Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Community Service:

Kindness tour organizer brings lofty goal to Las Vegas

One Million Acts of Kindness

Leila Navidi

Bob Votruba rides his bike westbound on Cheyenne Avenue in Las Vegas, part of the Kindness Bicycle Tour, on Monday, March 12, 2012.

One Million Acts of Kindness

Bob Votruba rides his bike westbound on Cheyenne Avenue in Las Vegas, part of the Kindness Bicycle Tour, on Monday, March 12, 2012. Launch slideshow »

Attention all 20-somethings, teens and children: If you start now, you can deliver 1 million acts of kindness during your lifetime.

That’s according to Bob Votruba, whose kindness bus has rolled into town to promote his message.

Delivering a million acts of kindness in a lifetime, he says, comes down to simple math — 50 acts of kindness every day for 55 years.

He’s not talking grand gestures. It could be as simple as opening a door for someone, letting a car into traffic or even a sincere smile.

“You probably aren’t going to be able to do 1 million acts of kindness in your life,” Votruba concedes, but he says that’s not the point. “What it creates in the individual who is doing this is the most caring, loving, beautiful person you could ever imagine to be.”

As part of his mission, Votruba rode his bicycle Monday around the Las Vegas Valley while bringing awareness to wounded warriors, his latest focus. Posters attached to his bicycle honored former Metro Police Sgt. Henry Prendes, who was fatally shot while responding to a domestic violence call in 2006.

“So many of us aren’t giving credit to these wounded warriors, so I decided to call attention to it,” Votruba said.

It’s one piece of his personal mission, borne out of tragedy several years ago.

The Virginia Tech shooting in 2007 served as a call to action for Votruba, then-owner of a small business building homes in Cleveland. Votruba sat fixated to the television after the deadly college rampage and then drove to Blacksburg, Va.

“I just couldn’t make sense of it,” he said. “I just stood off to the side and watched for four days.”

The experience led him to conclude something was wrong in society, specifically an absence of kindness and respect.

Click to enlarge photo

Bob Votruba, founder of the One Million Acts of Kindness campaign, bought this bus from Craigslist and transformed it into a traveling home fit for his journey.

From there, he bought a bus from Craigslist and formed the One Million Acts of Kindness campaign. Since then, Votruba said he has traveled across the country — first stopping at college campuses — in his painted 7-by-12 bus, accompanied by his Boston Terrier named Bogart. Votruba lives frugally, surviving off savings and occasional donations.

“It’s smaller than the master bedroom closet of where I lived when I was married,” he said, describing the bus where he sleeps at night.

Along the way, the 57-year-old father of three college-aged children has visited all firehouses in Manhattan and brought awareness to domestic violence and child sexual abuse through bike tours in various cities. He began his latest bus trip Jan. 21 in Santa Monica, Calif., and has met with several injured veterans.

“Here are these young kids putting their lives on the line and sacrificing so much,” he said. “I can’t even imagine what they have to deal with daily, especially initially.”

This trip will take him back to the East Coast in time for Sept. 11, at which time he plans to visit firehouses and police stations. On Sunday, Votruba made an unannounced visit to Firehouse 53 in North Las Vegas.

“They just don’t get enough people visiting them or telling them thank you,” he said.

It’s safe to say the visit served as one of his acts of kindness for the day. In time, Votruba said he hopes the physical acts of kindness evolve into kind acts of the heart — a state he described as wanting goodness for everyone in sight.

“We’re in a society that seems to judge in advance,” he said. “We all have an opinion before we meet people.”

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