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A man and his daughter did 39 random acts of kindness for their birthdays. Heartwarming!

Warning: You might experience warm fuzzy feelings.

What happens when a dad and his daughter find an unconventional way to celebrate their birthdays?

An incredible amount of sweetness, that's what!


All images by Lee Beck, used with permission.

Lee Beck and his daughter, Amélie, decided to do 39 random acts of kindness for their birthdays.

Beck, who works at Oxford Brookes University, and Amélie, who loves gymnastics, reading, and nature, chose 39 because it was the sum of the birthdays they were celebrating — 32 and 7.


But it turns out that settling on just 39 was a little difficult for them.

"We thought about all the people in our community that we wanted to help or say thanks to, and then we topped up our list with a Google search," Beck told Upworthy. "We must have had about a hundred that we had to whittle down to make the 39."

The duo did kind things, some free and others relatively inexpensive.

Like picking up trash.

And leaving money for strangers taped to a vending machine so they could have some free chocolate.

Amélie's favorite act was leaving pennies by a wishing well for people to use.

"We watched people from afar and everyone who passed stopped," Beck said. "Wishes are pretty cheap, and it brightened people's day."

Beck's favorite was donating a plant to a hospice center for their garden.

"They looked after my Grandma, and to be honest I didn't really know much about them until we started the challenge," Beck says. "It was a pleasure to go over there and meet some of the staff."

And they did lots of other kind things, too.

Like helping to build a bee wall in a local nature preserve, delivering cards and chocolates to the police and fire departments, donating books to the library, putting marbles and toy dinosaurs in the park, Beck signing up to be an organ donor, and more. Beck told Upworthy:

"I remember all of those people who have helped me in the past, and I felt that I should pay it forward. Of course, kindness is unconditional and we would all be courteous and caring — I just did it a little bit more during the challenge than I would normally!

***

I hope that those watching will enjoy seeing what we got up to for our birthdays... I hope that people will take away a positive message from the fun we had. I'm honoured to spread a little awareness about the organisations and charities that we visited, and humbled by the people we met along the way."



Beck says he and Amélie will do something like this again, but they'll keep it between the two of them next time to make it a little more magical.

With parenting like this — teaching kindness through living it — Amélie has a bright future.

"We both have a very close relationship, and I am proud to see the young girl that she has become," he says. Awwww!

You can watch what they did, set to one of the best songs ever. Extremely good feelings: free of charge.

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