19. Donate to Goodwill. I took a bag of donations to our local collection center.
20. Give to the homeless. The closest main intersection to my house is a gathering space for a lot our OKC's homeless population. We were even featured on The Lost Ogle recently. There's one guy who stands outside the 7-Eleven and asks for very specific amounts of money. On Tuesday I stopped for a drink on my way out of town and he asked me for $0.85. I went inside and bought my drink and gave him a few dollars when I came out. I hope the fact that it wasn't $0.85 exactly isn't an issue...
21. Deliver supplies to Wild Heart Ranch. My dad and I share a birthday, so the day before I went to the rural town where he lives so we could spend it together. One very cool thing about this town is that it's home to Wild Heart Ranch, a wildlife rescue that takes in orphaned, injured, or otherwise unable to care for themselves wild animals. They nurse them back to health and release the animals. Before I made the trip, I got our their website and looked at their wish list. My dad and I went to the feed store and each bought a bag of crimped oats (two good deeds for the price of one!) and delivered them.
22. Bake for the staff at WHR. The staff of Wild Heart Ranch has been working non-stop all summer caring for the orphans that come with spring and summer. I baked a batch of muffins and delivered them when we delivered the oats.
23. Bake for a bake sale. Remember when I said my main goal was to cook for as many people as possible? I baked muffins for the Light the Night bake sale at work. The sale ended up raising almost $500 for leukemia research.
24. Buy a drink for a stranger. This was the only time in my 24 good deeds that I really had to interact with someone and tell them what I was doing. Some of my good deeds were done anonymously and some, like donating to Wild Heart or Pit Bull Rescue, are things you don't have to explain. Sometimes people want to make donations, let's move on. This time I was at a convenience store getting a drink to last me for my drive back to Oklahoma City. There was a man ahead of me in line buying a bottle of soda and a slush.
"Excuse me?" He didn't hear me the first time. "Excuse me? I'm trying to do good deeds for my birthday and I was wondering if I could buy your drinks?"
He looked seriously confused. Nervous laughter. "What?"
"She wants to buy your drinks," from the cashier. Thanks, dude.
"See, it's my 24th birthday and I'm trying to do 24 good deeds."
"I've never heard of that."
When I got out my money to pay for my drink and his, the cashier informed me that my drink was on him and wished me a happy birthday. That's what I really wanted from my good deeds. Not a free Diet Dr. Pepper, although that was great. I wanted the people impacted by them to do something nice for someone else so in the end it wasn't just 24 good deeds, but maybe 36 or 48.
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