, she laughs. Her tagline: “All-Around Swell Chick.”

The blog — with the help of Twitter — took off, and Miller now has about 80 “Affiliated Agents” across the United States and abroad who are implementing the idea in their cities.

Her favorite mission came on Valentine’s Day when she took blank notecards and wrote inspirational messages about how the holiday “isn’t just about romantic love.”

“I wanted people to know that today’s the day you can celebrate love for your own family, your own friends and your own life,” she says. “I left them all over the city, and I just thought it felt so good.”

She tries to do at least one mission a week, but notes “if I had the money, I would do it every single day,” calling the project “one of the greatest honors of my life.”

Miller says she decided to reveal her double life at a coming-out party last month to help advance her charitable efforts. The party was a fundraiser for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an organization “near and dear” to Miller, she told HLN’s “Prime News” on Wednesday. More than $1,500 was raised, she said.

“I think people are so hungry to not feel alone and not feel weird and that they don’t matter,” she says. “I think people really want to feel valued and noticed because there’s so much hurt out there and my project is an attempt to heal some of that.”

She hopes her anonymous gifts will help at least bring smiles to those going through a tough time — though she never sticks around to see who finds them.

“I think that’s part of the fun — it’s just sort of putting the gift there and leaving, and just knowing that somebody’s going to get it and it doesn’t matter who,” she says.

She often receives e-mails afterwards from gift recipients to her secret agent account.

“One of the sort of themes that I’ve noticed in these e-mails is that they all seem to find things on days when they’re having a really bad day,” she says.

Mission: Accomplished.

Credit:  By Sarah Aarthun, CNN

• It is said that 160,000 kids a day miss school because of bullying issues
• Bullying was a factor in 2/3 of the 37 school shootings reviewed by the U.S. Secret Service
• Research indicates that bullying occurs at approximately the same rate in kindergarten as in elementary school

The Children’s Kindness Network, a nonprofit 501(c)(3), has produced a new CD aimed at kids ages Pre-K to 3rd Grade, featuring 17 celebrity voices – and the 90-piece Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra (led by Conductor Timothy Russell) – in a story and musical performance promoting kindness and identifying kind behavior. Moozie’s Musical Adventures is available in stores or on the website (www.ckn-usa.org) for $9.99–digital downloads also available on this site.

Nothing can be more rewarding than helping others. There is something in the human spirit that lights up when we are able to do something kind for someone else.  Remember to smile while serving others!

The kind act ended two years of waiting on a national kidney waiting list

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The ultimate act of kindness occurred between neighbors. Two Kansas City women have lived next door to each other for 30 years. But Claudine Jackson and Jo Ann Walz really got to know each other after Walz donated her kidney last Thursday to Jackson.

The two had always been friendly, but have grown much closer over the past three years as Walz helped with car rides to dialysis treatments, doctor’s appointments and the grocery store.

The kind act ended two years of waiting on a national kidney waiting list.

Jackson moved onto Fuller Avenue in south Kansas City in 1977. Walz moved in next door about a year later in 1978.

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This is not necessarily what we had in mind when we recommend you help your neighbor out by performing an act of kindness.

• cut their lawn
• bring in their garbage cans after they have been emptied
• help them lay turf
• offer to haul away their excess yard waste if you are going to the dump anyways.
• offer to prune their trees
• offer to watch their home if they are going on vacation
• look after a pet or animal
• take them a meal or some pastry
• lend a hand on any projects

I know what you are thinking … this takes some sweat and possibly sacrificing time away from your own projects or family but many hands do make light work and when you need help it just might be your neighbor that steps up to reciprocate or return the favor.

More kindness ideas

Share a cab, help an elderly person with a task, adopt a co-worker to help their transition, pay for coffee, tip generously, loan your truck, help someone move, love unconditionally, praise your children, compliment at least one person everyday.

Remember to download a smile card and leave it with the recipient to encourage them to pay it forward. Turn up the heat by passing on some Sun today.

Download Kindness Cards

It is great to see Hollywood get behind the Pay it Forward campaign. The Kindness in Motion Team is always looking for ways to encourage others to do just that, Pay it Forward. Consider treating a friend to this Movie, you never know what seed it will plant or the good it will do.

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To the Kindness in Motion Team this image literally means we hold the Sun in our hands and if we choose we can pass on some Sun to another person each and everyday. Make today the day you pass on some Sun to an anonymous recipient.

Pay for someone’s coffee, toll fee or lunch in a fast food drive thru. Deliver some baking or cut someone’s lawn. Remember, YOUR ripple can start a WAVE ~

Start by downloading some smile cards and performing an anonymous act of kindness, after completing your kind act leave the card which will hopefully encourage the recipient to do same.

Pass on some SUN!!!!

Download Free Kindness Cards

ORLANDO, Fla. – Walt Disney World makes wishes come true for so many visitors every year however in this case it was not your typical wish. Disney staff worked its magic on a Massachusetts couple who accidentally threw away three platinum and diamond wedding rings.

While tidying up their villa as they prepared to leave the park late last week, Paul Campanale dumped a cardboard bowl, not knowing the container inside it held his wife Karen’s engagement, wedding and five-year-anniversary rings.

Park employees knew recovering the jewelry was all but impossible so informed the couple the chances were slim and unlikely they would see their jewelry again. So on Friday, the Campanales and their two children loaded onto a Magical Express bus and headed to the airport destined for home.

Back at the Wilderness Lodge resort, executive housekeeper Drew Weaver realized that trash from the Campanales’ villa had not yet reached the industrial-size compactor. He and seven other volunteers donned protective clothing, emptied a parking lot bin and waded through bag after bag of rubbish to find the rings. And they did.

Paul Campanale, 37, a chemist, received the good news on his cell phone and Weaver met the family to deliver the rings. Karen Campanale, 35, a teacher, said she was shocked by the find.

“That’s not the first time we’ve gone through trash — oh, no,” Weaver said. “We don’t always find things. Many times we come up empty. But we didn’t this time.”

Kindness in Motion Team

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