VERO BEACH — The Vero Beach City Council recently proclaimed January 2015 as “Compassion Vero” month. As part of its month long celebration, on Jan. 22, at 6 p.m., Compassion Vero will present a special, free screening of “Kindness is Contagious,” at the Emerson Center.
“Kindess is Contagious” is a feel-good, feature film documentary about being nice and the benefits of being nice, narrated by Catherine Ryan Hyde, the best-selling author of the novel (and film) “Pay It Forward.”
Made possible through the generosity of the Walter & Lalita Janke Charitable Foundation and The Emerson Center, the evening will begin at 5:30 p.m. with a meet and greet with movie director David Gaz. Light refreshments and snacks courtesy of Einstein Bros Bagels will be provided. The film will begin at 6 p.m. and a question and answer period with director Gaz will follow.
The “Kindness is Contagious” film profiles cutting-edge scientists and best-selling authors from Berkeley to Harvard and everywhere in between, as well as real life people from all walks of life whose lives illustrate the experts’ incredible discovery: nice guys finish first!
Gaz explained, “It all began with an article about James Fowler and Nicholas Christakis and their research concerning the viral nature of kindness. Fowler and Christakis demonstrated that if you are kind to one person, they will be kind to four other people, and that each of those four people will be kind to four more people, and so on and so on…eventually circling back around to you again, showing in fact that Karma may actually exist in the scientific sense.”
“We asked people from all walks of life one deceptively difficult question: ‘What is the nicest thing anyone ever did for you?’ Police officers, models, CEOs, baseball players, roller girls, concert pianists, artists, street performers, soup kitchen volunteers, and many more will tell you their heartfelt stories of kindness and generosity,” Gaz said.
Gaz is a multi-award-winning creative director, filmmaker and photographer. He has more than 20 years of experience with major brands such as Levi’s, Sony, IBM, Xerox and Disney as well as world class museums and cultural centers such as Le Louvre, Le Musee d’Art Moderne, Le Centre Pompidou. He has been covered extensively by Communication Arts, Graphis, Photo Insider, Photo District News, The San Francisco Examiner Sunday Magazine and the French publications BAT and L’Etape Graphique and several of his pieces have been selected for the permanent collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
Formed in February 2014, Compassion Vero is made up of a group of representatives from the business, government, environment, religious, education, health care, arts and non-profit sectors. The group is spearheading a coordinated effort aimed at increasing civility, consideration, respect, acceptance, inclusion, kindness, and compassion in the community of Vero Beach.
According to Suzy Feeney, Compassion Vero chairperson, “Our motto is ‘Respect for the Common Good,’ and earlier this year we came together as a group to reduce the divisiveness, lack of civility, and general hostility that has pervaded public discourse and created a less than friendly atmosphere in some parts of our community.”
For more information about Compassion Vero and its mission, visit www.CompassionVero.org.