BROWNSVILLE, Tenn.— Mayors from every government in Haywood County signed a proclamation at Tuesday’s Rotary Club meeting that declares Haywood County, TN an official Acts of Kindness Community. But what in the world is that?

Before the pens came out and the hands were shaken, a great joy swelled in Dr. Tommy Russell’s voice. This was the culmination of a journey for him.

The new organization that sprang to life today through the signatures of Haywood County Mayor Franklin Smith, Brownsville Mayor Bill Rawls and Stanton Mayor Allan Sterbinksy began with Russell’s voice last summer. Months ago, under the sweltering heat of the Mid-South sun, Russell made the rounds to seemingly every leader of the local community pitching an idea, a thought, a dream.

“I believe people here in Haywood County are our biggest asset,” he told the Rotary Club. “You don’t drill for oil where you expect no oil, you don’t sow crops where you expect nothing to grow. Haywood County is the perfect place for an Acts of Kindness initiative.”

The dream Russell pitched in the summer was then revealed to the crowd gathered in Brownsville’s Delta Room: he hopes to create a movement of anonymous kindness in Brownsville, Stanton and Haywood County. Acts of Kindness will be a wave of good will. Great deeds of small stature, if you will. Drawn from the ideas of the national Random Acts of Kindness organization and Pay it Forward, Russell has gathered a team of philanthropists from every corner of the county to spread good deeds and cheer to people of every race, every religion and every level of income in this rural West Tennessee county like wildfire.

So there were Smith, Rawls and Sterbinsky—the figureheads of local government—putting the final touches to a proclamation that they hope will start the movement. There too were gathered artists, doctors, lawyers, writers, insurance agents, cotton brokers, pastors and everyday folk (the last being perhaps most important) from Haywood County, who Russell had rallied to the cause.

After months of enthusiastic labor, the Acts of Kindness wave appears poised to kick off.

What will that wave look like?

If the Acts of Kindness team has their way, it will look a little something like this:

Russell tells the story of a 90-year old woman who everyday would peer out of her kitchen window. She would open it and enjoy the breeze. She would watch the world go by and take heart in the passing of each day through that window. But one day, he said, a neighbor passing down the street noticed she wasn’t there. The window was shut. And again, the next day the same neighbor passed by to notice the window still shut. The neighbor, Russell says, just happened to be a handyman; and the very next day he went over to the old woman’s house with his son and a toolbox.

There, they found that the window had become stuck closed by a broken latch. Quietly, the young handyman and his son repaired the latch before slipping silently away on to their next task. “But you didn’t tell the lady her window was fixed,” said the boy. “That’s okay,” exclaimed the father. “She’ll figure it out.”

That’s the message Haywood Acts of Kindness is preaching. “What if we all together could transform Haywood County into a place where our youth respected each other?” asked Russell, whose family has practiced dentistry in Brownsville for 77 years. “What if we show kindness not only to those we know but complete strangers as well? I don’t know for sure. But I sure would like to know. Wouldn’t you?”

What have you got to lose?

Russell completely and wholly believes it’s possible. The conviction in his melodic, humorous voice is infectious. But he knows he can’t do it alone. The Acts of Kindness team says they need the help of all of the kind-hearted people in Haywood County: not just the church crowd, not just the political crowd, not just the children or the old men sitting around court square on weekdays. To really do this, to make kindness synonymous with Haywood County, people from every corner of the county will once again be asked to pitch in.

The national Random Acts of Kindness website is loaded with blogs about anonymous acts of kindness. It’s brimming with kindness ideas (click here to read a few) and stories just like the one of the old woman and her window.

That’s what the Haywood Acts of Kindness team says the community needs.

On Tuesday, a dentist and three mayors got the ball rolling. Now, it’s up to every citizen of Haywood County to keep it rolling. To do that, the Haywood Acts of Kindness team is asking people to tell each other about kind acts going on in the community.

To do that, people can head to their newly-minted Facebook page (Facebook.com/AOKHaywood) and tell them about something kind another person did for you right here in Haywood County. “We want to take pride completely out of this,” said Russell. “We want this to be anonymous.”

If you’ve been the recipient of a kind act in Haywood County, head over and try it out. It’s like the good doctor said, “What have you got to lose?”