Story Submitted by Richdean Hills-Ackbar

When you asked for kindness stories, my nonprofit, Caregivers Helping Hand does a community baby shower for moms-to-be who are on public assistance in Hillsborough County. It’s been 11 years now since our first one. I started the Community Baby Shower to honor the people that blessed me with two baby showers when I was a single mother in need. I decided to pay it forward by founding this special event, showing the same kindness to them that I, myself, received. Caregivers Helping Hand provides free services to low income children and teens, women, and seniors, and once a year, this very special event pampers our moms-to-be. But this year, on October 10th, our spoiling of 200 moms-to-be with baskets of goodies is going to be a little different. We’ll be following pandemic safety measures and having a drive-through Community Baby Shower because we feel it’s safer for expectant moms and our volunteers. HUMANA is donating 250 mask for volunteers and our moms-to-be. We have gloves, mask, soap and water to protect ourselves and others. Soon-to-be moms can register to take part at momstobe2020.eventbrite.com.

If anyone is interested in showing kindness to these moms-to-be, we always accepts gently used and new items for newborn babies, and boys and girls. Items needed include newborn diapers, baby bags, pacifiers, socks, blankets, hats, t-shirts, headbands, rattles, bottles, teething toys, strollers, mobiles, baby wipes, lotion, shampoo, powder, crib sheets, baby swings, baby monitors, and bottle warmers.

Story Submitted by Kamila Khasanova

It is not often that a single phone call results in a job offer the day before graduation. Yet, that is exactly how Kamila Khasanova MBA ’20 landed her position as an account executive at Playbook Public Relations. And it is all thanks to her mentor, Cindy Kane ’76.

Kane is a longtime USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP) organization member who recently made a generous gift to both WLP and USF Athletics. Cindy and Kamila began their mentor-mentee relationship through WLP in November 2019. Every month they meet to discuss topics such as career paths, personal growth, and employment. Just before graduation, Cindy recommended Kamila to call Playbook Public Relations’ founder and USF donor, Sally Dee MBA ’11.

“Everybody would think that getting a job was an act of kindness that Cindy did for me by putting me in contact with Sally, however, Cindy showed her sincere interest and engagement in my professional and personal life from the first day we met. I have had multiple mentors prior to Cindy but I could not truly understand the meaning of mentorship before I started working with Cindy. She is a born leader who gives her heart in everything she does,” said Kamila. “The biggest act of kindness that I received from Cindy was dedicating her time to have deep and valuable conversations with me that helped me to secure a job I have today”.

Thank you,
Kamila

Story Submitted by Brooke Elkins

My name is Brooke Elkins. I’m a former educator of Hillsborough County schools in Florida. Even though I have left the classroom I still feel very connected to education and teachers. I have many friends who are educators and I have listened to their concerns as they are heading into the 2020 school year, in the middle of a pandemic. I can’t imagine starting the school year under these stressful conditions and in my book they are heroes for doing so. I started thinking to myself where could I be of help? What could I do to make a difference for them?

And so then I remembered a post on my neighborhood Facebook page, back in May, where our community members adopted High School seniors and showered them with small little items just to show them that someone cared and I thought to myself, why couldn’t we do this for teachers? So I created a page called Adopt a Hillsborough Teacher. This is a page on Facebook where you can see teachers across the county linking their classroom wish list items primarily through Amazon and a community member can adopt a teacher and take an item or two off of her list. If you know a teacher, you know how much teachers actually pour into their classrooms every single year. Money that comes from their own pockets… All the little items that make their classroom go from “standard, to ,special and all the items the kids need to succeed. What makes this year’s teacher supply list different is now they are having to rethink how all of their classroom supplies will need to be used in order to cut down on possible contamination. And many teachers are finding themselves having to purchase items like headsets, for example, so each child has their own personal set to use at the computer, touchless soap dispensers, and containers where each child can store there own individual work, amongst many other things. On top of that is the concern for disinfectant items that are already hard to come by due to the shortage in our local stores. The district has provided but many teachers have concern there may not be enough to last the year.

To date we have over 5,000 members in less than 4 days of the page being created. But we are hoping as this gains community attention, more people will join the page to support the teachers that are already on there and who are joining daily. It doesn’t take much to make a teacher smile. If we are asking our teachers to return back to the classroom in the middle of a pandemic then the very least we can do for them is support them with something they need in order to better serve our students and to keep them safe. Please join our group by clicking here: Adopt a Hillsborough Teacher on Facebook.

Story by Cindy Kane and Kamila Khasanova

Mentoring – Women supporting our next generation. Supporting young women to grow and lead takes a team. A University of South Florida (USF) team.

It is not often that a single phone call results in a job offer the day before graduation. Yet, that is exactly how Kamila Khasanova USF MBA ’20 landed her position as an account executive at Playbook Public Relations. And it is all thanks to her mentor, Cindy Kane and a connection with Sally Dee, both USF Alumni.

Cindy and Kamila began their mentor-mentee relationship through the USF Women in Leadership and Philanthropy (WLP) in November 2019. Every month they meet to discuss topics such as career paths, personal growth, and employment. Just before graduation, Cindy recommended Kamila to call Playbook Public Relations’ founder, Sally Dee.

Kamila: “Everybody would think that getting a job was an act of kindness that Cindy did for me by putting me in contact with Sally, however, Cindy showed her sincere interest and engagement in my professional and personal life from the first day we met. I have had multiple mentors prior to Cindy but I could not truly understand the meaning of mentorship before I started working with Cindy. She is a born leader who gives her heart in everything she does,” said Kamila. “The biggest act of kindness that I received from Cindy was dedicating her time to have deep and valuable conversations with me that helped me to secure a career I have today”.

Cindy: “Thanks to WLP for connecting me and Kamila. The timing, our personalities and drive to work together was perfect. I reached out to Sally, to see if Kamila’s skills were a fit for her business. Sally and I both have a passion for USF and helping young women succeed. My hope is we stay connected for years to come and Kamila is able to mentor a young woman in the future. We are a team and will continue to help each other. I encourage everyone to step up and find an opportunity to connect with a young person to be a mentor.”