Man Traveling U.S. to Promote Kindness, Empathy Makes Stop in Mill Valley

By Karina Ioffee

An Ohio man who is traveling the United States to promote random acts of kindness stopped in Mill Valley this week, his colorful bus hand-painted with messages of peace, love and friendship parked outside the Balboa Cafe downtown.

Bob Votruba began his “One Million Acts of Kindness” campaign four years ago after attending memorial services for victims of the Virginia Tech mass shooting.

Since then, the 58-year-old retired builder and father of three has used his retirement funds, savings and a bit of donations to travel from coast to coast to raise awareness about bullying and suicide among young people.

“Bullying has reached all too deadly epidemic in our country,” says Votruba, who is traveling with his Boston terrier named Bogart. “There is something very wrong…At a very early age children are having to deal with very grown up issues. They are seeing and hearing things at much too young of an age with much less parental involvement and far too few role models.”

Votruba was recently featured on CNN and has appeared twice on Oprah, preaching the gospel of kindness, whether it’s a sandwich for a hungry person, help with homework to a child or a hug to someone feeling lonely.

“It’s touching a lot of lives and a lot of people have responded very positively,” says Votruba, who lives in the bus during much of his travels.

Votruba is heading back up to Sonoma County for another week to attend the Sonoma-Marin Fair, where he hopes to inspire locals to be more compassionate and kind in their day-to-day lives. To read more about Votruba's campaign, visit his website.