Hi!

How are you going?

The end of the year/ Christmas season can bring a whole mixed bag of emotions- exhaustion, excitement, sadness, hope and the joy of unexpected kindness.

From our family to yours- we wish you all the very best bits and virtual hugs for the not-so-good bits.

Recently, we enjoyed running these 2 events…

For Mental Health Week…

we played Feel Good Bingo, sharing what lifts us mentally to create our bingo cards.

We heard all about the fantastic support services at Townsville Medicare Mental Health Centre from Que.

They provide a free, walk in service with extended opening hours, 365 days a year! (with no medicare card needed)

Then we made uplifting laminated Speech Bubbles that we installed at Medicare Mental Health Centre waiting room, to offer some support to waiting guests.

They were very well received, and we hope they help.

Attendees really drew on personal experience to create their nuggets of wisdom and support.

For Kindness Week

we put together Random Acts of Kindness cards with little gifts and distributed them throughout the community, along with Freddo Frogs, to over 100 recipients at Kmart Aitkenvale, Centrelink, The Townsville Hospital, the Strand and CBD (including Strand police) and across local neighbourhoods far and wide.

We received a lovely message from a recipient who is going through very tough times ‘it was just what she needed’.

We were very excited to have a whole team of us on the job this year, creating these and ’Kindness Bombing’ our community.

It felt a bit like Santa’s workshop.

Speaking of Santa’s workshop,

on December 12 from 10.30-12 we are going to be stuffing Santa Sacks with gifts and treats for kids who won’t have much this Christmas at our Community Christmas Kindness Event at our Kind Café Missy Moos Coffee in the air-conditioned Centacare NQ meeting room (thanks team!).

We’d love you to join us.

We’ll be having festive games and there’s a prize for most festive dress up.

We’re charging $30 for this one, which gives you a drink and snacks from Missy Moos Coffee (worth $10) and the remaining $20 will be used to purchase gifts for the kids.

You can purchase a ticket or make a donation here… https://events.humanitix.com/community-christmas-kindness 

There is also a basket at Missy Moos for donations.

If you have any spare pillowcases or tinsel, we’d love them to make our Santa Sacks.

We were originally going to run our…

December event at Wounded Heroes but encountered some logistical problems which means it won’t be happening just yet.

Meanwhile, have you checked out their new centre in Hyde Park?

What a great place to shop- with an op shop and café in one place, and proceeds used to support our veterans in crisis.

Great for a fun day out with a friend.

After a year of generously sponsoring The Kindness Catalyst…

our lovely sponsor Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property has moved her kindness elsewhere- you can still catch her out and about in the community being kind.

We would like to extend our sincere thanks to her for her sponsorship which has helped us keep our costs low, enabling more people to join in our Community Kindness Events.

If you or someone you know would like to sponsor The Kindness Catalyst, please let us know.

Together we can make a big difference to many and create ripples of kindness that lift us all (plus lots of promotion and joy for our sponsor)

This Christmas, don’t forget that…

you can also Shop Kind by purchasing a Kindness Gift Box.

These gift boxes are carefully curated and contain specially designed original art/ items that give you a Hug (our Pick me up Pack) or provide hours of Kindness Activities (our Kindness Activity Pack for 2) $10 from each box is used to fund our kindness Events.

We offer free delivery in the Townsville area or $15 postage. You can purchase them here… https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/shop/

This year it has been pure joy (ok, maybe a little stress)…

to continue to spread kindness.

We started the Townsville Foodshare Directory– where people can donate food (long life, event surplus, fresh produce) to organisations and food pantries.

You can find it on our website https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/townsville-food-share-directory

Organisations wishing to join can register on the website.

We released our annual stats after Kindness Week:

So far we have run 37 events with 922 participants and impacted 4293 people.

That’s actually a very conservative impact count, because the science says that everyone who hears about kindness gets a boost to all 4 of their happy hormones and they’re more likely to pay it forward.

My last Facebook post about Nicki’s Community Pantry and Pay it Forward Board at Missy Moos Coffee has already received over 1000 views!

Who knows where the ripple ends?!

Rent is sky high at the moment…

and lots of people are doing it tough.

