Jenni Swift says…
Our beautiful daughter Evelyn lost her battle with mental illness on 15th April 2022, aged 15 years. We set up Evelyn’s Butterfly Effect in her memory, to leave a legacy of spreading kindness.
What is the Evelyn’s Butterfly Effect?
Evelyn’s Butterfly Effect is all about spreading kindness. The idea is to ‘pay it forward’, so if someone does a kind thing for you, you do a kind act for someone else, they do a kind act for someone else, and so on. It’s the idea that from one small act of kindness, comes a ripple effect of more kindness.
We’d love everyone to do a random act of kindness in Evelyn’s name, and pass on a butterfly effect card with your kind act. That way, the cards and kindness can be passed on and on.
How did it come about?
Evelyn’s Butterfly Effect started with a seed of an idea – how could we encourage kindness to be Evelyn’s legacy? We thought about how kind Evelyn was, and how at times she had no idea what a wonderful impact she had on other people. How at times there was a ripple effect of kindness. It got us thinking about the ‘butterfly effect’ – that a small butterfly could flap its wings, and be completely unaware that it creates a hurricane on the other side of the world. We loved the idea of a ripple effect of Evelyn’s kindness, spreading far and wide.
About Evelyn
Evelyn was an incredibly kind, thoughtful and generous girl. She was funny, with a dry sense of humour. Evelyn was always thinking of others. She was conscientious and had a strong moral compass, always wanting to do the ‘right thing’. Whilst a student at Huntingtower Community primary school, Evelyn came up with the idea of a second hand toy sale to raise money for the Red Cross Philippine disaster fund. Another time, she emptied her piggy bank to donate to Comic Relief, because it made her so sad and cross that children in Africa couldn’t all attend school. Evelyn loved baking, and during lockdown in 2020, Evelyn baked cakes for the local fire station and police station. It was just who she was.
In the last few years Evelyn repeatedly said she never wanted anyone to go through what she went through with her illness, so would try her hardest to help others who were also struggling. Even in her darkest times, she went out of her way to help others with empathy and kindness. For example whilst she was in hospital and struggling, Evelyn would write lovely positive notes to her peers, encouraging them to do well.
The butterfly effect so far…
Evelyn’s Butterfly Effect is based in Evelyn’s home town of Grantham. A lot of kind acts have already been done in this area in particular – with many local businesses getting involved and offered free hair cuts, piercings, flowers, spray tans, meals out etc.
We’ve also had many individual kind acts done in Evelyn’s name nationwide – such as cakes baked for a hospital and police station, flowers and chocolates handed out randomly, positivity cards sent to strangers, prom dresses offered for free, doughnuts given to school staff, ice lollies given to the bin men on a hot day… To name just a few!
Evelyn’s Butterfly Effect has already reached New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands!
Get involved!
Evelyn’s butterfly effect cards are available in the following locations in Grantham:
Enhance BeautyThe TapThe SnugClare’s of Grantham Mind charity shopReteuro garage The Forum Hair and beauty
A printable version of the Butterfly Effect card is available on our Facebook page, which anyone can download and print at home.
We’d love everyone to do a random act of kindness in Evelyn’s name, and pass on the card with your kind act. That way, the card and kindness can be passed on and on. It doesn’t have to be anything ‘big’. The small acts of kindness are the ones that sometimes mean the most to people – they’re the ones that are remembered.
Please follow us on social media – https://www.facebook.com/Evelynsbutterflyeffect
Instagram – @evelynsbutterflyeffect
Twitter – @evelyn_b_effect
Share your pics We’d love everyone to share stories and pictures of these kind acts on social media using #evelynsbutterflyeffect. That way we will be able to see the ripple effect of kindness – Evelyn’s butterfly effect in action.
Kindness is free, sprinkle that stuff everywhere!
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