Over the last few months, Melody Zar Aziz, a Great Neck local, founded a new charity, Fountain of Kindness.
The philanthropic organization grew out of a personal experience Aziz went through when a friend called in despair, telling her that someone close to them was refusing cancer treatment because it was too painful.
Aziz helped the ill person through the painful experience and found an outpouring of love and kindness from the community to help this person in need. Eventually, the cancer patient returned to treatment and has since been in remission. The amount of love and generosity that came out of this experience inspired Aziz to launch Fountain of Kindness to bring the same help to others.
This charity provides a variety of items, like gift baskets, meals and giveaways, to people facing different types of hardships. Fountain of Kindness hopes to grow so that the organization can provide for people facing various difficulties with tokens of hope and moments of happiness.
“We want people to be able to feel like they live in a world where people care about each other, especially when they’re going through such difficult times,” Aziz said, and with the charity, she has provided people with this feeling.
By helping members in the community when they need it most, the effect Fountain of Kindness has brought to their Great Neck neighbors is quite profound. Even during trying times, the charity brings people of all demographics in the area together for acts of kindness.
“Everyone wants to do something and just be a part of it. New people join every day,” Aziz explained. The charity has already had lasting effects on the Great Neck community by not only comforting those in need, but also by bringing the many communities that make up Great Neck together.
As for the future of the charity, Aziz hopes to grow large enough to bring change to communities far and wide.
“I want people to know our name so they can reach out to us when they need it,” the charity’s founder said.
Fountain of Kindness is still a local charity getting small things off the ground, but with the outpouring of help from the community, Aziz is hopeful of expanding it beyond the area, providing aid wherever it is needed.
The name, Fountain of Kindness, really speaks to the work the charity does and the amount of passion behind each one of its projects. According to Aziz, deciding on a name for the charity was the most difficult part of the entire process. For weeks, she went back and forth until, finally, she found something that spoke to the meaning behind the work the organization accomplishes. To Aziz, the word fountain means something that never stops flowing and flourishing, and by having a fountain of kindness, there would be a never-ending flow of compassion and generosity going out.
As the charity continues to grow, it looks for support from the community. On May 30, the group held a successful Sweat, Sun, Sip fundraiser. On June 18, Fountain of Kindness is hosting Meat Preparation, Marination & Tasting with Abbie from Everfresh. Text 516-410-6869 to reserve a seat and receive location information.
Watch a video featuring Fountain of Kindness’s story on PATV every day at 6:30 p.m. on channel 20 on Optimum and channel 37 on Verizon. Learn more at www.fountainofkindness.org or view this video: https://youtu.be/RAmPJyQJeSg.