I have seen lots of food requests on the Everything Townsville Facebook page.

If you or someone you know needs emergency food, accommodation, or funds, you can view the Townsville Community Information Centre Emergency Programs Publication here https://www.cictownsville.com.au/services-and-publications/

Just a reminder that…

the awesome Centacare NQ team will be running their School Savvy event again next year.

They will have free school supplies and uniforms available the week before school goes back, and they are taking donations now.

More info can be found here… https://www.centacarenq.org.au/schoolsavvy/

There is so much kindness to be found in the community at Christmas time.

If you look on Facebook, you will be pleasantly surprised how many people are looking for a way to help this Christmas. It makes my heart happy.

I hope you experience the joy of both giving and receiving kindness this Christmas xxx

Blessings x

Fiona and Steve

P.S. Nicki has just extended the Community Pantry at Missy Moos Coffee because it was overflowing! How good is that? Thanks so much Nicki for being a Kind Café xx

Hello! 😊

How are you?

Up? Down? Or a see-saw of both?

Don’t forget to look after your Mental Health.

October 4-12 is Queensland Mental Health Week.

10.30-12 Friday the 10^th at Missy Moos Coffee we’re holding a Mental Health Mood Booster.

You’re invited to join us for

• Fun Feel Good Bingo- what lifts your mood? Create a bingo sheet from your ideas then swap it with a neighbour and play for them. Everybody wins a prize.
• Create a Wall of Encouragement- sitting in waiting rooms can be scary- we invite you to brighten the waiting room at the Townsville Medicare Mental Health Clinic- write some encouraging words on a speech bubble, cut it out and laminate it and we’ll decorate the waiting room.
• Learn about Medicare Mental Health Centre’s awesome accessible services from our guest speaker.

This is a free event hosted by our kind café Missy Moos Coffee (410 Ross River Rd Cranbrook) and sponsored by Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property.

You can find more info here….

https://www.facebook.com/share/1AFGDswCta/

https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/events/

We’d love to see you there!

FUN FACT:

Being kind can reduce your cortisol levels by 23%

That’s right, being kind reduces your stress- what a bonus!

October 12-18 is National Carer’s Week.

Being a carer is tough work.

If you are a carer- thank you for what you do.

If you’re not, you may get an opportunity to thank a carer.

Our last activity was Thank you Thursday for Paramedics

We had lots of fun and created a food  hamper for their tea room, which we dropped off at the North Shore Ambulance Station.

It was much appreciated. (check out the attached pics)

Stay tuned for November, coz Kindness Week is coming!

We can’t wait to do random acts of kindness.

Let us know if you have any fun ideas…

Take care 

Fiona and Steve

Hello! 😊

I hope this Kindness News

finds you doing well. If not, here’s is hug for you x

We have Thank You Thursday event on this week…

that I’d like to tell you about (more on that later)- it’s a bit late I know, but we’ve had several health issues happening this month, so I’m a bit behind.

Sometimes looking after yourself is the kindest thing you can do. But when you’re feeling a little better, being kind to others can really lift your spirits too. And the good news is, that just hearing about kindness can also make you feel better, both physically and emotionally.

I found an article describing how watching Kindness Media (e.g. short, uplifting films) in stressful health settings like hospitals can reduce stress in both patients and staff and increase their feelings of wellbeing and connection, which in turn significantly improves both their physical and mental health outcomes. It even suggested that kindness media could be used as a tool in health care settings. (I’ve included the article title and a quote at the end of this email)

Did you know that there is a newspaper called ‘The Happy Newspaper’ with nothing but happy news- how awesome is that?!

So, what kindness has been happening here?

We donated some Pick me Up Packs to…

North Townsville Community Hub to share within their community (thank you to those Pay it Forward donors). These are like hugs in a box with every item designed to brighten someone’s day. I hope they lift someone’s spirits and remind them that they’re not alone.

We gratefully accepted some beautiful little Scrunchie Packs…

to add to the kits and hand out during kindness activities. These gorgeous bundles include a beautifully packaged, handmade scrunchie, lollies and a little uplifting sticker- all put together by a beautiful mother-daughter team who make these to hand out locally as Random Acts of Kindness. Doesn’t that make your heart happy?!

