Umbrella program may spawn bumper crop of good deeds
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Julie Kresen, flanked by Geoff Barnes and Katy DeLancey, are the team behind "Here You Go," where distinctive yellow umbrellas are given to someone stranded in the rain and the recipients are asked to do a good deed for someone else.
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If you happen to get caught in the rain around town this weekend without an umbrella, don't be surprised if a perfect stranger hands you a bright yellow one to keep -- just because it's a nice thing to do.
It's part of a pay-it-forward project that started two years and 1,000 umbrellas ago and already is generating interest from around the world.
At the time Julie Kresen was driving around Squirrel Hill in a downpour when she spotted a very wet girl waiting for a bus.
Her eyes darted back and forth from the poor drenched soul at the bus stop to an umbrella on the floor of her car, and she quickly decided that giving up her umbrella was the right thing to do.
"She was so thankful, and I felt great about it for hours," said Ms. Kresen of Emsworth. "I just started thinking, 'Man, I want to give everybody an umbrella.' "
And with that rainy day, an idea started to bloom.
What if Ms. Kresen not only gave away umbrellas, but also encouraged her umbrella recipients to do good deeds of their own? The "Here You Go" project was born.
Ms. Kresen started amassing umbrellas with her own money to put her plan into action. Her boyfriend, Geoff Barnes, gave her 50 umbrellas in August for her 31st birthday present. Her college friend, graphic designer Katy DeLancey, designed a logo and message cards for the project.
With those pieces in place, Ms. Kresen became a modern Mary Poppins of sorts, an umbrella-wielding spoonful of sugar for those stranded in the rain.
In a "pilot project" over the summer, she gave away 50 umbrellas with a waterproof postcard attached that encouraged the recipient to do a good deed as well. If they did one and wanted to tell Ms. Kresen about it, the cards could be mailed back to her.
"They can read it and if they feel like it's fun and something they want to do they can send it back," said Ms. Kresen, who was laid off from her job as a pharmaceutical sales representative last summer and is now getting a master's degree in professional counseling from Carlow University. "If they don't, that's fine, too. The act of giving is enough."
First Published April 24, 2010 12:13 am
