San Anselmo resident spreads positivity, kindness in her community and beyond
It doesn’t take much to be kind, from small acts like holding a door open for someone to bigger actions like volunteering at a food bank.
It’s a belief San Anselmo resident Wendi Gilbert holds close to her heart. Through her community organization, KindnessEvolution, she works to spread intentional kindness and prevent bullying through events, collaboration with other kindness organizations and on online. In her latest effort, for Good Deeds Day this past Sunday, she put out booths by the San Anselmo Town Hall for people to write their pledges for kindness — from “help my dad with dinner” to “buy coffee for the person behind me” to “invite someone to sit with me at school” — which were stapled to banners hung nearby.
Gilbert, a longtime project manager and producer who worked with First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom on her award-winning documentary “The Mask You Live In,” produced the KindnessCollective in 2018, which brought together leaders of nonprofit organizations and youths to explore how they might collaborate for greater good, and collaborated on Camp Kindness Day, which takes place on July 19.
Q What got you interested in kindness?
A Every Make a Difference Day, Parade magazine would shout out people who were doing great things. What I loved about it was that it was everyday people, whether doing something small like bringing a meal to a next-door neighbor who was sick to bigger projects like creating backpacks and sending them to underserved kids. What I love about it is that you can choose whatever you can take on. It’s the intentional piece. People can do random acts of kindness, but it’s the intentional ones that are gonna move the dial. If we intentionally go into the world to do kindness, we will find so many opportunities. You wake up in the morning, put both feet on the floor, and wonder, what opportunities will I have today to be kind?
Q How did you get into community events?
A Things like Make a Difference Day had always been on my radar, but I never thought of myself as like the queen of kindness. When my now-husband, Paul, and I moved from New York to San Francisco, we started a company called Heart at Work Productions. We both are in the business of advertising and production. We wanted to do corporate business and nonprofit business, but we wanted to come from a place of humanity and heart and all that matters, and it’s interesting that was part of our life in that way. When I came out to the West Coast, no one had heard of Make a Difference Day and I was like, how can this be? Three million people participated the year before. But my mission was let’s get people to know about it. The first project I did was when my daughter was in second grade at Brookside School in San Anselmo. I brought the Make a Difference Day project to them and every classroom came up with an idea how they could celebrate. Every single one was different and every single one touched so many people. I was hooked at that point. I said, what’s possible if all of us come together?
Q What have you learned from all this?
A There’s so much kindness going on that we don’t know about it. My intention was to share how much kindness is going on. I say it is not fair for people in the United States to know all these horrible headlines and not know of the kindness and goodness that is going on.
Q What’s a memorable act of kindness that’s happened to you?
A The first Make a Difference Day, I found myself, the day before, running around all day, dropping flyers off, picking up ribbons, arranging all the supplies for the first ribbon of kindness activity. And when I got home, I was exhausted and what really struck me was how lonely it was to do it all alone. My husband and I then went hiking and landed up at the Sorich area, specifically the Jewish cemetery, in San Anselmo. Sticking out from under a rock was an anonymous note that said, “You. Yes, you. The world needs everything you have to give. Thank you.” The timing couldn’t have been better.
Q What do you want people to take away from this?
A The world is so kind. Please remember to add what you can give to this precious world, and that it makes a difference.