Last month we enjoyed a Food Share Day…

at Missy Moos Coffee. We brought along some long-life food to donate to ADRA Community Pantry, which supports large local crowds every Friday. And we played some ‘food games’ and had a laugh. Then I showed everyone our new Townsville Food Share Directory.

Since starting The Kindness Catalyst, I have been asked multiple times where people can donate

1. Leftover Event Food
2. Fresh Garden Produce
3. Long Life Food
4. Sanitary Products

So I’ve consulted with local services and created an online Townsville Food Share Directory…

on our webpage www.thekindnesscatalyst.com.au

Because we know community organisations are super-busy, we’ve tailored the listings to include details about what donations the organisation has the capacity to accept and the best way to deliver them.

Here is a list of current Donation Locations (by suburb)

1. The Women’s Centre
2. City Libraries Aitkenvale Community Pantry
3. The Salvation Army
4. Missy Moos Coffee Community Pantry
5. North Townsville Community Hub
6. Ronald McDonald House
7. Community Gro Garbutt
8. Northreach Baptist Church
9. Althea Projects Wee Care Residential
10. Community Gro Upper Ross
11. Althea Community Hub
12. City Libraries Riverway Community Pantry
13. City Libraries Flinders Street Community Pantry
14. ADRA Food Pantry

You can find the Townsville Food Share Directory page here…

https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/townsville-food-share-directory/

You can register your Food Share Organisation/ Community Pantry here…

https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/food-share-directory-registration/

And if you or someone you know needs assistance, they can find it here…

https://www.cictownsville.com.au/services-and-publications/

So what are we up to this week?

This Thursday is Thank You Thursday for Paramedics at Missy Moos Coffee.

Our beautiful local Paramedics work selflessly, with crazy long hours and really tough, traumatic conditions to look after us all. And we are very grateful.

To say Thank You our super-generous sponsor is shouting all paramedics a FREE COFFEE from 8 til 10 at Missy Moos Coffee!!!! How awesome is that?! Please spread the word…

Then from 10.30-12 we have a Community Kindness Event at Missy Moos Coffee. I have created some adult colouring in style Thank You cards for you to colour in/ write on to express your gratitude to our paramedics. And I invite you to bring along a long-life morning tea item (like Tim Tams) to donate to make a Tea Room Gift Hamper that I’ll deliver to the paramedics. (if you can’t make it on Thursday, you are welcome to drop in your donation beforehand to Missy Moos Coffee (open 8-1 weekdays at 410 Ross River Road Cranbrook)

Here’s the web event link… https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/events/

Or the Facebook link… https://www.facebook.com/share/15spJPaZLt/

This is a FREE event thanks to our generous sponsor Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property and Missy Moos Coffee.

Here’s some more local Random Acts of Kindness to brighten your day…

I know for a fact that one of you beautiful people has been the beneficiary of a Random Act of Kindness. J was recently getting their nails done and went to pay, only to find that a stranger had already paid for them. J is not a person who has much money or normally spends it on themselves and she was crying tears of happiness and shared the good news on their social media so we all got the joy of hearing about it too.

I recently saw on our neighbourhood social media page how a girl around 6 was dropping little Random Acts of Kindness letters off, including hand drawn pics and some of her special collector tokens. How beautiful.

I hope you have a lovely day x

Fiona

P.S. Here’s that article:

Kindness as a Stress Reduction–Health Promotion Intervention: A Review of the Psychobiology of Caring

David A Fryburg ^1,✉

Epidemiologic and clinical observations reveal the potential impact of kindness and connection on health and longevity, which are mechanistically underpinned by specific biomarkers suggesting that they effect changes opposite to those of stress. Simply seeing kindness and caring activates the neuropsychology of kindness, elevating the viewer and promoting generosity, interpersonal connection, and inclusion.

Hiya 😊

I thought I would drop you a…

line as we head into the long weekend.

 How are you travelling?

I hope you are keeping warm this winter.

Here’s the latest Kindness News…

Last month we had a fantastic turnout for…

our Men’s Health Week event, we had to hunt for more chairs multiple times!

