GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — Kindness is a gift that everyone can afford to give and Sophia Nguyen has been chipping in to write “kind cards” to children whose parents can’t afford school supplies. 

“This really allows me to put my energy to something that may be a message that someone will see and it’ll really encourage them to do better or stay positive,” said Sophia Nguyen, a 17-year-old and incoming senior at Westminster High School.

Nguyen has been regularly volunteering for a Garden Grove-based nonprofit organization called Operation Be Kind since it was created almost 3 years ago. Volunteers like Nguyen help the nonprofit put together kind bags for homeless people, cancer patients and underprivileged children.

In August, before students returned to school campuses, Nguyen and other volunteers organized and put together 300 bags filled with school supplies for foster kids, homeless and students from low-income families in the Santa Ana and Garden Grove Unified School Districts. 

“It’s kind of crazy to think about how the social divide between neighboring communities or neighbors could be so different. i’m living a completely different life than maybe someone else,” said Nguyen.

Operation Be Kind has been operating out of an office and storage space, but its humble beginnings began in founder Jeanine Rountree’s backyard the morning after she came home from feeding homeless people in an encampment in Downtown Santa Ana. Rountree wanted to teach her own daughter about the importance of being kind.

“We don’t know how they ended up there or what their situation is, we just need to be kind to everyone. I woke up the next morning and I said you know I’m going to call it Operation Be Kind."

Rountree says her close circle of friends responded with love and support. Within hours of Rountree’s vision to spread kindness, her friends gathered and helped her put care packages for homeless people together. After that mission was completed, Rountree wanted to teach her daughter about cancer after a close family friend was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer so they organized a group of volunteers to create packages for patients.

To date, Rountree says Operation Be Kind has spread kindness to more than 15,000 people.

Find out how you can help make a difference by visiting: www.operationbekind.org.