Kindness (aka Love for Community Part 2: The Nehemiah Cionelo story)

Kindness.

Have you noticed it around us these last months, often in bigger ways and larger doses than normal?

Think back to March/April when this was all starting. The acts of kindness that sprouted up like beautiful flowers that had been below the surface just waiting to break ground were right in our neighborhoods.

What random acts of kindness do you remember noticing in your neighborhood, in your life? 

Call those to mind right now. I promise, it will be good for you.

One day, at our mailbox, 4 ladybug rocks showed up. I still don’t know the gifter and maybe that was the idea of the surprise. Did they know we had 4 children? Did they think about us specifically or was it a spontaneous act of kindness?

I looked down the street to see a young lady who had decorated her family’s trashcans to let the workers know how much they are appreciated.

I noticed the makeshift signs and art on the trails I run, people going out of their way to share their love.

I paid attention to the neighbor’s sign “Silence is violence” among the other signs affirming human dignity for all persons.

Kindness is one of the mechanisms for us healing in this moment, turning from politicized battles over mask-wearing, the latest depressing updates on the economy, and doomsday predictions to instead seeing the ways that our neighbors are being changed for the better by the pandemic. And if we pay attention to those ways that others are being changed, kindness becomes the change within.

In this blogosphere space, I had thought about how to elevate kindness, especially in seeing its absence in the stories and media I see in the pandemic.

Well, a few weeks ago I share the story of Emelia Pino and her service out of the love of her community of Zia Pueblo. Looking back, it was kindness finding its way into this blog before 

I realized what had happened.

And now, I am gifted with another kindness story to tell.

Hi Coach Fleg!

I hope you and your family are healthy and well right now. 

I really would like to help out the community amidst what going on right now and I've been brainstorming how for a while. I understand food banks are under a lot of strain right now so I came up with the outlined fundraiser to help them out. Essentially, during a 12 hour period, I would try to run as many miles as I could. In turn, people would pledge to donate something like 25¢ for each of those miles. At the end of the day, the money raised would be able to go to some of Albuquerque's food banks.

This was how Nehemiah Cionelo (who goes by the name Nemo) pitched his idea to me in May, an idea to use his legs as a collegiate athlete for something much bigger than race awards. He had a name for the event, Footsteps for Families.

His motivation for this?

He shared that as a child in a big family where at times they barely got by, he could relate to what families like his must be dealing with in the pandemic.

“I wonder about if I were born 5 years later and were a teenager right now, what struggle I would be going through. Would I get any back to school supplies, for instance?” he commented.

Nemo with his siblings Moriah, Celeb, Gideon and Tabitha and Moriah's son Zyden

The kindness in this case actually didn’t completely surprise me. I have known this young man for close to a decade and he is one of those people who can achieve big things but never lose their humility and sense of belonging to a larger community.

Nemo’s kindness has been a part of my daily life for the last weeks, and I am thankful for the 13-mile "running meeting" where we came up with the school supplies drive idea, text conversations, email and phone communication. Each and every one of them was kindness being poured into my life, me as the student listening to Nemo, my teacher.

This Saturday I will proudly lace up the shoes to run some miles with him as we work to generate 1,000 miles over a 12 hour period, hoping to raise $10,000 for local families in need.

And I always believe that kindness is something to be shared and spread, so here is your chance to be involved in Footsteps for Families this Saturday, July 18^th! (See below)

Notice kindness. 

     Generate kindness. 

             Spread it freely, my brothers and sisters.

Footsteps for Families

Sat, July 18th 

12 hours (7am - 7pm)

1,000 miles

$10,000 raised for youth and families in need

4 Ways you Can Support Footsteps for Families

1) Donate back to school supplies - you can drop them off at UNM's Johnson Field on the 18th, 7-9am. We will also collect school supplies the next 3 Thursdays at the NHI office, 3-5pm (see flyer below)

2) You can log the miles you and your family do on 7/18, helping us reach our goal of 1,000 miles  https://forms.gle/UNaViv51PhR4bhpm6

3) You can make a tax-deductible contribution through NHI here 

4) You can recruit others to make a donation. If you recruit 5 people to sponsor your effort (e.g. $1 per mile), you can earn an exclusive Footsteps for Families t-shirt. Contact Nehemiah  (nemocionelo@gmail.com) by July 15th.

​Facebook event page - click here.