But more importantly, we got to show guys that they are valued.

We kicked off the morning with some charades to warm us up and get us laughing, then Steve gave a very enthusiastic 3D Printer demo and talk, we created Pocket Hugs to give away, and we (not me!) won Lucky Door Prizes donated by Nicki from our Kind Café Missy Moos Coffee and a very generous 3x $50 vouchers donated by our sponsor Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property.

And then we handed out goody bags to the guys- which also included a voucher donated by Kurt from Baskin Robbins.

We really enjoyed hanging out, and a number of us stayed back and chatted long after the event officially ended.

Behind the scenes we have been…

beavering away creating Foodshare.

Since starting The Kindness Catalyst, I have been asked several times where people can donate food, like long life food, but also homegrown produce and surplus event food.

You can find a great list of Emergency Food and Accommodation Services on the Townsville Community Information Centre website here…

https://www.cictownsville.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/Emergency-programs-05_03_25.pdf or here https://www.cictownsville.com.au/services-and-publications/

But I haven’t seen a list of services willing to accept community donations.

So I have decided to create a Foodshare Directory on our website, outlining who accepts food donations, what donations they can use and the most useful process to donate.

We have a lot of information so far and can’t wait to put it together and share it with you.

If you know of an organisation that gives out food and would like to be included, they can complete the online registration form here… https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/food-share/

We will have the directory of ‘Donation Locations’ ready to lunch at our Foodshare event next 10.30-12 Thursday July 10 at our Kind Café Missy Moos Coffee. (410 Ross River Rd, Cranbrook).

We’ll launch the Foodshare page, hear from community services providers, have some fun ‘food games’, and the opportunity to share homegrown produce or seedlings and donate long life food to ADRA Community Pantry Townsville.

As usual, this is a free event thanks to the beautiful Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property.

It’s also wheelchair accessible and child friendly.

Food and drink will be available for purchase at the café.

Here’s the weblink… https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/events/

And the Facebook link… https://www.facebook.com/share/1XJMVpEmmb/

Speaking of our Kind Café….

Nicki started collecting donations early for the Food Pantry and the response has been awesome!

Community members and Centacare staff and service users have all been generously contributing.

We were so excited that we’ve decided to make it a permanent Community Food Pantry- we’ll also be launching this at our Foodshare event.

It will be operating as a ‘give what you can, take what you need’ Community Food Pantry.

Steve patiently put together a flat packed bookshelf to house the food.

It is a bit smaller than we expected (probably not surprising for just $20 from Kmart!)

If anyone is keen to gift us $20 for a second bookshelf, it would be much appreciated.

The Kindness Catalyst is very blessed by a beautiful supportive community…

we were recently gifted a huge box of stamps and stickers (I’m thinking Random Acts of Kindness cards) and a beautiful lady and her daughter have just offered to support our Kindness Kits (more on this later).

Beachtown Creative Artist Miss Mary has reached out to us to create Pay it Forward face painting while promoting our events!

You can check her out here… https://www.facebook.com/HELLOBCAM

Around town this month I’ve seen kind community…

coming together to buy a car for a cancer patient.

Recently a mother living in emergency accommodation reached out and asked if anyone could help brighten her daughter’s birthday by driving past Sherriff Park in their motor bike or nice car- the resulting convoy was impressive and brought a lump to my throat.

People even brought gifts!

Go Townsville!

There’s kindness happening all around us.

I hope it lifts your spirits 😊

Take care x

Fiona and Steve

Hi All 😊

Here’s a quick update about…

recent Kindness Happenings, both small and large.

(because an act of kindness doesn’t have to be big to make a big difference)

A large group of us had a fun…

morning painting Kindness Rocks on the patio at Missy Moos Coffee.

It was heartening to see people from all demographics- toddlers to seniors, male and female, mobile and less mobile. (we LOVE that Missy Moos Coffee is fully wheelchair accessible- with a wheelchair carpark, a ramp, push button electric doors and a wheelchair accessible bathroom).

We started with some whole-group Pictionary which warmed us up and got us laughing and mixing.

We wrote kind messages on Pocket Hug Cards to give to away.

