Anonymous gift bags give scarves, warmth to needy
Optimistic view spurs guerrilla acts of kindness
On a recent Sunday morning, a couple of hundred plastic bags, each containing a scarf, a knit cap, and a pair of mittens or gloves, appeared seemingly out of nowhere in areas of Milwaukee frequented by the down and out.
The bags were tied with colored yarn to trees, posts and fences. Each contained a note:
“I’M NOT LOST. If you find yourself in the cold, Take this to keep warm.”
It was a guerrilla act of kindness, and its perpetrators were led by Heather Witt, who, on the bags she placed, also wrote: “You are loved,” and whose opinion of humanity is positive to the point of being mildly disruptive:
“I think we all have something in us that wants to do good,” she says. Think about that for a minute. Set your cynicism aside for just a moment, however justified it might be. And consider: What if that was true?
What if that was true about you?
Around three years ago, Heather was poking around Facebook and came across a post from a group of people who, at the onset of winter, went around their city and tied scarves to trees, inviting anyone in need to take one. Heather thought this was brilliant. She mentioned it to a co-worker, Michelle Meyer, and in short-order, they created their own Facebook page, Operation Scarf, and began collecting, bagging and distributing warm items in random ways.
This year was their third offensive. A handful of people met at Red Arrow Park with eight white garbage bags, each containing about 25 hat/scarf/ gloves packages.
They fanned out. Gordon, Mitchell and Juneau parks (Heather notified the appropriate officials ahead of time), Walker and Zeidler squares, and the Intermodal Station.
In Gorden Park, Meyer and her daughter, Kelsey, spent a few moments with Victor McKnight, who was warming himself on a bench facing the sun.
McKnight said he got into a fight with his girlfriend a few weeks earlier, that she kicked him out and that he’d been sleeping outside ever since.
A check of Milwaukee County’s electronic court records indicated that McKnight had been in more than a few fights over the years.
Doesn’t matter, Meyer said. He’s a human being, vulnerable to the coming winter.
It took no more than a couple of hours to distribute all the packages.
Afterward, Heather said she hoped that people who found the packages felt less abandoned, less alone. She hoped those who had known hard lives would also know a bit of kindness.
“I think we live in dark times,” she said. “I think we live in a time in which acts of kindness are critically important.”
I asked her what she got out of it. “Nothing,” she said. “Really, nothing.” “It is in me to do this,” she said. “I don’t have an option.”