Christmas carols, holiday cheer and gift giving won't be the only things to put a smile on people's faces this Christmas season.
From Dec. 1 to 30, the Innisfail Library/Learning Centre is hosting a ‘pay it forward' campaign for book fines, and is encouraging people to show a little kindness over the holiday season.
“It gives people an easy way to give back to other people in their community,” said Melinda Mercer, programmer with the public library. “A lot of the fines are only 25 cents so you can do something and it doesn't cost very much, but it makes someone else's day.”
A miniature tree is located at the front desk of the library and is decorated with envelopes containing fine information for various individual patrons, noted Mercer. Members of the community can pay the fines of other library users anonymously. The person whose fines have been paid will receive an email informing them that their fines were paid by an anonymous patron and will encourage them to consider paying it forward.
“When people come in they'll see the tree and they can pick a fine amount they want to pay,” explained Mercer. “We look up the patron and pay the fine for them.”
Fines can range from 25 cents to $25 she noted, adding the library picked 50 people at random and placed their fines on the tree.
“Hopefully we can get all of those fines paid for and then after that we still have another pool of fines we can choose from,” she said.
The library is running the program for the first time to encourage and promote random acts of kindness within the Innisfail community this Christmas season.
Mercer pointed to an example where many people often pay if forward.
“I've seen it the most in a Tim Hortons drive-thru lineup. The person in front of you pays for your coffee and you pay for the person behind you,” said Mercer. “That's the same idea that we're hoping for.
“We're hoping that the people who have their fines paid for will in turn go out and pay it forward somewhere else,” she added. “Together we can change the world, one good deed at a time.”
Melinda Mercer
"We're hoping that the people who have their fines paid for will in turn go out and pay it forward somewhere else. Together we can change the world, one good deed at a time."
