We often see the reminder to “Be Kind” on our social feeds and on bumper stickers, but what if enough of us banded together and accepted the challenge to turn their city into a kind one? How many more lives could be impacted by exponential kindness?
Meet Jacqueline Caicedo, a Code Compliance Officer for the City of Miami Beach, who used her position to show kindness to another community member. Caicedo received a call regarding a lawn that was severely overgrown. To address this, Caicedo called the resident. “After speaking with the resident and hearing his backstory, I felt it was in my heart to not simply give him a violation, but rather help him bring his home to compliance,” Caicedo said.
The resident was elderly and had not cut his lawn in four years after the loss of a loved one and due to ailments that did not allow him to care for the lawn himself or pay for the service to be done. Caicedo knew she needed to help. She decided to take it upon herself to apply for the City’s Homeowner Rehabilitation Program on the residents’ behalf. Due to the length of time approvals can take on this, Caicedo decided the next step was to reach out to her team to see if they would join her to help maintain the man’s lawn. Over eleven employees joined Caicedo, on their day off, and began mowing the yard, pulling weeds, and fixing things to bring the home into compliance.
Caicedo and her team decided to act in kindness to help their fellow community member. Because of this kind act, Caicedo was recently honored for her work to embody the City’s commitment to spreading kindness throughout Miami Beach, with the City’s first City of Kindness Award!
This award was created to recognize acts of kindness from community members who have gone above and beyond for those around them. Each meeting, a resident is honored for performing an act of kindness and for embodying the City’s commitment to spreading kindness throughout Miami Beach.
It is a beautiful and contagious thing to be kind. It’s even more beautiful when a city makes it a practice to incorporate kindness into their daily activities and business. We are proud and encouraged by the good works the City of Miami Beach is doing and know their impact will continue spreading kindness near and far!
How are you making your city kind?
