Published in PEPTalk December 2016 as 1000 Hearts
By Nicole Gates

Back in February 2016, my friend Sarah, whom I have known for some 15 years, started a kindness project which she called 1000 Hearts.  Why 1000 Hearts? There are lots of reasons but here is just one.

Before Sarah began her current job, she worked in a hospital. When she started, her boss told her “you’ll experience everything here; life, death, and everything in between.”  Her job was varied but essentially she was responsible for delivering emotional and spiritual support to patients and their visitors; taking care of the non-medical needs that arise when people are vulnerable, sick, injured and afraid.  Looking back, she can remember so many people and what they were experiencing in their little part of the world.  There was the stillborn baby and her painfully young parents who struggled to let her go; the woman who held her dying mother’s hand and sang her songs from their shared history; the man whose Dad died unexpectedly in the emergency department.  Their stories were etched into her heart and among the many lessons she learned….that kindness matters, and small gestures can change the world, one heart at a time.  Thus the concept of 1000 Hearts was born.
Sarah runs 1000 Hearts with support and donations from the beautiful community which has grown up in. Sarah initially set out to make 1000 hearts…she reports she is up to approximately 4000 and still going.

At one time, one of our MyTime Members was going through a particularly tough period.  Her child was spending more time at the hospital than at home.  The tension and stress was ruling her life and she felt that everything she did was going wrong.  She was in fact doing an amazing job given the situation and just needed to know that what she was doing really mattered.  As her child is nonverbal they were not able to say thank you or I love you for being my mum and my most effective advocate.  I gifted her with a heart that was paid forward from one of Sarah’s beautiful and generous followers.  The vote of confidence and encouragement that had come from that heart kept her going.  It was the little token that she needed to get through it.

The effect of this small gesture saw me add the topic to our MyTime Calendar where other MyTime Members made hearts for unknown recipients.  In exchange, I gave each of them a heart to say thank you.

More recently, I was fortunate enough to speak with a group of students who were completing their Certificate III in Individual Support (Disability).  Two of the groups had heard about the MyTime members and had chosen to spend their last lessons finding out about the services ACD Tas offered, whilst making hearts for parents and carers who had a child with a disability.  These hearts will be handed out to parents and carers at our Christmas get together in December.

Sarah and her followers are incredibly selfless and generous. The hearts have gone all over the world (some countries include the US, the UK, France, Norway, New Zealand, Vietnam, Mexico, Kazakhstan) and to every state in Australia. They’ve gone to all sorts of people in all sorts of situations; homeless people, foster children, nurses, firemen, paramedics, doctors, bereaved, young people dealing with cancer, hospital patients, kids with anxiety, schools, childcare centres, disability support services…the list goes on. But the point is to give them to anyone who could use a little love, comfort, hope or joy (which basically means everyone!)

So many stories. So many hearts.

Do you love the concept of 1000 Hearts and want to help? Here are the basics of how it all works.

If you’d like to follow the 1000 Hearts Facebook page or receive some hearts, Sarah does giveaways from time to time.

If you’d like to make hearts to give away in your community, then you can get kits at Lyrebird in Hobart.

You can send Sarah a self-addressed envelope with a $2 stamp on it so she can post you back a heart.

If you want to support 1000 Hearts, you can send Sarah stamps, heart making things or encouraging notes at the address below.

The only rule is this: no one pays for a heart. The project runs on donations and all hearts are freely given. No one makes any financial gain, and we are all enriched by this!

Sarah @ 1000 Hearts, PO Box 206, Blackmans Bay, TAS, 7052.

Our thanks go to Sarah (aka The Heart Lady) for having the vision and the creative drive to instigate a project that has made a difference to so many people in our community, near and far, and particularly to those parents and carers of children with disability that we support every day.