Then we began rock painting- some awesome rocks were created and lots were given to Nicky to hand out at the café.

Did you know that Missy Moos Coffee is located in the Centacare building?

Many of Nicki’s customers come for counselling and could really do with a lift.

Around town I’ve seen people…

Paying it Forward (we have a Pay it Forward Board at Missy Moos), strangers paying the bill for my neighbour’s kids at the corner store when their card wouldn’t work, and offering free haircuts to palliative care patients.

I was privileged to be invited by…

the caring Diligent Supports team to their monthly social catchup- including the launch of the new Sailability boat- especially designed for access to the disabled.

(here’s the link https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100069650811169 )

The Diligent Support team also…

sold some of our Pick me up Packs for us- thanks guys- that helps funds our community events!

And we donated a Pick me up Pack for them to give to a client who is having a tough time.

This was one of the Kindness Kits Paid Forward at the Community Information Centre event earlier this year 😊

We’ve also sold a couple other Pick me Up packs around town, to people wanting to support their colleagues and friends that they’re noticed doing it tough.

We’re very privileged to read the beautiful notes of care and encouragement they ask us to include.

FYI we offer free delivery in the Townsville area, and we can also organise shipping.

Ok, what’s next?…

It’s Men’s Health Week and…

we’re celebrating this Thursday with an event for both men and women.

We have 3x $50 vouchers Men’s Lucky Door Prizes!!!- thanks to our super-generous sponsor Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property.

We’ll also have games, a 3D Printer demo and goody bags for the men (and women can take one home for a valued male too) (25 available).

This is a free event and food and drink will be available for purchase at our Kind Café Missy Moos Coffee.

There are limited places so please let us know if you would like to come.

Here is the web link  https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/events/

And the Facebook link  https://www.facebook.com/share/1FwKq256XG/

To make it easier to plan…

we are trying to have more regular event dates– mostly on the 2^nd Thursday of each month.

Our July event will be a Food Share event on July 10. We’re currently compiling a list of Townsville organisations that accept community food donations (long life/ catering surplus/ fresh produce). If that’s you, we’d love you to complete our ‘Food Share register’ which you can find by clicking here…

In August we will be having…

a Thank You Thursday for Paramedics on Thursday Aug 14 (and Donna will be donating 2 hours of free coffees for first responders- how amazing is that?!!!)

More event details to come…

Meanwhile, enjoy the blue skies and snuggling up with a warm cuppa on cold mornings.

“Would you like a cuppa?” is a highly underrated act of kindness on a cold morning, wouldn’t you agree?

Take care x

Fiona and Steve

Hi All 😊

I recently had lots of…

fun planning kindness events with our sponsor Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property.

She is excited to support our kindness activities and local community groups.

Evidently, we both enjoy creating ‘outside the square’ ideas!

More on that to come…

We’re just wrapping up National Volunteer Week…

and I’d like to give a big shout out to all the volunteers that make our world a better place.

It has been inspiring and interesting to see all the different ways that people volunteer.

Thank you for everything that you do.

I am a volunteer board member at…

North Townsville Community Hub (NOTCH), and I really enjoy making a difference and planning with the rest of the team.

One of the projects that NOTCH runs is their Social Isolation and Loneliness Project (SILS) which aims to connect people through community activities/ groups and create a sense of belonging.

Did you know that social connection helps not just your emotional health, but also your physical health?

You can contact NOTCH on 4751 6511 if you’d like to get connected.

We at The Kindness Catalyst are super-keen to…

connect people too.

At every event we aim to not only spread kindness, but to also actively foster connection and inclusion.

Whether you come alone or with a friend, we will do our best to ensure you have a good time and feel included.

In March we celebrated…

Harmony Day and Missy Moos First Birthday, with some fun games, getting to know each other and celebrating both our differences and similarities, indulging in some delish birthday cake from Nicki and some super-special puppy pats with much thanks to the beautiful Angel Paws team.

In April, we had…

a lot of fun connecting over Networking for Kindness at Sticks and Grinds Café.

The game questions we had to answer caused much laughter and we made valuable connections and raised some $ for NOTCH too.

