It’s the holidays and time for a CTV tradition. Ross McLaughlin visited CF Pacific Centre mall to encourage people to do something nice for each other.
McLaughlin took $100 and met up with the mall’s general manager, Lillian Tummonds, who quickly put on a Santa hat to get the ball rolling. Tummonds found a family and gave them $20 of her own money. She asked them to pay it forward.
Kailey Sidhu accepted the challenge and headed to the food court where she purchased lunch for an unsuspecting woman. She then gave the remaining money to another man to buy his lunch.
“For my lunch?” he said. “God bless you.”
McLaughlin then gave Jerome Dilidili another $20 bill. He quickly went into H&M and bought a grey scarf and headed out onto the street.
“I need to look for a deserving person to have this,” he said.
He soon found Denise, who was sitting on the sidewalk with a sign asking for money, and gave her the scarf.
“Oh this is perfect,” she said, “Thank you very much.”
Beaney, who works at Take Five Café, received the next $20 from McLaughlin and decided to purchase her next customers' coffees.
"I think that's just the sweetest thing. It's the absolute sweetest thing," said one customer.
"I’m going to pay it forward," said another surprised customer.
And they were all given a card as a reminder.
It reads: "Today someone did something nice for you. Through the holidays CTV invites you to share acts of kindness by paying it forward. Let's help create a positive movement in our communities. Do something nice for someone else and share your stories, pictures and videos with us. Let's get something started!"
If you’d like to share your story of how you’re paying it forward this holiday season email us at mclaughlinonyourside@ctv.ca
