Small surprises spread Christmas cheer

CALEDONIA, Mich. (WOOD) - Stephanie Pearson gathered gift cards taped to candy canes Wednesday and set out to give them away to complete strangers.

"My family and I are going out and all the days leading up to Christmas," she said. "We're trying to perform a random act of kindness."

In 2011, Pearson had an idea and started a Facebook page encouraging others to "RACK the World" -- or do random acts of Christmas kindness.

Wednesday, she and her family taped gift cards and candy canes to gas pumps at a local station and left before anyone saw them.

But 24 Hour News 8 watched as people discovered they had been RACKed.

"That's awesome! Geesh, Merry Christmas to me!" said one driver.

"This comes in handy at a time like this because I bought a house yesterday and now I see this today," said driver Scott Richardson. "Somebody's looking out for me, I guess, and I appreciate whoever did this."

Pearson said she's trying to spread the spirit of generosity.

"Try to teach the kids that it's not all about them and just get them out in the community, and try to instill the gift of giving in their hearts because it's easy to just take, take, take during the season. Hopefully it's something that will last," she said.

Pearson's daughter Alexis left nail polish in her friends' lockers at school.

"I put them in their lockers and then they saw them. I also put them in my locker so they wouldn't know who it was," she explained.

Though big donations often catch people's attention -- like an anonymous $10,000 donation to pay off 43 Walmart layaways in Hastings -- Pearson said there are lots of small ways that anyone can give this holiday season.

"We're doing small things to big things," Pearson said. "We've made play-doh and put it on people's doorsteps, we've gone to Meijer and put quarters on the little machines."

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Online:

RACK the World Facebook page