By Hannah Kliger
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NEW YORK (WCBS, WLNY) — A handwritten note on a bike rack during a routine grocery trip caught Brooklyn artist Rusty Zimmerman by surprise.
The note read: “Just a daily reminder that you are amazing and the world is a better place with you in it. Xoxo Charlie.”
Zimmerman said he was struck by the message and its mysterious author.
“I had to leave it for as many people to find as possible,” Zimmerman said of the note, adding, “I’ve never met this Charlie, but I think that Charlie’s right. I think that one good deed does ripple out and it can inspire other people to do the same.”
Around the same time, Jessica Ruth Shepard, a holistic health coach, discovered a similar note along Fifth Avenue in Park Slope.
“I knew it was something intentional. And so I was like, ‘What is that?,'” she recalled. “It was so, so well received…little does anyone really know what anyone’s really, really going through.”
Shepard said the message arrived at a time she needed to hear it most.
“It was a really hard time in my life, so it was so sweet to find that,” she said.
Meet Charlie Simon, ambassador of kindness Over the past several months, hundreds of notes like those have appeared across the city. CBS News New York’s Hannah Kliger set out on a mission to get in touch with the mysterious stranger behind the effort.
The author turned out to be 12-year-old Brooklyn student Charlie Simon.
Armed with tape and stacks of affirmation cards, Simon placed the notes in busy public spaces throughout the city.
“Rockefeller Center, Prospect Park, Central Park, Barclays Center, like the big places that I knew people would find them. So on subways, buses,” Simon said.
Here’s what inspired Charlie to do it The idea began as a school assignment requiring students to create their own TED-style talks about social issues.
“We had to make our own TED talks about one problem or like thing that’s going on in the world,” Simon explained.
Her project focused on loneliness and social media use, and was inspired by a note she once found at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
“I almost started crying because I was so happy and I’m so glad I opened it,” she said.
Simon’s younger sister, Eleanor, who is 9, helped her distribute the cards and watched the project grow.
“I’m really proud of her for doing this. Because that shows that she’s a good person. She wants people to feel good, too,” Eleanor Simon said.
What happened next was unexpected Each card included an email address inviting recipients to share their experiences finding the message. Charlie Simon’s parents said they were unprepared for the response.
“Some were just funny pictures, just saying we saw it and thanks so much. And then there were other ones that were like really personal notes,” Dan Simon. “What it showed is people in the city can be struggling and having a really hard time.”
Charlie Simon’s mother, Erin McElwain, said the messages revealed something deeper about life in New York.
“It reignites how you feel about this city of so many people, and it shows you that we’re actually a small community,” she said.
And next came the ripple effect Charlie Simon said many people chose to leave the notes behind for others to find.
“So many people were like, ‘I’m leaving this here for the next person who needs it.’ And that was really amazing. People who wanted to pass on this kindness,” she said.
The project’s impact extended beyond the streets. Simon was later invited to give her talk to her entire middle school.
“Just the smallest action can create such a big effect,” she said.
What started as a class assignment ultimately showed how a few kind words to a stranger can stop someone in their tracks.
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