Giving the Gifts on Her Birthday
Debra Ferrell got the standard well wishes on Facebook on her 53rd birthday, but she got some unusual messages too. One was about a family in Minnesota who had just lost their four-year-old son to cancer. His older brother, autistic and nonverbal, was especially griefstricken. Could Ferrell help?
That message and the 30 or so others like it were exactly what Ferrell was looking for. To celebrate her 53rd, the longtime social service professional and certified sweetie had put out a call on her Facebook page. She wanted to commit 53 random acts of kindness by the end of her birth month, and she needed information on people who could use one. When she got the note about the Minnesota family, she sent a wind chime with the message “Listen to the wind and know that I am near” inscribed on the clapper. It now hangs in the fouryear-old’s bedroom, where his brother can go to listen to it whenever he wants.
This is not the first time that Ferrell decided to give gifts for her birthday. For her 47th, in 2014, she founded Love with Skin On, an organization dedicated to doing good deeds near her home in Roanoke, Virginia, and beyond. Its motto is simple: Be Love, Do Stuff.
Over the years, Ferrell has reached out and touched well over 100 strangers, some found via Facebook callouts, others with help from her grandkids. In another act of giving, she shares her favorite inexpensive and creative gift ideas on Pinterest for others to use.
Ferrell pays for everything herself: gift cards, pay-it-forward purchases at drivethroughs, and care packages, as well as the gas it takes to play fairy godmother. Her family often gives her some extra birthday cash with a stern warning not to spend it on anyone else, which she naturally ignores. “I got a couple of Amazon gift cards for my birthday this year and was like ‘YESSS! ’” It’s Ferrell’s party, and she’ll give if she wants to.