Pay it forward group establishes permanent foundation

Published 4:52 pm Tuesday, March 30, 2010

A group involved in a recent random acts of kindness campaign throughout the Birmingham area will continue to tour the area while helping those negatively affected by the nation’s economy.

Birmingham-based Legacy Credit Union recently announced it has sponsored a more than monthlong campaign aimed at surprising people by randomly paying for everything from gas to haircuts.

The campaign, called Do Something Good Today, made a few stops in Shelby County, including gas stations and stores near the Colonial Promenade Shopping Center in Alabaster.

Until March 25, members of the Do Something Good Today group would not reveal who was sponsoring the campaign. But Legacy Credit Union Chief Executive Officer Joe McGee revealed his company sponsored the campaign during a discounted gas promotion in Riverchase.

“We wanted to stay anonymous at the beginning to not seem self-serving,” McGee said at the gas promotion. “We decided that there couldn’t be anything more appropriate to announce it was us than to do a large good deed for the community.”

McGee also said the company will establish the Legacy For Good Foundation, which will continue the campaign’s random good deeds, and will allow people to nominate others to receive good deeds on Dosomethinggoodtoday.com.

“We did everything from paying for meals, to haircuts, gas and groceries,” McGee said. “We also fulfilled several requests that were nominated online, which is the reason why we’re forming the foundation so that we can continue to help out people in our community.”

Legacy funded the project through its marketing budget, McGee said.

“We desired to make a difference in the community that keeps us employed,” McGee said.