Where have people learned about SSSSH?

Anonymous Good-Deed Ideas for Adults

  • While in a restaurant, pay for the meals at another table. Instruct the waitress to give you that table's check, quietly without notice, and deliver to that table a Reichle card without further comment. (See People Magazine June 9, 2003 pages 89-90)
  • Cut someone's grass. (This was one of Hal Reichle's favorites)
  • Weed someone's garden.
  • Wash someone's car.
  • Plant flowers in someone's garden.
  • Scrape, prime, and paint someone's garage or tool shed. (See People Magazine June 9, 2003 pages 89-90) (This was one of Hal Reichle's favorites)
  • Pay for the food order for the car behind you in the drive-through, fast-food restaurant.
  • Pay for the toll of the car behind you on a toll road or toll bridge. If it's a toll bridge, the fee is usually set and known. If a toll road, often one pays based on far they have traveled on the road, therefore, the exact toll for the car behind you is not known. In such a case, give the toll both clerk $20.00 and several Reichle Cards with instructions to pay everyone's toll until the $20.00 is gone.
  • Pay for the movie of the third person behind you in line at the theater. It needs to be the third person so you can get away in time. Instruct the box office cashier to give that person a Reichle Card.
  • Give a $50.00 tip to a bagboy in a grocery store claiming he/she helped Hal Reichle several days ago and Hal forgot to tip them. (See People Magazine June 9, 2003, pages 89-90 or Cleveland Plain Dealer, front page, Easter Sunday 2003)
  • Give a $50.00 tip to a waitress in a restaurant claiming he/she waited on Hal Reichle several days ago and Hal forgot to tip them. (See People Magazine June 9, 2003, pages 89-90 or Cleveland Plain Dealer, front page, Easter Sunday 2003)
  • Make arrangements to pay someone's gas, water, telephone, or electric bill. Call the utility company and offer this for a total stranger. (This was a good deed sent in from a anonymous member of SSSSH!)
  • Buy someone's gasoline while they are filling up their car. Wait inside the service station until the clerk can tell you the final sale. Put your gasoline and their gasoline on your credit card. Do not use cash. It's too tempting for the clerk. Instruct the clerk to give the recipient a Reichle Card when they come in to pay for their gas. Make sure your chosen recipient is not using a credit card at the pump.
  • Rake someone's yard free from leaves. Place a Reichle Card on their door.
  • Drop off a bag of groceries on someone's doorstep. Leave a Reichle Card fastened to the grocery bag. (This was one of Hal Reichle's favorites)
  • Go to the dry cleaners. Pay for someone's dry cleaning, someone you don't know. Instruct the clerk to give them a Reichle Card when they arrive to pick up their clothes.
  • Go to the manager of a grocery store and give him/her $50.00 to $100.00. Instruct the manager to award free groceries to a deserving person going through the check-out line during the day. Tell the manager to inform the recipient that they are the 1000th person this week to buy groceries and are, therefore, the recipient of the Hal Reichle award. This also serves as good publicity for the grocery store.
  • Pick up every garbage can you see in the street on a windy day. (This was a good deed sent in from a anonymous member of SSSSH!)
  • Go to a nursing home and take a perfect stranger out for lunch or bring an anonymous bouquet of flowers accompanied by a Reichle Card.
  • Decorate for Christmas a small, isolated, miserable looking tree or shrub near a area frequented by lots of people. (This was a good deed sent in from a anonymous member of SSSSH!)

Anonymous Good-deed Ideas for Children

  • While Mommy is asleep, have Daddy help you fix her breakfast in bed. Then take it up to her bedroom door and set it on the floor. Place a SSSSH card on the plate. Then scratch on the door and scurry away. When your Mom wants to know who did this wonderful thing, tell her a little mouse.
  • While your Mommy is in another room or taking a nap, wash the dishes. Tell her they must have been washed by a little fairy. Don't get the water too hot.
  • Empty all the wastebaskets in the house into a large garbage bag and take that large bag outside and put it into the garbage can.
  • Send your Mommy or Daddy a letter telling them that they are wonderful parents. Sign it "A special angel looking down upon them." Make sure your address is correct on the envelope. Ask someone big for a postage stamp.
  • Pick up your toys or clean your room without being asked. Be very quiet so no one hears you.

