On February 4th last week, Spotted in Ely held its first ‘Pay it Forward Day’.
The idea was created by Alison Cooney, wife of the late Mark Cooney, as a way of marking their first Wedding Anniversary. Mark sadly passed away peacefully last year, after a short battle with Cancer.
Alison said, “I wanted to repay the people of Ely for all their kindness shown to us, when we were planning our wedding last year. I couldn’t celebrate my Anniversary the way other couples do. So I decided to turn it into a day of positivity instead”.
Spotted in Ely asked local independant business Marmalade and Jam, a small independent cafe on Ely’s High Street, to create some vouchers for them to hide in the city. They joined in by adding three more vouchers for people to discover.
On a post on their Facebook page, on the 1st February, Spotted in Ely announced the day and asked others to get behind the idea and get involved too.
Alison commented afterwards “The response has been amazing! So many acts of kindness happened all over Ely, Littleport and Soham! I was overwhelmed by the fact that so many people joined in”.
“I plan on making it an annual tradition, something to carry on for years to come”.
Prior to the day, Alison was interviewed by Dotty McLeod from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, you can listen to the interview again here
Another surprise variation on the theme happened in Ely, whereby people were finding tennis balls for dogs, with a tag on saying ‘Paw it Forward’. Alison said, “I absolutely loved this idea and will be adding it to our day next year. There truly are some wonderful, creative and kind people in Ely, I can’t thank them enough for making the first ‘Pay it Forward Day’ a great success”.
Spotted in Ely are already looking forward to next year’s event.
Press release from Good Vibes Local
You must be logged in to post a comment.