Kindness Day Bath on Aug. 20 will include flower stations, as seen above at a previous Kindness Day station downtown. Contributed / Jennifer McDorr
Free cruises by Maine Maritime Museum and free trolley rides are new for Kindness Day Bath, continuing the mission started nine years ago to celebrate good deeds and spread warmth and joy throughout the community.
Since 2013, the city of Bath has come together to celebrate a day of small acts of kindness, to be held this year on Saturday, Aug. 20.
“Community members and businesses join together to perform acts of kindness, bring people together and make them smile,” said Jennifer McDorr, the event’s lead organizer.
Heather Duggan of the Midcoast Life Church hands out a homemade whoopie pie during the Kindness Day Bath event in 2018. Contributed / Jennifer McDorr
“It’s grown each year and become a beloved tradition in Bath,” said McDorr, who’s been assisting with the event since she moved to Maine in 2017.
“I really love the atmosphere in downtown Bath on that day of joy and kindness,” she said.
This year, the City Council will have 100 vouchers for trolley rides, and two free, 30-minute mini-mariner cruises sponsored by Maine Maritime Museum will depart from the city dock.
Amanda Pleau, the museum’s marketing and communications manager, was eager to get it involved when she learned about Kindness Day.
Pleau said because the Maritime Museum is not in downtown Bath, it sometimes feels a bit removed, “but we don’t want to be removed from the hearts and minds of the community.”
“We wanted to be a good steward and support the community,” she said.
The museum will also have someone dressed in a lobster costume giving out hugs and a kindness gumball machine at the museum “to extend the reach of Kindness Day.”
Because the museum tends to get a couple hundred visitors on a weekend, Pleau said she hopes to add a Kindness Day feature inside the museum as well.
The Patten Free Library will have a table outside the library bookstore where they will distribute kindness cards, stickers and grab-and-go craft kits. There will also be an area for people to chalk the stairs leading to the library.
The Bath Area Food Bank will offer bagels and cream cheese, and Kindness Day Bath is also hosting a sidewalk chalk contest with chalk donated by Dike Newel Camp.
McDorr said there will be a “make a friend station,” where people can chat with each other and get to know their fellow Bath residents.
Several residents will have their own stations to hand out flowers, offer free face painting and give out crafts from local families.
“I love that the community has continuously invited the day back,” said Bryanna Ringrose, who started Kindness Day when she was a junior in high school nine years ago.
“Being a kind person is one of the things I try to value the most. The more kindness you put out in the world, the more it comes back,” Ringrose said.
“I look forward the most to the spontaneous things people come up with on the day,” she said.
“I would love to see these sorts of events pop up in other areas.”
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