They were best friends.
James and Jason.
Jason Alexander is on the left, James Bidgood is on the right.
They grew up in the tiny hamlet of Norwood ON. They did everything together including sitting backward in their parents station wagon and waving at the cars behind them. On February 19th 2015, everything changed. James died in a snowmobile accident, leaving behind a wife and three beautiful kids.
Jason tells this story to hundreds of kids intently listening. He travels to elementary and high schools and tells the story of how and why he started One for James.
Jason is a cab driver, he often drives people to work. One day he was driving a girl named Andi to Tim Hortons. He told Andi about what happened to James and how he wanted to create a pay it forward random act of kindness in James’ memory, because James was always doing random kind things for everyone. Andi started to cry, James’ story was heartbreaking. Jason felt terrible for making her cry, he apologized, dropped her off and paid for her cab ride.
The next day Jason was getting a coffee and Andi was working. She handed him a coffee and said she was paying for it. Andi wouldn’t accept Jason’s money and she handed him this.
Jason came home, posted the picture on facebook and went to sleep. The next morning he woke up to thousands of likes, comments and shares. The post went viral. He realized that One for James could work. One person can change the world, one random act of kindness at a time. People are kind and people do love helping others. Jason created the hashtag #oneforjames and it took off. People across Canada and the United States were using the hashtag and buying coffees for one another. #oneforjames was featured on media outlets across North America.
#oneforjames isn’t just about buying a coffee for someone, it’s about doing something kind for someone.
When Jason talks to the students, his message is:
One person can change the world and doing something kind doesn’t only make someone else feel great, it makes you feel great.
I visited one of the schools Jason spoke at and afterward Jason and I took a drive to chat about how you can help One for James. Watch the vlog and look for the special message to Ellen DeGeneres from the kids. They want her to see it, we want her to know about One for James! So share away and do something kind for someone today.
