Winton teacher shows students how to pay it forward

Jose Olguin spent his 36th birthday completing tasks assigned to him by his students.

But they weren’t just any tasks. They were 36 random acts of kindness, all to be finished in one day – his birthday.

Some of them were simple, such as smiling at a stranger. Others were more time consuming, like corralling all the shopping carts in the Walmart parking lot.

Olguin got the idea from a YouTube video he watched over the summer where a teacher completed 26 random acts of kindness on her 26th birthday. In her video, she challenged viewers to do random acts of kindness as well. Olguin asked his colleagues and students in his intervention class, a class for students who struggle with behavior or academically, at Winton Middle School to contribute to his list.

“Doing something nice for somebody is rewarding,” Olguin said. “It was nice to include my students in this. They did a couple things themselves. One student gave an extra piece of pizza to someone on the street, and a couple others started to help their parents at home.”

One of his eighth-grade students, Gabriella Ophelia Perez, said she was a bit surprised her teacher would do something like this. “He doesn’t look like the type of guy who would do it,” she said. “He looks shy.”

Kenneth Lee, another eighth-grader, said it made him evaluate his own actions. “You see these days in society where people wish they can help and don’t do anything about it,” he said. “I was one of those people. I thought I have no time to help. It shows you that only a few people in this world would do it.”

Craig Perry, the principal at Winton Middle School, said Olguin wanted the focus of the project to be on the students, not himself. “He doesn’t want any accolades,” Perry said. “But he deserves to be recognized.”

Olguin set out on Saturday at 6 a.m. His first task was to take homemade cookies to employees at his local Jamba Juice. His goal was to finish all 36 tasks before the sun set.

He took flowers to his neighbor whose husband had a heart condition, left a chocolate bar for the woman who delivers his mail, and went to a church to say a prayer for someone.

Though it was hard to choose which random act touched him – or the recipients – the most, one did hit home for him.

Olguin handed out pizza to the homeless. He found one family had laid out their sleeping bags and set up camp on the ground behind a dumpster as it sprinkled.

“When you see someone waiting for the garbage man to bring garbage to eat – it’s tough to see that,” Olguin said as he talked to his students Monday.

Olguin’s own father struggled with addiction and passed away on the streets even though his family tried to help, he said.

Overall, Olguin said this was one of his best birthdays yet. He even got a little thank-you note from his mail carrier, who said she too would pay it forward.

Olguin’s students got the message, too. As seventh-grader Tyler Fields said: “Everybody should be kind, whether it’s for someone you know or not.”

This story was originally published January 11, 2016 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Winton teacher shows students how to pay it forward."