On Nov. 8, seven Milford High School students went into Downtown Milford and participated in a random act of kindness. These students picked up their rakes and went from house to house asking strangers if they could rake up all the leaves in their yards.

The Rake and Run group was founded by Senior Courtney “Coco” Drew, who came up with the idea in Leadership class after her aunt told her that students had raked her yard and how grateful she was for the act. “I thought it would be a neat idea to bring to Milford because of how close-knit our community is,” Drew explained. Anyone could grab their rakes and participate in this random act of kindness to brighten up a stranger’s day.

In total, the students raked three yards. They ran to random houses and asked if they were\ allowed to clean up their yard. Every time the person at the door got emotional or was pleasantly surprised. In one of the cases, students knocked on the door and an elderly woman opened it. Once the students asked her if they could help, she started to tear up. Senior Gigi Ginsbach, shares that this was her favorite memory. “[She] just had back surgery and wasn’t able to rake her own yard; she was so thankful for us raking her yard.” At the students’ second house, they decided to have a little fun and make a huge leaf pile in the person’s yard and proceeded to play in the pile and share lots of laughs that brought back memories from when they were little. Once the students finished playing in the leaves, they bagged them all up and left them on the side of the road. After their raking adventures, they drove a car through their route and collected the strewn leaves.

A shared emotion among the seven students was the feeling of selflessness. Junior Grace Priebe said, “I loved how friendly the people were. They were so grateful for us doing this, and it felt good to help them.” Senior Camryn Keough added, “I chose to do Rake and Run because I enjoy helping my community. Our community has a sense of togetherness, and I am proud to be able to give back.”

These community members were appreciative of these seven students and their selfless deeds, and some proceeded to offer money and even cookies to the students who politely declined. Drew was pleased with the outcome and emotions that came from the Rake and Run that she is planning to have a fun-filled winter version called Shovel and Skate. “I would like to continue spreading small acts of kindness. On a snow day after the roads are clear, it would be nice to shovel people’s driveways downtown Milford. The more people the more fun and easy it becomes!” Anyone can join so if you are interested contact Coco Drew at [email protected] for more information.