More recently, our family has been away in…

SA visiting family, and Nicki from our Kind Café Missy Moos Coffee travelled to Melbourne with her daughter, but we’d still like to squeeze in a fun Kindness Rocks Painting morning this month (next Friday).

This is always a really relaxing morning and don’t worry if you’re not creative, we have lots of simple ideas to choose from and the Paint Pens work as easily as textas.

Come join us, have a chat, and paint a Kind Rock for a friend, to hide in a park, or leave for café customers (or all 3!).

All materials are provided- we normally charge $10 for this event, but since we have a sponsor, we don’t have to charge anyone- thanks Donna!

Here’s the link to the event:  https://www.facebook.com/share/1BW7QtrgPa/

It’s Men’s Health Week in…

early June (yeah, I know, when did June sneak up on us?!)

• We’d like to celebrate with our men/ create something special for them at our Kind Café Sticks and Grinds Café (both men and women are encouraged to attend)
• 3x $50 lucky door prizes (BCF, Bunnings, SupaCheap Auto) generously donated by Donna Glass from Helen Munro Property
  3D Printer Demo by Steve
• Games
• Goody Bags (guys can take one home for themselves, women can take one home for a valued male. (women- can you please bring a share bag of fun size chocs to contribute)

Everyone is welcome!

This is a FREE event sponsored by Donna Glass- Helen Munro Property

Here’s the link:   https://www.facebook.com/share/18drzWpSeH/

Remember you can Pay it Forward anytime at either of the Kind Cafes, and you are welcome to bring in a friend who needs to access the Pay it Forward board…

More events coming soon…

include Food Share (July) and Thank you Thursday for Paramedics (August).

We’re also working on a new Kindness Kit…

especially for men, the ‘Bear Hug Box’.

Stay tuned for details but feel free to offer suggestions. (thanks to those who have brainstormed with me already).

Don’t forget we have Pick me up Packs to give to a friend who needs a lift ($10 from each pack funds our kindness activities).

They’re $35 with free local delivery and we post them Australia wide.

We also have $25 Kindness Activity Packs for sale.

Here’s the link to our shop…  https://thekindnesscatalyst.com.au/shop/

Thanks to everyone who sends us…

pics and other inspiration to share on our social media.

Keep them coming!

And to those who like and share our posts- it helps us get the word out in a low-cost way- thank you!

And thanks for the Kindness Bombing ideas- this month we stuck post its on the back of cans in the supermarket, with some messages to brighten people’s days…

As Michelle Obama famously said…’we rise by lifting others’. We also lift our spirits by lifting others.

#dogoodfeelgood

Take care x

Fiona and Steve

P.S. Check out the pics we attached!

Season’s Greetings Everyone!

I love this time of year- everyone seems to make just a little bit (or a lot) more effort to be kind.

It makes my heart happy 😊

It’s been a big year, and …

we’re very proud and happy….The Kindness Catalyst started late last year and so far we’ve run 25 events, with 702 participants and we’ve impacted over 2887 people!

This impact is a conservative estimate, which doesn’t even consider how many people are hearing about/ being inspired by kindness via social media/ word of mouth/ media.

The science shows that people who give, receive and hear/ read about kindness ALL benefit from a significant boost to all four of their happy hormones and they’re more likely to pay it forward.

Last month was crazy busy…

but, hey, it was Kindness Week, so we went all out and we had a blast!

Firstly, we were generously invited…

back to Star 106.3 to have a long chat with Jack and Dannii to promote Kindness Week. They are huge supporters of what we do and it is always great to chat with them.

On World Kindness Day…

 my husband Steve and I dropped over 110 Kindness Bombs in Townsville

• 60 Random Act of Kindness Packs- envelopes containing Pocket Hugs (thanks Danya’s Design) plus either a scratch-it or some cappuccino packs (thanks to our sponsors Donna Glass- Helen Munro Property and The Kindness Fairy) – were snuck onto car windscreens all across town.
• Chocolates (x40- thanks sponsors), felt hearts (thanks St Margaret Mary’s Samaritan Angels) and hand painted coconuts (thanks Magnetic Island Coconuts) were handed out at bus stops and the entrance to Townsville University Hospital.

