North Idaho Kindness Project delivers notes of appreciation throughout community

"You are loved."

"You are appreciated."

"Our community is a better place with you in it."

"We're glad you're here."

These words of love and gratitude are showering the community with good vibes as friendly notes are being distributed to an array of organizations and businesses during the North Idaho Kindness Project's 2025 Kindness Card campaign.

Lisa Breisacher, who has been a nurse practitioner at Hospice of North Idaho for eight years, was a Kindness Card recipient Friday morning. Her card thanked her for the work she does and reminded her that her kindness makes a difference.

“It makes me feel honored in taking care of these patients at this really vulnerable time,” Breisacher said. “This is such an honor and a gift that our community gives us to trust their loved ones here. It’s nice to be recognized for that. It’s been a dream job.”

As many as 2,600 cards are being delivered during this year's campaign to spread appreciation and goodwill throughout North Idaho. Completely done by volunteers, this is the fourth year for the Kindness Card campaign.

The process of the Kindness Card starts with an art contest, said Shawn Keenan, fundraising chair of the North Idaho Kindness Project.

"That engages our community and engages people expressing what kindness looks like to them in an artistic form," he said. “If you’ve seen the two winners this year, I think they’re just beautiful, beautiful cards."

Nearly 80 groups signed up to write cards this year, with one group filling out 500 cards. The cards have been going out for several days and will continue to brighten people's days next week.

Of the 44 recipient entities, 20 are early childhood educators, which is new this year. 

"We typically aren’t able to hit this part of the community because the locations might only have one, two, three or four staff members, which can be kind of hard to coordinate," North Idaho Kindness Project Board Chair Ali Orjala said. "But with help from Keira Yetter of Idaho Stars, we were able to easily track down these providers."

Other recipients include employees and volunteers at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library, Knudtsen Chevrolet, Lewis-Clark State College and the University of Idaho Coeur d'Alene, North Kootenai Water and Sewer District, Safe Passage, the Coeur d'Alene Tribe, Christ the King Lutheran Church and St. Vincent de Paul North Idaho.

The kindness rolls on from the contests to the card-writing sessions, which are pure joy for participants, Keenan said.

“As you’re writing out the card, you have this internal energy that’s building and you’re putting your own positive energy and thoughts and words and expressions onto this card that’s going to go to a perfect stranger that you don’t even know," he said.

The overwhelming sense of pride, joy and love is something that lasts all day.

"Not only am I putting energy into the card, but I’m also now charging up myself with this positive energy," Keenan said. "Now I’m going to go out into the world with this positive energy and I’m going to be interacting with everybody because I’m feeling really good about putting out this love.”

He said many who receive the cards are completely taken aback when they are delivered.

"What’s really great about that is the surprise you see on their faces, this instant joy expression comes through on their face," he said. "And you just know, now that this person’s going to be passing out these cards to everybody in their organization, or in their business, this person who is not expecting to get anything today gets this beautiful card from somebody who’s written this really, really kind expression.”

North Idaho Kindness Project volunteer DeAnn Johnson said this is "the basis of our community and what we need to get back to, especially in these divisive times."

"I think it's now more important than ever to show up and share kindness and love and try to make a difference in big and small ways," she said.

When asked why they do this, Orjala said, "Why not?"

"I think everybody needs more little reminders that they’re appreciated," she said. "I think it’s good when news outlets cover stories like these because I know in our media environment, the negative stuff tends to get traction easier. If we don’t put efforts into doing these things that are positive, then the little positive things that happen every day, like at the grocery store or at the gas station, get kind of missed in the headlines.”

The North Idaho Kindness Project, formerly Love Lives Here CDA, began in 2018. Its vision is proactive work focused on creating positive community connections.

Info: northidahokindnessproject.org

    Coeur d'Alene Public Library employees Elissa Corless, left, and Olivia Cretella show off the Kindness Cards they received this week.
  

    Girl Scouts and students from Ponderosa, Skyway and Fernan elementary schools contributed their creative talents to this year's Kindness Card campaign.
  

    Communications specialist Megan Ryan holds up a Kindness Card after Hospice of North Idaho received a delivery Friday morning. This is the fourth year Kindness Cards were sent to the nonprofit. "We have a staff of over 100, and they look forward to it every year," she said. "Every social worker, nurse, CNA, medical staff, admin staff get a card."