Brownsville Kiddie Health Center employees begin ‘Pay it Forward’

Three employees of the Brownsville Kiddie Health Center visited Aldame’s home to bring her blankets, foot warmers, candles, skin cream and books.

“I’m going to cry,” said Dalia Elizondo, office manager for the center.

She and two other employees visited Aldame’s home, having heard about her situation from Aldame’s daughter who recently began working at the center.

“We heard you were ill. We wanted to bring you something to make your day better,” Elizondo said.

Aldame didn’t know how to thank them.

But the center’s employees weren’t looking for gratitude. They wanted her to pay it forward — an idea influenced by a movie.

One person helps a stranger in a random act of kindness, and all they ask in return is for that person to seek three more people and help them.

It made for a great plot in the 2000 film “Pay-It-Forward” starring Haley Joel Osment.

But after the events of Sept. 11, 2001, the idea of people helping strangers in need became an important ideal for many Americans.

“With all the chaos going on around the world, we forget the small things in life, like being kind to one another and helping people out,” Elizondo said.

The center’s pediatrician Carmen D. Rocco added that movies already influence popular culture in other ways.

“You see negative movies being incorporated into our reality,” she said. “Why not take a positive movie and move it forward?”

Aldame said she approved of the pay-it-forward idea. Every time she visits medical clinics for treatments, she sees people who can use help.

“I’ve met people at the (medical) office who had cancer and would just sit there and cry,” she said. “I talk to them and pray with them.”

This is the second year employees from the center have gone into the community to pay it forward on Sept. 11, inspired by national organizations that have done the same in other cities. This year the center is asking community members to join them.

“We did this last year, and with the people we touched, there was an unexpected bond,” Rocco said. “These are very simple acts. They are not intended to be very complex. They are just acts of kindness that you hope will put a little positive force where it needs to be.”

Aldame’s daughter, 22-year-old Daisy Aldame, recently began working as a clerk for the center. While she knew about the pay-it-forward project, she was shocked when her co-workers showed up at the door to honor her mother.

Elizondo said the Aldame’s became candidates for the project as soon as she found out about their troubles.

“I saw Daisy crying at the office one day,” Elizondo said. “She said, ‘You don’t understand, my mother’s ill.’”

Daisy Aldame recalls that day.

“It was very bad that day,” she said. That morning her mother could barely move and was feeling very sick, which upset her daughter before work.

The Aldames are grateful to those who have helped them.

“It just shows me what kind of people I’m working with,” said Daisy Aldame with tears flowing down her face. “These are very kind people.”

To find out how to pay it forward, call the Brownsville Kiddie Health Center at 504-6080.
On the Web:
Pay-It-Forward Movement - http://www.payitforwardmovement.org/
Pay-If-Forward Foundation - http://www.payitforwardfoundation.org/