This was sooo much fun!!!

It was great to see the look on people’s faces when they realised that we didn’t want anything in return.

We did receive some beautiful hugs, some thanks via our socials (including a scratch it win!) and a personal call from a lady whose car was parked outside the courts- she is an elder court volunteer and she said it was really uplifting to find this on her windscreen after being in a negative court environment.

More media caught wind…

of what we were up to, and I was also invited to chat on ABC Radio Queensland and Triple T 103.9.

So great to have this community support- thanks guys!

We ran a Kindness Poetry Competition…

and received lots of beautiful, inspiring poems. Congratulations to our winners:

• Jess Schwartz (1^st)
• Ruth Guice (2^nd)
• Barbara McCarthy (3^rd)

You can read them on The Kindness Catalyst facebook page.

These lovely winners were all brave and read their poetry out loud to everyone at the Christmas Art Market and Kindness Catalyst Merch Launch– which was a huge hit with everyone there (a full house) and gave us all warm fuzzies.

(Thanks to our market vendors Danya’s Design, Happy Clay, Treadles and Trinkets, Maggie O Digital Art and Beachtown Creative Artist Mary-Clare Baker).

Thanks to everyone who entered the poetry comp.

The winners were rewarded with vouchers donated by our Kind Café Sticks and Grinds Café, plus either a treat bundle (community donation) or a Kindness Kit (donated by The Kindness Catalyst).

Speaking of Kindness Kits…

we are now selling Pick-me-up Packs (packed full of comfort- $33) and Kindness Activity Packs for 2 (10 kind activities to do with a friend- $27.50).

All profit goes to supporting community kindness events.

We’d love you to support us by buying a pack- available now for Christmas and all year round at www.thekindnesscatalyst.com.au

You can check out all their contents on our website.

We offer free Townsville delivery and can also arrange postage or Pay it Forward (we just did this for someone!)

If you’d like to win a Kindness Kit…

 jump onto the Smiles Chiropractic Townsville fb page (the non-cracking chiro).

Stacey is generously giving away a Pick-me-up Pack and a Kind Activity Pack- winners are drawn Mon Dec 23.

I have been asked what’s in store for The Kindness Catalyst in 2025?

I am currently taking community feedback/ ideas for next year.

Please let me know what you liked about last year and any ideas you may have for next year.

We will also be having a feedback/brainstorm…

session at our Kind Café Missy Moos Coffee in February with our first Thank You Thursday.

This Thank You Thursday we’ll be inviting participants to bring in a tea room treat (e.g. Tim Tams).

We’ll colour in Thank You cards and create a gift hamper for the hard-working Oncology Team at Townsville University Hospital. (we’re still finalising dates)

We’ll be kicking off the new year with…

a Family Kindness Day for both young and mature at Sticks and Grinds Café.

From 1-4 pm on Tuesday January 14, we’ll be inviting everyone to come down to the café for some FREE fun kind activities including Kind Rock Painting, Kindness Chalking and helping to create a Kindness Mural to be hung in the café.

We’re also hoping to have a face painter on site (not included in free activities).

You are invited to come and join us with or without kids. (kids need to be accompanied by an adult)

It will be a fun afternoon 😊

You might want to mark this one in your calendar.

As I write this, I keep…

thinking I should be doing something else.

And then I realise that I am doing exactly what I am supposed to be doing and I feel super-blessed.

This would not be possible without our Kind Cafes – Missy Moos Coffee and Sticks and Grinds Café (love your Pay it Forward boards!) and our very generous sponsors- Donna Glass – Helen Munro Property and The Kindness Fairy plus a recent very generous community contribution that we received from an anonymous donor (wow!).

And thanks to our community collaborators and our promoters.

Thank you sooo much!

You really are making a difference.

Thank you to my partner in kindness…

Steven Pilchowski and my family.

And thank you to all the encouragers out there- you know who you are.

A little bit of encouragement goes a long way (for all of us).

We wish you a blessed Christmas and a hopeful new year.

And know that we are sending an e-hug if you are struggling right now.

Take care xx

Fiona and Steve