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Nicest Place in America - The Doak's House
Organized by Reader's Digest
Gildan 100% Cotton T-shirt
- Sizes YXS - XXXXL
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About this campaign
October 5, 2017 is Do Something Nice Day, so join us as we #DoSomethingNice for Kindness Matters—an organization that supports anti-bullying efforts. Pick up a t-shirt below and share your photos on social media by tagging @readersdigest and #DoSomethingNice!
Reader's Digest has teamed up with Kindness Matters, an anti-bullying charity to challenge everyone in America to Do Something Nice Today!
Check out our ten Nicest Places finalists at RD.com/Nicest.
And support Kindness Matters by buying a t-shirt with this message. All proceeds go to the charity.
Kindness Matters is a campaign designed to change the way people interact with each other. It is the legacy of 13 year old Peyton A. James, who took his life after years of bullying.
In this world of technology and constant communication, it’s often difficult to escape the ridicule that seems to be everywhere. The purpose of Kindness Matters is to change the dialogue that takes place between people every day.
Making a change on a global level is a challenge and it isn't something that only needs to be done in schools or in sound-bites. It is something that everyone, both young and old, can work together to accomplish.
Kindness Matters is not just about bullying because not everyone is a “bully.” However, everyone can be a little bit kinder to others. By doing that, we can change the world.
From the Editors: Waterford, Ohio, is a town of modest wood frame houses in a landscape of green rolling hills and farmland, two hours from Columbus. If you drove through, you probably wouldn’t notice it. “Blink,” says Nancy Crowley, who lives nearby, “and you miss it.”
But to folks like Crowley who know Waterford, there is one home that is more than worth a visit because it vividly captures the spirit of small-town Ohio and ensures that future generations get to experience the best of the community’s values. It belongs to Roger and Shirley Doak, a former state troopers and a retired employee from a nearby chemical company, respectively. The Doaks are the kind of people who throw their doors open to everyone. Their home is where locals gather to watch a parade or celebrate at a holiday party. Most important of all, it’s where the community gathers to make—and eat—apple butter.
Apple butter has been a Doak family tradition since at least 1960, and the cooking process hasn’t changed much. People come from far and wide—friends, friends of friends, strangers who happen to just be driving through—to take a turn stirring the copper kettles full of sticky-sweet butter. “I watch this family in awe at how every person who stops by is greeted by name, introduced to everyone, and eventually given the job of stirring for a few minutes,” says our nominator, Lucinda Fleming, who was a college roommate of Doaks’ daughter, Jennifer, and has been a regular at Apple Butter Weekend ever since. “I leave there so happy and content because I feel like I belong there.”
Over the years, the weekends have become less frequent—they happen only every other year now. Everyone is busy, and the Doaks have gotten older. The town around them has changed a bit too. “I see a lot of real estate transactions there,” says Crowley. “It’s growing fast.” Farms and old local industries have shut down, and people are moving away. But for one weekend every other year, the Doaks give their neighbors a sweet reminder of small-town Ohio life.
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I work for PHS and it a great place to work
First, the Doak's are my friends and I want a t-shirt with their names on it. Second, my son has been bullied, but is finding people who are willing/able to stand up for him. I want to support a cause that means something to me.