Elkhart native spreads random acts of kindness with others
ELKHART, Ind. (AP) - Two years ago, after finishing his first semester at Purdue University, Alex Radelich didn't like his major and was feeling down and out about college.
While waiting for his parents to pick him up, he was watching "Evan Almighty," the Morgan Freeman/Steve Carell comedy in which Freeman plays God.
Near the movie's end, when Carell's character, Evan, asks God how he can change the world, God replies, "One act of random kindness at a time."
The then 19-year-old Elkhart native said he felt incredibly inspired at that moment. He hasn't been back to school since.
"I've always been passionate about helping people, but that really just led me in a direction," Radelich said.
Within a day he posted a video online, and within another day he was contacted by people from Brazil, Russia, Canada and the United States asking how they could help. He and some friends started a Facebook group and website, which grew quickly.
Radelich and a handful of his closest friends founded ARK Project Now, with ARK standing for "acts of random kindness." The nonprofit corporation travels the country, mostly during breaks from college, doing whatever it can to make people smile. Sometimes that means helping people in crisis, such as an Indianapolis family who lost their belongings in a house fire shortly before Christmas, or cooking a meal for 30 families whose children are fighting cancer.
There was the time in a Denver Starbucks, where they sat for hours charging their phones, when a man approached them and engaged in an emotional conversation.
"He broke down in front of us," Radelich said. "It was the weirdest thing. He just needed somebody to talk to. He was going through this very rough time in his life. Very successful guy. Sometimes an act like that, just being a listening ear and providing input from a stranger. That's huge for some people."
Sometimes it's more light-hearted, such as the time they set up a booth outside the Bellagio casino in Las Vegas and handed out free bottles of water in 102-degree heat during a huge electronic music festival.
Other core ARK members include brothers Ted and Jake Thatcher, ages 21 and 19, who were born and raised in Bristol and recently moved to Redding, Calif.; and Dalton Lemert, 21, of South Bend. About 50 ARK representatives from campuses around the country have joined the cause.
Last summer, they drove to San Francisco and back in a motorhome, committing acts both planned and random, such as the time in Lincoln, Neb., when they rented an ice cream truck and handed out free ice cream in a poor neighborhood.
Their trip drew national media attention, including appearances on NBC's "Today" and the "Steve Harvey" show and write-ups in USA Today, Huffington Post and Parade magazine.
The trip, while a blast, had its share of problems. The motorhome's air conditioning was sporadic. The steps broke. The shower largely stopped working. Parts randomly fell off as they drove down the road.
Those things shouldn't be an issue this year.
A group of local companies has combined to give ARK a brand new Thor Motor Coach motorhome. The day they were on "Today," Radelich said the group somehow scored a meeting with Jason Lippert, CEO of Lippert Components Inc. They never planned on asking for a new vehicle, Radelich said. They simply knew that Lippert is heavily involved in charitable projects, such as The Boys and Girls Club, and hoped for a "foot in the door" to somehow help out.
But when Jason Lippert asked if they needed a new RV, they weren't about to say "no." Lippert talked to Thor Industries Inc.'s CEO Bob Martin, whose daughter knew some of the guys from Northridge High School.
Also donating money to buy the roughly $100,000 motorhome are Patrick Industries, MITO Corp. and Dicor, Radelich said.
Ted Thatcher said the new RV "changes the game for us in a massive way."
"It will affect everything from morale to how we're able to interact with people on a daily basis," Thatcher said. "I couldn't be more grateful to these guys."
ARK plans to hit the road again in May, charting a 9,000-mile adventure over eight to 10 weeks on a route that mostly traces the perimeter of the United States. The group's plans range from paying for people's gas at a gas station to building a giant slip-and-slide on the hilly streets of San Francisco, an event Radelich is spending many hours on as he tries to secure the needed permits.
Last summer, ARK had a $15,000 budget from donations and sponsorships. This summer the group is shooting for $100,000.
The group is excited about another potential development. They've signed a deal with Chicago-based video production company The Michael Group, which hopes to follow them on the road and turn their exploits into a reality television show, Radelich said. The company recently pitched the idea at Realscreen Summit, a Washington convention of nonfiction entertainment industry executives.
"The cool part would be getting the story afterward - six weeks down the road, what happened? One of the interesting things we want to do is, once we do a kind act ... getting the person who just received that to help us with the next one. It's kind of a way to show paying it forward."
So far, they've heard of no one interested, but Radelich said he remains hopeful.
"They've told us about the networks that don't want us, so I have a long list of those, which is not encouraging," he said with a laugh.
Radelich thinks the show would be a perfect fit for the Travel Channel.
He also wouldn't mind being picked up by MTV, whose show, "The Buried Life," like "Evan Almighty," helped inspire the group. Airing in 2010 and 2011, the show followed four guys who traveled North America in an RV and asked the question, "What do you want to do before you die?" They captured people's answers on video and then shot them doing those things.
"They were pretty much our heroes growing up," Radelich said. "We actually got to meet them randomly. They were probably like four years older than us and kind of just showed us that if you want something done, you can get it done."
Radelich's father, Stefan Radelich, is a Cornell University graduate who is executive director of Feed the Hungry, the faith-based LeSEA charity that has delivered more than $190 million in food and emergency relief around the world. Alex Radelich said his father wasn't happy about his decision to drop out of Purdue to focus exclusively on ARK, but he has become more understanding as he's seen how serious the effort is.
Radelich said he has been accepted into Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, which has a strong nonprofit studies program, but he's not yet sure if he'll go.
When asked what he hopes ARK Project Now ultimately will accomplish, Radelich said he's been giving that question a lot of thought.
"I'd like it to be a movement and be something that kids can hang on to, and understand the importance of going out of their way daily to improve someone else's day," he said. "We live in a very selfish environment, especially going through high school and middle school. It's all about me or what can my group do? I'd love to see a change in kids' minds, but it goes so much further than just kids."
Ted Thatcher, Radelich's friend since middle school, said he hopes the random acts of kindness - theirs and those they inspire in others - will boost the self-esteem of individuals they encounter.
"If people walk away from an interaction with me and they do not feel like they have value, then we've failed," Thatcher said. "I'm a human and I want to communicate love and kindness, and that we value you. So many people don't believe they have value. I don't like that. I want to change that."
As an example, Radelich said a young man from Elkhart named Eric was near the point of suicide when he saw ARK's banner at Concord Mall, then went to its website and saw what they were doing. He went out and did a few random acts of kindness on his own and felt "very fulfilled."
"My favorite part was that he actually went out and got his hands dirty and did some stuff, and he's turned his life around."