One day I needed to have a blood test done.  A young lady greeted me and I asked her how her day was going.  She replied, “I am having a really bad day”. I replied, “I am sorry to hear that.”  I shared that I was the founder of Spread the Joy.  I asked my Mother to go to the van and bring me one of the original Joy Team Mugs.

While my Mom was at the van she took my blood sample.

When my Mom returned and handed me the mug I then gave the mug to her.  She started to cry and said, “I am sorry for the tears and apologized for being emotional.” I said, “no worries.”

When I go again I will give her a Spread the Joy Token

I was sitting next to a woman on a plane who was struggling to plot a course on a full sized road map.  After awhile she jammed the map under her seat without even trying to refold it.  I could see the strain on her face  and asked her if she needed help.  She said her situation was hopeless because she had never learned to use a map and after our flight landed she still had to drive for hours thru the Virginia countryside in the middle of the night.  Hertz had guaranteed her rental car would have a GPS unit, but when she checked her voicemail 30 minutes before departure she had a message saying they didn't have any available and it was too late to check their other locations.  She had just enough time to buy a road map but she had never learned how to properly read one.  She was absolutely terrified of getting lost out in the middle of rural nowhere (this was before cell phones when GPS units were expensive).   As luck would have it I was traveling a lot for work at that time and had just brought a personal Garmin GPS unit a few months before.  I told her she could use it and gave her my contact info.  A week later I received my Garmin in the mail along with this INCREDIBLE hand written thank you note...