(ABC News)--While the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School have no doubt left
the nation shaken, they have also inspired an outpouring of acts of
kindness from across the nation and around the world.
The central hub of many of these is on display in the U.S. Post Office
in Newtown, Conn., a community shaken by the killing of 20 children and
six school staff members by 20-year-old Adam Lanza, who also killed his
mother and shot himself.
Mountains of mail and packages are flowing in from all over the world.
Some are simply addressed to "Newtown" or specific families who lost
people in the shootings. They're coming with return addresses ranging
from Idaho to Virginia Beach and far beyond.
"I think I saw Brazil, Australia, (one addressed to) 'Anybody in Newtown
who needs a hug.' It is just amazing," said a postal employee in
Newtown.
In the town hall, donated toys are piling up just in time for Christmas.
Kindness is even flowing from victims of other tragedies like Hurricane
Sandy, who sent hundreds of teddy bears to hand out to children in the
community.
"We've had so much help, we wanted to pay it forward and try to help somebody else," one woman said.
Now, Newtown is hoping people everywhere "pay it forward" in their own
communities, with the memory of those lost in the shootings serving as
inspiration.
It's a concept that seems to be spreading across America.
In Michigan, a secret Santa of sorts paid off everyone's layaway items at a store there.
Reports are streaming in on Twitter from around the nation of others receiving coffees or meals paid for anonymously by others.
In New Jersey, Kristen Albright told ABC News she found an anonymous
card in her shopping cart at Target, where she had gone to buy
ingredients for holiday cookies.
She looked down, and found a gift card to Target inserted into a
greeting card that asked her to pay it forward to others, in honor of
Newtown shooting victim Catherine Hubbard.
"It really made me stop. I was frozen. It made me think about that little girl," Albright said.
Inspired, she did what the card asked, and gave it to a bank teller at
the other end of a deposit she was making. Albright says her 11-year-old
son Jackson has begun randomly giving now too.
"It really made me think of the bigger picture and family and friends,
and extending that kindness to strangers as well," Albright said.
Stacey Jones of Surprise, Ariz., wrote ABC to say she too has been inspired.
"I went to Target, purchased two gift cards, put them in separate
envelopes along with the message and handed them to strangers as I
exited the store and entered the parking lot," Jones said. "It really
felt good to do a small kind deed for someone."
Nicole Reyes of Boston had never heard of the growing movement of
kindness when she found a ziplock bag tucked underneath her windshield
on her way to work this morning. Inside, she found a Christmas lollipop
with a note on a Christmas card that said it was, "In memory of Emily
Parker, 6." And urged her to "Pay it forward!"
"I took a minute to remind myself of how amazing it is that a community
and entire nation can come together in the wake of such tragedy," Reyes
said. "I ran into my house to show my mother the note. After reading it
she immediately started crying. It was a special moment for her and I."
Copyright 2012 by ABC News
