After visiting Newtown, Conn., and reporting on the rampage that happened there, NBC’s Ann Curry vowed to perform an act of kindness for each of the 26 victims. She invited others to join her, and 26 Acts of Kindness is spreading through the country.

Acts of Kindness is a form of gift-giving, if you will, whether it is money or time or just through a simple act.

On the NBC website, people are posting pictures of their 26 acts. Some are from the doer and some are from the receiver of the kindness. People have taken school supplies to needy children, given hand warmers to police officers out in the cold directing traffic; let someone go ahead in line.

More than a million people have visited the website. With her simple statement, Ann Curry has started a movement.

I am no Ann Curry, but I too, invite you to join me in performing 26 Acts of Kindness. Do it in memory of those who died that day in Newtown. Do it as a follower of Christ’s example and in honor of the gift he gave us with his life.

Not the most imaginative person in the world, I started simply. My boys and I made gift bags for a nursing home. We bought candy and nuts and little items and put them in little bags we had also purchased. I’m not really sure how it happened, but when we finished and we counted them up, there were 26.

The gift bags came in packages of 12; so what we should have had was 24. Maybe the machine stuffing the packages in a factory somewhere wasn’t working properly. Maybe I bought three packages and misplaced a few. Either way, there were 26 Santa Claus bags lying on my dining room table last week.

But after discussing it, Ronnie, Scotty and I decided that even though we had ended up with 26 gift bags, we would count that as only one act of kindness. So we have 25 more to go.

Join us, and let me know about your 26 acts. Whether you did something for someone or someone did something for you. Think of all the bad news you read about or watch on television every day. Think of how you felt when you heard about the shootings in Newtown. Then think about how you feel when somebody does something kind for you.

Let’s join together and knock the bad news off the front page of every newspaper in the country.

Contact Alline Kent at 396-2467 or allinekent@cox.net.