Historian and philosopher Howard Zinn once said, “Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”

It’s not hard to make a difference in someone’s life, but it does take a special kind of person to notice the needs that exist within their own community, then go the extra mile to meet those needs.

Springfield resident Kim Collins knows that a simple act of kindness doesn’t have to be big or grandiose to be meaningful.

An executive assistant for Double Edge Builders, LLC, Kim has always been the kind of person to offer a helping hand, whether she’s delivering an extra plate of food to a neighbor having a difficult time making ends meet or distributing sack lunches to the homeless community in Nashville. What people like Kim seem to know instinctively is that opportunities to help someone in need, even in the smallest of ways, are everywhere if you simply look around.

One such opportunity presented itself recently, when temperatures soared into the upper 90s with dangerously high heat indexes. Kim was struck by the fact that homeless community members do not have access to water during the day, as shelters are only available to them at night.

“I was talking to a friend, and I said I was concerned because there isn’t a place for the homeless to get cold water,” she says. “She asked me how we would get it to them, and I said, ‘If you get the water, I’ll deliver it to them.’ She called the next day and said she had bought two cases, and the day after that I set out with my mother to find people who needed it.”

Early that morning, Kim and her mother loaded a cooler packed with water bottles and traversed the far corners of Springfield, searching areas that are known to attract homeless men, women, and children living within the community.

It didn’t take long for them to find people in need.

“We found several people behind Kroger, Hardee’s, and Walmart, and then we drove through the square,” she details. “Basically, we looked in places where people were trying to get some shelter from the heat.”

A lifelong resident of Springfield, Kim’s early experiences inform her desire to serve and ability to empathize with those less fortunate than herself.

“When I was growing up, we went to a small church and a lot of my friends didn't have what we had. They didn't have clean clothes or live in a nice house, or their parents struggled,” she recalls. “I paid attention to that at an early age, and I guess that's when I started thinking about how I could make a difference. My parents taught me that we’ve got to share what we have, and that’s what I grew up believing.”

While there is no doubt Kim’s thoughtfulness made a difference in the lives she touched recently, her story of one woman making a difference in her community through a simple act of kindness inspires us all to help those in need, even in the smallest of ways.

“I am only one person. I cannot do everything, but I can do something.”- Edward Everett Hale