A Jessamine County School District employee is promoting random acts of kindness in honor of her son who was killed in a car accident in January 2015. 

Merri Lynne Sterry is sharing and promoting Random Acts for Christopher in honor of her late son, Christopher Sterry. 

“He was the passenger with his best friend,” Sterry said. “It was a distracted driving incident.”

Christopher would have been 21 on Feb. 21.

“Having him back is not possible,” Sterry said. “It’s a daily struggle.”

Sterry said Random Acts For Christopher is meant to keep her son’s memory alive.

Sterry said the idea for Random Acts for Christopher came from her friends and coworkers in the Jessamine County Schools Central Office, where she has worked as an instructional resource consultant for five years. She has worked for the school district for 30 years. 

Now, Random Acts for Christopher is a district-wide occurrence and is in the second year for the movement.

“In 2015 we were still mourning when Christopher’s birthday happened, so we didn’t really do anything special,” Sterry said. “But in 2016 is when Random Acts for Christopher began.” 

Sterry said not only has the faculty and staff been encouraging of Random Acts for Christopher, but the students have too.

“The students have been so attentive,” Sterry said. “I have been going around to classrooms and speaking to them about Random Acts for Christopher. They have responded so well.”

There are so many kind acts that it prompted a small competition between East and West Jessamine High Schools on Twitter.

From paying for someone’s food at a restaurant to taping $10 onto diapers at Wal-Mart, Sterry said the random acts of kindness have been thoughtful and creative.

“Last year, a good friend of mine, Michelle, went to Abeulo’s Mexican Restaurant in Lexington,” Sterry said. “She wanted to pay for a family’s meal for Random Acts for Christopher. It turned out that the family had lost a child, Madison, in 2005 to a disease. It’s just so crazy how that happened.” 

Other ways to get in on the initiative other than random acts are the T-Shirts available at both Jessamine Proud stores in East and West Jessamine High Schools. 

All the proceeds made from the Random Acts for Christopher T-Shirts will go back into the community. 

“The shirt proceeds will be split three ways,” Sterry said. “Thirty-three percent will go back to Jessamine Proud to pay for the shirts, 33 percent to the Lexington Humane Society and 33 percent to the Jessamine County Animal Care and Control.”

Sterry chose for Random Acts for Christopher to occur from Feb. 13 to Feb. 24. By coincidence, Feb. 17 is National Random Acts of Kindness Day.

Those wishing to buy a shirt or learn more about Random Acts for Christopher can visit the facebook page http://bit.ly/2krIZC1.