California woman in L.V. to honor shooting victims with 58 good deeds

Image

L.E. Baskow

Lisa Schachtel Kodimer is in Las Vegas performing 58 acts of kindness in honor of the mass shooting 58 victims, one a balloon release near Party City Friday, October 13, 2017.

Sat, Oct 14, 2017 (2 a.m.)

58 Acts of Kindness

Lisa Schachtel Kodimer is in Las Vegas performing 58 acts of kindness in honor of the mass shooting 58 victims, one a balloon release near Party City Friday, October 13, 2017. Launch slideshow »

Looking for a way to honor the 58 people killed in the Oct. 1 Las Vegas Strip shooting, a California woman has traveled to Las Vegas to carry out 58 acts of kindness.

Lisa Schachtel Kodimer, who runs Connecting a Caring Community, a nonprofit organization in the Los Angeles area, said she lives to give back.

She was on her way to Las Vegas to visit family on Sunday when she came up with the idea to honor those who lost their lives when a gunman opened fire from the 32nd floor of Mandalay Bay onto a crowd of 22,000 people at the Route 91 country music festival.

“I thought, ‘How do I go to Las Vegas and not do something to try and help them,’” Kodimer said. “So I was sitting on the airplane and decided that I was going to do 58 good deeds to honor the 58 people who died.”

She is taking each person’s name and doing a good deed in their honor, Kodimer said.

Kodimer did her first good deed as soon as she got off the plane and hopped in a cab.

She gave the cabdriver a tip and some extra money. “You take that and you do something nice for someone else,” Kodimer told the driver. “He then asked me if it was OK if he took his tip money and put it in the jar at the cab office that was being donated to victims.”

She continued her mission by picking up the tab for someone at a restaurant, buying 58 flowers to place at a memorial at the Las Vegas welcome sign and releasing 58 balloons into the sky.

She lets other people know what she’s doing.

“I educate the people about the pay-it-forward project and tell them, ‘This is in honor of Lisa Patterson, her age and she’s from California,’” she said. “Then they’re crying, I’m crying ... I do it to make a difference and impact them.”

So far, she’s carried out at least three dozen good deeds. She said people who follow her on social media have stepped up to help, too.

“They contacted me and said we have loved following you — can we host a good deed?” she said. “So now I have 22 people more to honor and about 50 donors who want to help out with that.”

Kodimer was supposed to leave this afternoon, but Southwest Airlines let her change her flight so she could stick around another day to honor the rest of the victims.

This story has been revised to correct the name of Kodimer’s organization.

Back to top

SHARE