Becoming Serve Kindness

We are Melissa Brooks and Jillian Darling! We met more than 10 years ago when our daughters were in nursery school and developed a strong friendship based on our shared interests in art, travel, and food and common values of kindness, truth, and humility.

Kindness in Action

In 2016, those values led us to become part of a group studying the reasons why people are migrating across the Southwestern border of the United States. We learned about the history, politics, trade, environmental, and economic factors that led to the current situation.

The study culminated in a trip to Tucson, Arizona, and Nogales, Mexico, to meet and hear firsthand from the people living and working on both sides of the border. The experience was life-changing. Witnessing the kindness expressed on both sides of the border to the migrants, and to the workers along that border, deeply impacted our thinking.

Despite the ongoing disagreement about what “to do” at the border, our overwhelming takeaway from the experience was simply this: Kindness matters. Kindness transcends differences and has a positive, powerful impact on both the recipient and giver. It is our humanity that makes our communities strong—and choosing and promoting kindness makes everyone’s world better.

Pairing Art and Nature

After our experiences at the border, we decided it was time to put our interests and values into action, and Serve Kindness was created in the Fall of 2017. For us, art and nature go hand-in-hand. Many of our earliest and best ideas for Serve Kindness were conceived during shared long walks in nature. In the great outdoors, inspiration is all around—with every shade of every color beautifully represented. In the end, it was a simple decision to choose a handblown glass bowl as our first product. It’s nature at work—heating sand to high temperatures to create the glass and then choosing colors from the palette of the great outdoors.  

Kindness, Community, Charity

Serve Kindness is about more than just offering a beautiful product. We want to create a ripple effect, and we strive to build strong relationships in our community. We work with local master glass-blowers in Essex, Massachusetts to create our handblown glass bowls. And we seek out partnerships with established charities who work tirelessly to serve kindness in their communities and who benefit from every Serve Kindness purchase. Intentional gift giving is a simple act and with every purchase of our glass bowls, you’re giving back to deserving organizations, offering help and hope to everyone these organizations serve, and spreading kindness from our tables to our hearts and throughout our communities.