Late last month someone did one of the coolest random acts of kindness I have ever heard about. Big Dipper is the most popular ice cream destination in Missoula. Although not my personal favorite, Big Dipper is a Missoula original and as far as this town is concerned, Ben & Jerry’s doesn’t hold a candle to it. During the last Sunday of August, someone walked up to the stand, handed one of the workers a $100 bill, and instructed that worker to use the money on free ice cream for the customers standing in line. I loved it!

Even though the grammar might be a little off, you get the idea.

No, I unfortunately was not at Big Dipper when the random act of kindness occurred but just thinking about the whole scene made me smile. I would have liked to see the faces on people as they waited in the long line (the line at Big Dipper always stretches a long distance) in the hot sun the moment they were notified that their ice cream on that particular day would be free, courtesy of a random stranger. You hear all the time about people buying coffee, beer, and dinner for complete strangers but rarely do you hear about people buying ice cream.

If I ever spend triple digits to treat random people to something it is so going to be ice cream. I just love the idea and I love the feeling that I know people would get when they learned that their ice cream for that day was on someone else. This particular random act of kindness was new and unique to me so it made me think about other possible random acts of kindness that people could do with $100 that deviates from the norm but would make the day of many. My only criteria when creating the below list was that the $100 would have to stretch long enough to serve at least 10 people:

– Free sandwiches at Subway during the lunch hour rush
– Free admission to Splash Montana
– Free haircuts at Great Clips
– Free “buy all you can for $5” at Taco Bell
– Free carousel rides Saturday morning!
– Free hot dogs for the first 30 people who walk by the vendor stand

How cool would it be if an all-start good Samaritan went crazy and did all six of these things on a random Saturday? Wait…I mean how cool would it be if he/she did all seven of these things? Cause of course ice cream at Big Dipper would have to be included as well.

On behalf of Missoula, thanks to the person who treated the community to ice cream. What a cool and fresh idea to do something so random and nice. Sooner than later I hope to do the same thing. Don’t Blink.