Meet a ‘Kind’ St. Cloud Couple on World Kindness Day

ST. CLOUD - Friday is World Kindness Day. Tom and Bonnie Stachowski are both volunteers with the RSVP program and are two people that go out of their way to serve and share kindness with others.

Tom says being kind is just something they've always done and just think of it as being a part of who they are.

Mostly it's something that's inside of us.  We make conscious efforts to do something about sharing and helping others as often as we can.

Tom says they both grew up on farms north of Foley and have always had strong ties to the community and family.

Some of the ways they like to share their time are by making prayer quilts, sewing memory bears, and simply baking caramel rolls.

Bonnie says especially in this difficult year of 2020 with COVID-19, the election, and protests it's more important than ever to spread kindness.

I think it's a challenge and I think that both Tom and I are up to that.  I think we see it as an opportunity to help and be a good listener.  People really want to talk now and they need to share and just know they're not alone.

Bonnie says being a kind person is more about who you are and what you believe.

I really believe that kindness is free, you can give it away, it doesn't matter what you own, you can give it away at any time.  You can open a door for someone, you can give a kind word when they are needing that, so it's just something that we can share.  We're all in it together.

Tom says their efforts to be kind every day have had an impact on them too. He says it has made them closer to each other and has helped to give them a different view of the world around them.