A brilliant, year-old exercise in performing random acts of kindness in the Royersford/Phoenixville area made its way to Coatesville earlier this month when dozens of students from the Coatesville Area School District spread a special type of holiday cheer throughout the city.

Donning Santa hats and an extra dose of good will, the Coatesville students left cash and candy canes lying around town, handed out gift cards, paid for meals at Double D Diner, left coins at laundromats, visited shelters, donated food, helped an animal rescue, and wrote thank-you notes.

Credit for the idea goes to parent Jill Anoia, a Royersford resident and Coatesville graduate, and her two boys, who sparked the formation of the first group last year. Approximately 35 students from the Spring-Ford School District participated last December, and that morphed into a mob of more than 400 this month.

“My big thing is that I want it to be a natural thing for our kids,” Anoia said. “I want it to be where it’s not a thought. It’s this is what we do. We give back to people. Period. This shouldn’t be a special thing. This is something that feels as normal as playing on the soccer team.”

Anoia’s links to the Coatesville community sparked the movement in the only city in Chester County. Her friends – Heidi Williams, Jess Jakatt, and Jess Guyer, all teachers in the Coatesville School District – coordinated the local effort through Facebook.

Williams’s husband Trevor, a real estate agent, works with Anoia at The Matt Gorham Group, where Anoia is the executive administrator. He appreciated the time he and his wife spent with their three daughters, giving back to the community that raised them, and look forward to making it an annual tradition.

“It teaches the kids a valuable lesson,” said Trevor Williams, “that a small gesture can go a long way.”