Do Some Good!

Are you aware of the difference that you can make each day? You can be a miracle maker, all it takes is a willing attitude to make the ripple that will change people's lives for the better? Think not? Well, read on:

Nicholas Goers is challenging everyone to do some good under the name of Do Some Good  - an organization he started to honor his late father.

“I am challenging everyone to simply - Do Some Good! I'm taking the ‘pay-it-forward’ concept to the next level and we all need to climb on board. Each and every day there are organizations in and around your community that could always use support from the communities in which they serve,” Goers said on his Facebook page. “It's not always about money though, sometimes simply giving your time is more than enough and very much appreciated. But it doesn't stop there!”

Goers, who lives in Inver Grove Heights, MN, has set up a Facebook page as a water cooler of sorts to get, and give, volunteer opportunities. He has links to several area organizations accepting volunteers or donations.

“It’s a place where I want people to come when they’re looking for somewhere to help out and pitch in,” he said. “I want to it to be grassroots and a place to just share stories of some of the good things they’ve done.”

Many times, he said, people are unable to give money to organizations so he encourages giving time. Goers and his fiancee Melissa Paulus now work together on Do Some Good. They sometimes link to other companies or people's Facebook pages when they hear about acts of kindness those others have done.

“It can be about sharing some good feelings and knowing the reward is worth it,” he said. "When we notice a company or person who went out of their way to be nice or do something good we highlight that on our page."

The idea to create Do Some Good came from wanting to memorialize his father in a positive light. Steven Donald Goers died almost six years ago.

“He tried to be a good man. He suffered from a drinking problem. When I was growing up I would see it and not want to think about it. He was sober for 18 years of my life and then from some reason it (alcoholism) kicked in,” Goers said. “He was still a good guy- he was known in the neighborhood in our tight-knit community.

“I wanted to have a way to remember and honor him – there’s so much more to my father than what people saw or heard about him and his drinking and his death.”

Goers doesn’t have plans to incorporate or make Do Some Good his full time job, rather he wants it to be a behind-the-scenes organization.

“I don’t need it to have a board of directors or be this huge non-profit,” he said. “I just want to inspire people to do some good in their community.”

Paying for the coffee of the person behind them, shoveling the driveway of an elderly person, volunteering to help at a food shelf, or adopting a “little brother” are all some examples of doing some good Goers encourages.

So far Do Some Good has organized many taco feed fundraisers for people facing hardships and local teams for cancer walks.

“I want to keep doing it and support others in what they want to do,” he said.