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Friends’ 90-mile walk across western Washington shares kindness, one cookie at a time
Childhood friends Jim Hall and Bob Bruce, 73 and 71, spent nine days handing out T-shirts and homemade cookies, stopping at synagogues, churches and a Muslim youth center along the way.
By Emma Maple | FāVS News Reporter
After walking around 90 miles through major cities in western Washington with free T-shirts and homemade cookies for all, childhood best friends Jim Hall and Bob Bruce agreed that the kindness they gave and received on the walk will follow them the rest of their lives.
In August, the two friends spent nine days sharing the message “be kind, do good” with anyone they met on the streets of Shoreline, Seattle, Tacoma, Dupont, Olympia and more. Although not an explicitly religious walk, the Quaker and Catholic stopped at different faith communities along the way as part of an interfaith tour highlighting the similarities the communities shared.
“Love is universal, I knew that from the beginning,” Bruce said. “Talk about having it verified and even implanted more deeply in my heart with each congregation that we met.”
A blessing in Seattle
One moment that particularly stuck out to Bruce was the morning they spent at Temple Beth Am in Seattle. There, they received a blessing from Rabbi Jesse Epstein.
“He had five pages of lessons on Micah that tied the lessons from his Jewish traditions to what we were doing, and then he sends us off with this blessing,” Bruce said. “I don’t think my feet touched the ground for a couple of miles because the blessing was so powerful.”
The experience, and interfaith nature of the walk, was powerful for Epstein as well. Hall and Bruce arrived at the temple the day that a new month was beginning in the Jewish calendar year — the month of Elul.
Elul, the last month of the year, is about “digging deep internally” and “asking ourselves questions about how we live and how we build and repair relationships,” Epstein said.
With that background, the journey that Hall and Bruce were on to “build relationships and create dialogue was, I think, especially resonant,” Epstein said. “It set off that month for us in a different way.”
Hall and Bruce’s walk started in Shoreline at the North Seattle Friends Church and ended in Olympia at the state capitol building. The friends invited anyone they could find to walk with them, either for several miles or several days, and usually had one or two accomplices. They always carried with them a stack of T-shirts proclaiming the motto “be kind, do good,” as well as bags and bags of homemade cookies.
The two men said they did the walk with no hidden agenda: no politics, no religion, no sales pitch. Instead, they just wanted to share T-shirts and cookies. Hall said most people they encountered were a little hesitant to engage with them “until they figured out we were pretty harmless people.”
‘What’s your angle?’
One experience to the opposite that stuck in Bruce’s mind happened while Bruce was at the Pike Place Market in Seattle, watching someone make balloon animals for kids. Bruce offered the man a T-shirt and some cookies, but rather than accept, Bruce said the man asked, “‘What’s your angle?’”
“I said, ‘Actually, what you see here is what you get. There’s no angle. There’s no politics involved. There’s no religion in terms of trying to proselytize or do anything. Just what we have on our shirt,’” Bruce said.
The man didn’t agree. He looked at Bruce, said, “‘everybody’s got an angle,’” and then turned and walked away, Bruce recalled.
“In one sense, I’m very grateful for that moment,” Bruce said. “It actually kind of highlighted to me that … being kind and doing good takes time to get through to some people, and I just didn’t have the time to do that.”
The Rev. Bianca Luna, associate pastor at Urban Grace in Tacoma, which served as one of the final stops for the friend duo, said the lack of an agenda stuck out to her.
“They weren’t asking for money, they weren’t asking anyone to sign up for something,” Luna said. “You just don’t really hear that too often — people spreading kindness for kindness’ sake.”
Other than the experience with the balloon animal man, Hall and Bruce said most of their experiences with strangers were positive and memorable. They gave cookies and shirts to homeless encampments, construction workers, congregation members and more. In total, the friends estimated they handed out 300 to 400 T-shirts and about 1,000 cookies.
The cookies were an easy way to start a conversation with people, Hall said.
“Never underestimate the power of a cookie,” he added.
Several people from Urban Grace were able to meet with Hall and Bruce, and Luna said the two men left a positive impression of kindness.
“I hope they do something like this again,” Luna said. “It seemed very cool and positive for everyone. I hope they can spread more kindness and joy in our cities a little more, if they are up for it.”
Kindness after the walk
At 71 and 73 years old respectively, Bruce and Hall said they’re not likely to do a nine-day walk again. But the power of the experience has stuck with them weeks after they reached the steps of the capitol.
“For me, I just don’t want to stop,” Bruce said, adding that he’s been walking around his neighborhood with a wheelbarrow of garden produce for anyone who wants it. My cookies have been the excess of my garden,” he added.
Hall said he felt similarly.
“I think that we just continue to do it, every day, in our own way,” he said.
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