This is Maya. Yesterday was her 12th birthday.

To celebrate, Maya decided that she was going to do 12 random acts of kindness in one day. She organized a race between 3 teams trying to do the acts as fast as they could! Sounds kind of like The Amazing Race, right? They called it #MayasAmazingRaceOfKindness.

This is the list Maya and her mom made up of the random acts of kindness they were going to do for the race.

I showed up to surprise Maya at her first stop. I met Maya and her team at Value Village to donate some books.

From there, we went to the Fire Department to drop off a food donation AND gave the Firemen some cookies! They were pretty happy about it.

The next task was to give away a TTC ticket to someone waiting at a bus stop. Across the street from the fire hall, we found our next unsuspecting citizen.

Our next stop was the grocery store. We gave a balloon to a little boy, we put wet wipes in the changing station in the washroom, we helped a woman with her groceries and returned her shopping cart. 4 in 1!

And at the park, we found a princess to give our bubbles to…

Then at the police station, Maya gave an officer on duty a Tim Horton’s gift card! For all that they do for our community, they definitely deserve a treat.

We then went to the mailbox and Maya slipped in a handwritten thank you card to the mail carrier.

The last act was a “free choice” that you had to come up with along the way. Maya made a care-bag that included a toothbrush, toothpaste, water bottle and a Tim Hortons gift card to give to a homeless person. Maya decided to hang on to it and keep it in the car for the next time she saw someone in need.

It’s worth noting that everything that Maya handed out had this note attached to it. #PayItForward

Maya did this to show that acts of kindness are things that you can do everyday. As you go about your ‘business as usual’ day, consider the little things that you can do to make someone’s day just a little bit better. You never know the ripple effect of your actions and how far it will go.

Happy birthday Maya! Thank you for sharing your day with me and so many others who were touched by #MayasAmazingRaceofKindness.

This post originally appeared at: http://www.callmehannah.ca/2015/08/09/for-her-12th-birthday-maya-did-something-amazing/ on August 9, 2015