Good-Deed Ideas for Large Cities

  • Set up a shoe-shine stand. After each shine, instead of charging the customer, you give them a Reichle card. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the words “shoe shine.”
  • Put quarters in expired or about-to-be-expired parking meters and place a Reichle card under the windshield wiper blade. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the words “parking meter money.”
  • Pin a fresh flower to a passer-by’s coat and hand them a Reichle card.
  • Buy a coupon book of gift certificates from McDonalds and randomly pass them out to pedestrians with an attached Reichle card.
  • Wash a dirty parked car. SSSSH members are able to wash and rinse a car in 45 seconds with our Hiram College SSSSH Car Washing van occupied by 7 SSSSH workers. Washing a car at a red traffic light before it turns green is very adventurous. Make sure the red light lasts for at least 45 seconds. You will have to “time” the selected traffic light making sure the red portion lasts long enough. Ask permission first so the driver is not afraid. Carrying a 3’X2’ sign reading in red letters, “WE WASH CARS IN 45 SECONDS! MAY WE WASH YOUR CAR NOW?” helps speed things along. Give the driver a Reichle card. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the words “car wash.” CAUTION: Watch for other traffic! CAUTION: Make sure all the windows are closed on the car you are washing!
  • As with idea above, you can wash a car that arrives at a stop sign. If no other car is behind it, the driver will usually wait until the wash job is done. Ask permission first so the driver is not afraid. The same red-letter sign as mentioned in # 5 above works well. Upon arriving at the stop sign, get out of your car and hold the red-letter sign in plain view of the driver stopped behind you. Look for the driver’s head shaking, “yes” as permission to commence. Another way to have some fun is to place a sign on the back of your car-washing van reading, “Honk 3 times at the next stop sign to get your car washed free in 60 seconds!” When you hear 3 honks while at a stop sign, go to work. ”CAUTION: Watch for other traffic! CAUTION: Make sure all the windows are closed on the car you are washing!
  • When a car pulls along side a gasoline pump at service station, insert your credit card into the pump and hand the driver a Reichle card. Better yet and safer, go into the service station and buy some gasoline gift cards. Fasten a Reichle card on the back of each one, and hand one to a chosen beneficiary pulling up to the gasoline pump. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the words “free gasoline.”
  • Buy several hamburgers at a fast-food restaurant and pass them out to indigent street people.
  • Buy a dozen long-stem roses and pass them out, one at a time, to any lady looking worried or not smiling. Have a Reichle card attached to the stem. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the word “flower.”
  • Buy several small and inexpensive teddy bears. Attach a Reichle card. Hand them to passing children accompanied by their parents. CAUTION! Parents are protective of their children. Do not appear threatening! Also, anytime you want to pull Reichles involving young children accompanied by their parents, younger females (18-25 years of age) pulling Reichles and wearing college sweatshirts get less apprehension from the parents than do approaching 200-pound men.
  • Wait until someone hails a cab. Then, as they are getting into the cab, hand them a $10.00 bill attached to a Reichle card. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the words “cab fare.”
  • Wait at a bus stop. As the bus arrives, hand each person boarding the bus $2.00 with an attached Reichle card. CAUTION: Do not do this particular good deed more than once in the same area. You do not want it to be apparent you are carrying lots of money.
  • Walk into any restaurant or market where you see someone at the check-out register. Go up to them, hand them a Reichle card, and pay the cashier the indicated amount. Leave quickly. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the word “free food.”
  • As you’re walking down a crowded street, watch pedestrians coming toward you and select a beneficiary. Have a $10.00 bill hidden in your hand with a Reichle card scotch taped flush to the other side. Just as you pass your chosen recipient, tap him/her on the shoulder saying a $10.00 bill just fell out of their pocket. As they look, you are bending over to retrieve the money. You hand it to them, Reichle card side down, and then disappear into the crowd. CAUTION: Do not do this particular good deed more than once in the same area or more than once each hour. If watched by others, the first time you do this any potential crook will think the money actually dropped from your benefactor’s pocket, but if your seen doing this again, your cover will be revealed and it will be apparent you are carrying lots of money.
