Megan McDowell is a mom and Licensed Social Worker in Bernardsville, New Jersey.  In 2001 she was living in Colorado when her brother-in-law John Farrell was killed on September 11, 2001.  She witnessed how the acts of kindness by friends as well as complete strangers sustained her sister and her four children as well as her extended family consistently and steadily for years after the attacks.  She realized first-hand the magic of giving--that small acts of kindness can not only change a person's day, but literally change the course of their life and their perception of the events that have unfolded in their lives.  Megan realized that along with the obvious tragedy of the day, her nieces and nephews would remember experiencing people from all around the world at their best, with friends and strangers focusing on the things that truly matter in life.  She told herself that when her family had their feet on the ground again, she would attempt to give back to the world what the world have given to them...faith, compassion and a sense of hope.

    
John Farrell working at Sandler O'Neill in the South Tower

In 2003 Megan moved back to her hometown of Bernardsville and began to meet women that she really liked, but something was missing.  She was looking for a way to create deeper friendships and to share in the sacred space created by giving.  The idea of Heartworks started out as a "Ladies night out" at a local restaurant, but it wasn't what she had in mind.  There needed to be a sacred intention of giving of ourselves as a way of opening up these new friendships and helping women to relate on a "heart level" rather than just a superficial level. 

Then in 2004 a friend of her sister's died very unexpectedly after spending the day on the golf course with his father and friends.  He was 34 years old.  Peter Aquilone worked for the NHL and was a great supporter of the Special Olympics.  People arrived from everywhere for his services, all with different stories about how Peter's kindness had changed their lives.  The quote on his remembrance card reads, "A life of good work cut short", and Megan was overwhelmed with the amount of lives Peter had touched and was once again reminded of how unpredictable life is.

The name "Heartworks" came to Megan one morning, and it refers to time we spend focused on issues of the heart that bring us to a deeper relationship with God, ourselves and each other.  So even though she was uncomfortable and afraid, she started the group. It was six years ago that she said to her playgroup "I am going to start an Acts of Kindness group as a way of paying forward what has been done for my family. Come to my house Tuesday night if you are interested." Eight women came that first Tuesday in October 2004. Now we have over 40 women at each meeting, 100 or so on our email support list and five new chapters have formed throughout the East Coast. We have been blessed with the opportunity to help countless people. We say this because one small act of kindness for one person inspires them to reach out to another and so on and so on. We recently had a fund raiser luncheon for a local family and a woman Megan had never met before came up and hugged her. This is not unusual. (If you are going to do Heartworks, you must get used to a lot of hugging.) As she embraced Megan, the woman whispered, "When my husband died last year, Heartworks gave me a box full of money in small bills for lunch money and errands...I am here to pay it forward to someone else." Heartworkers hear this feedback everywhere we go.