49 Days of Acts of Love and Kindness wraps up on two-year mark of Pulse attack

Organizations, businesses volunteer, carry out random acts of kindness

ORLANDO, Fla. – Inside a giant warehouse Tuesday at Orlando's Second Harvest Food Bank, a group of teenagers wearing bright yellow shirts packed up produce on the day that also marked two years since the Pulse attack. 

"We are here trying to bring a little bit of happiness on a sad day, and trying to help out the community in any way that we can," 8th-grader Sean Lewis said. 

Lewis is a member of Sunridge Middle School's Future Farmers of America program taking part in the One Orlando Alliance's "Act.Give.Love" movement on what has now been deemed "Orlando United Day."

"We have the Act.Give.Love movement to remind people just how powerful the response of love is," Yasmin  Flasterstein, with the One Orlando Alliance, said.

Flasterstein was at the Orlando United Assistance Center Tuesday when it opened up and welcomed survivors in an effort to show the city is still providing free resources and counseling two years later. 

Also on Tuesday morning, a group with the Zebra Coalition took to the streets to clean up parts of the Mills 50 district. 

But this year's Act.Love.Give movement was different than last year's June 12 remembrance event.

[PICTURES: 49 days of love and kindness in honor of Pulse victims]

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"This year, we decided we are going to do acts of love and kindness for the 49 days before June 12th, because you don't need to do act, love and kindness just for one day," Flasterstein said.

Since April, dozens of groups, businesses and organizations took part in all kinds of different acts. 

On Memorial Day, some volunteered at the Harbor House Shelter to serve up free lunches. In addition to that act of kindness, the Hispanic Federation offered free English classes for those getting ready for job interviews and the company Turner Construction used the 49 days in honor of the 49 lives lost to visit and thank 49 different police stations. 

"It's to show something good came from this horrible, horrible tragedy, and having something good come from something bad is such a critical part to healing and it keeps us going," Flasterstein said. 

If you're looking to carry out a random act of kindness for someone, the OneOrlando Alliance offers the list of suggestions below.


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