  • Hand a horse-mounted policeman a Reichle card and then ask permission to feed his/her horse an apple.
  • Find an occupied police car parked by a curb. Thank them for protecting you and the city as you hand them recently purchased coffee and doughnuts. Show them a Reichle card to lessen their uneasiness. They may not accept them claiming it is a gratuity against department policy. They may not accept them thinking the doughnut-bag contents are meant to harm them - booby-trapped. In such a case, it is safer to offer them something like flowers or McDonald’s Restaurant certificates. Also, anytime you want to pull Reichles on police officers, females get less apprehension from the police than 200-pound men.
  • Obtain a bucket of water with glass cleaner and a squeegee or some Windex and a roll of paper towels. Start cleaning dirty store-front windows scotch taping a Reichle card to the cleaned glass.
  • Hand out subway tokens with attached Reichle cards to those entering a subway entrance.
  • As a cab driver stops at a red light, walk up to the driver’s door handing him a $5.00 tip with an attached Reichle card. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the word “tip.”
  • Walk into a restaurant and hand a chosen waiter/waitress a $10.00 bill with a Reichle card. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the words “forgotten tip.”
  • Stand in line for a movie. Upon reaching the cashier’s window, request to pay for the movie tickets of someone behind you. Pick a family with children or someone easily identified. Give the cashier a Reichle card and ask that he/she hand the purchased tickets and the Reichle car to the selected recipients when they arrive at the ticket window. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the words “movie tickets.” A safer way: buy movie coupons from the cashier. Hand the coupons with an attached Reichle card to your selected recipients while they are standing in line. In this way, you can pick someone toward the rear of the line and you need not worry about the movie cashier keeping your money. Also, your chosen benefactors can use the coupons for refreshments as well.
  • Bus drivers never get tips. When a bus arrives at a bus stop, go up to the driver and give him/her a $5.00 bill and an attached Reichle card. Leave the bus quickly before you end up going for a bus ride. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the word “tip.”
  • Buy 10-local newspapers. Attach to each a Reichle card in a prominent place so it will be seen when the newspaper is opened. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the word “newspaper.” Hand the free newspaper to people getting on a subway or bus.
  • Buy some inexpensive $5.00 umbrellas. Scotch tape a Reichle card around the handle. Make sure the blank on the Reichle card is filled in with the word “umbrella.” When it starts raining, hand the free umbrellas to those running for cover. Then leave the area.
  • Stop by a street news stand or corner hot-dog vendor. Give the proprietor a $20.00 bill and several Reichle cards. Tell the proprietor to give free merchandise to the next several customers until the $20.00 is consumed. Request that each benefactor be given a Reichle card. Ask not to be identified by the salesperson as you watch this event unfold.
  • During a hot day, find some street construction workers repairing the road or underground infrastructure. Buy some ice-cold cokes (soft plastic bottles) and fasten a Reichle card to them with a rubber band. Hand these to the construction crew.
  • Just wanted to add some ideas...maybe they have already been suggested...but I thought i would offer. I buy car wash certificates to keep in my car to use through out the year. Why not give the attendant 2 tickets, one for you, and one for the car behind you? I did and my 11 yr. old son was so excited he wanted to become a member of ssssh so that night when we went to the movies, he bought a ticket with his own money and gave it back to the ticket person and said " please give this to the third person in line." (along with a ssssh card) it was fun standing in the lobby waiting for the movie to start and watching a family come in with the father reading the card. signed, A proud Mom