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BJCC staffers launch kindness campaign

Tuesday, July 28, 2020

ALVA, Okla. – There is a movement underway in Alva, and the plan began in prison. 

Like so many others, Karmen Andrews has grown weary of all the negativity. So, this correctional case manager came up with a wonderful idea. 

Karmen has been the recipient of kindness. Shortly after beginning her career at Bill Johnson Correctional Center, her dad, Stanley, passed away from Alzheimer’s Disease. 

“It was really comforting to now my co-workers really cared about me,” Andrews said. 

And so, Andrews launched a Facebook page – Alva’s Random Acts of Kindness. 

“When you go out of your way to do something for somebody, they know that they’re important and somebody cares for them,” Andrews said. 

Colleague and friend, Heather O’Neil began sharing the post.    

“It’s nice to see kindness coming across your Facebook page,” O’Neil said. “You can bring goodness and happiness to other people.”  

To her surprise, Heather was among the first to receive an act of kindness, when 9 year old Baylee gave her a Tiger Lily.  

“You could see the joy it brought her when she gave me something I really liked,” O’Neil added. 

That sweet gesture was the beginning of a tsunami of kindness – someone picking up the tab at a Drive-Thru, a cold bottle of water for a thirty postal worker, a GoFundMe account for a young man struck by a car while riding his bike to work.  

More than 200 people have already joined this kindness crusade in Alva.  

It’s just kind of cool to be kind to somebody,” Andrews said.  

It’s simple, really. Kindness changes everything.  


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