Skip to content

Teen placed positive Post-its all over town in the middle of the night

Those weekend words of affirmation were brought to you by an 18-year-old student hoping to make your day
IMG-5699
Travis Jarratt, 18, of Nottawa, hand-wrote messages on 80 Post-it Notes and stuck them up around Collingwood's downtown in the hopes of improving someone's day. Erika Engel/CollingwoodToday

During the civic holiday weekend in August, you might have noticed some positive messages hand-written on neon Post-it notes stuck up around Collingwood.

The author of the notes, Travis Jarratt, did it to make someone’s day, but it’s his week that’s been made.

Jarratt, 18, will often write notes to himself and leave them places he will find them later when he might need a mood boost.

He and his friends often exchange notes, and it made him think about the potential of a particularly placed positive Post-it.

He came up with the idea of anonymous notes left where people could easily find them. He’s local to Collingwood as a Nottawa resident, and graduated from Collingwood Collegiate Institute, so he decided to target Hurontario Street for his kindness campaign.

“I always wanted to do something to make people happy,” said Jarratt. “I do firmly believe people deserve happiness.”

He spent about a week picking out seven uplifting messages, then a couple of days writing them out onto 80 Post-it notes in his neatest penmanship. On Friday morning (Aug. 2), around 3 a.m., he stuck them up on light posts, pianos, and benches along Hurontario Street.

He watched people post on social media when they discovered his notes. They each shared stories about how discovering those kind notes from a stranger made them happy.

Ursula Raehse found one of his notes that read “you are enough” on the sidewalk. It wouldn’t stick to anything anymore, so she tucked it away in her book.

She called it a “hug” from a stranger, and said it was just what she needed.

Jarratt was “incredibly happy” to hear Raehse’s reaction to the Post-it messages.

“It all means a lot to me really,” said Jarratt, who has struggled with anxiety and depression. For him, finding a note he’s left himself or received from someone else is a temporary boost to help him keep going about his day.

“I wanted to take that one act of kindness and expand it to more people,” said Jarratt. “I would definitely say it was worth it.”

His two favourite messages from his kindness campaign were: “I’m proud of you” and “You’re stronger than you think.”

He hasn’t made any plans for another note-writing campaign, but he said he’d like to do it again sometime, this time with some help and more Post-its.


Comments

Verified reader

If you would like to apply to become a verified commenter, please fill out this form.




Erika Engel

About the Author: Erika Engel

Erika regularly covers all things news in Collingwood as a reporter and editor. She has 15 years of experience as a local journalist
Read more