COLLEGE TOWN, FL — The Joy Squad in Tallahassee is encouraging neighbors to spread kindness through monthly challenges. Members are stepping up to help friends and family in times of need.
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Whether it's helping a neighbor, brightening someone's day, or bringing out a smile, the Joy Squad has been encouraging neighbors in Tallahassee for years.
The Joy Squad hosts a joy of the month challenge every month, where they encourage neighbors to choose, give, and inspire joy in their communities. For this month's challenge, they encouraged members to help a friend or neighbor.
Joy Squad Executive Board Member, Lori Swanson, explained the goal of the monthly challenges.
"It really can be anything you want. The purpose for each month is to keep it simple. We want people to, you know, it to spark an idea. We want them to joy it forward," Lori Swanson said.
Former military and Joy Squad member David Davis shared how he participated in this month's challenge after his brother was in a severe car accident. Davis drove to Charlotte to visit his brother in the hospital and spent time cleaning and fixing up his brother's house.
"Had an unfortunate event happened, my brother got into a very, very bad car accident, so I drove up to Charlotte, and I went to go visit my brother. But sometimes I feel like I’m helpless when I’m just in the hospital, so for the Joy Squad, what I did was I go, I went to my brother‘s house. I saw that it was a little bit dilapidated, just looking bad, so I went in there and fixed it all up. I clean up his entire house. It took about 4 1/2 days to do," David Davis said.
Davis also noted the impact the group has had on him personally.
"Because I’m a former military member, it meant the world to me. I felt like I was back involved with the team, not just a local, local team, a team that spread all around Tallahassee," Davis said.
Swanson said a person named Lee came up with the idea for the group during the COVID-19 pandemic. She said any act of kindness can go a long way, from baking bread and babysitting to bringing a smile to a neighbor's face.
"Lee came up with this idea during Covid, a very dark and dreary time, and you know we still need it. There’s a lot of anxiety in the world. If you can put more joy into it, I mean, that’s what we wanna do, so that’s how we want to affect our community. And the thing about giving joy, choosing joy, is that it inspires other people to do it too," Swanson said.
Starting in April, the Joy Squad is encouraging members to choose, give, and inspire "egg-stra" joy. They want neighbors to fill eggs with candy and words of affirmation and distribute them around their neighborhood.
Anyone who shares a photo to the joy challenge of the month will have their name entered in a drawing for a special Joy Squad goody.
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