POCATELLO — A modest mobile home on the southern edge of Pocatello has become good-deed central thanks to Shannon Leavitt and her 10-year-old son Kaden. Mother and son have started a “Pay It Forward” movement in the Gate City.

    Shannon, who has been a waitress at the Sandpiper in Pocatello for more than three years, gives her son all the credit.

    “My son inspired me,” Shannon said. “He makes sure we do a good deed for someone every day.”

    Those deeds have ranged from simply helping someone with their groceries in a parking lot to buying a tank of gas or a Chinese dinner out for people who are complete strangers. The gifts come with a simple white card with black ink. The front of the card says “Pay It Forward.” On the back is a simple message: “Please do a good deed, whatever it may be. Then pass this card that person and tell them to do the same thing ... pay it forward.”

    If the theme sounds familiar to movie fans, it should.

    “Pay It Forward” was a 2000 movie based on a novel written by Catherine Ryan Hyde. It starred Helen Hunt as a mother fighting alcoholism, Kevin Spacey as a social studies teacher who had been badly burned as the victim of child abuse and Haley Joel Osment, who played a seventh-grader.

    Members of that seventh-grade class were challenged by Spacey’s character to come up with a plan for something that would make a difference in the world. Osment’s character, Trevor, decides that doing something nice for a stranger and just asking them to return the favor in the future to another stranger was a good plan. He dubbed it “pay it forward.”

    “It was one of my favorite movies,” Shannon confesses.

    Born in Pocatello, Shannon’s childhood was less than ideal. Her’s was a broken home and she spent time living with a grandmother or finding shelter with friends. She lived in Montpelier for a while, attending Bear Lake High School before she returned to Pocatello.

    The mother of three is reluctant to discuss the details of her young life, but admits, “My childhood wasn’t that great, but I learned from it.”

    A hint about her own childhood comes from her take on seventh-grader Trevor from “Pay It Forward.”

    “He didn’t have it easy with an abusive father and a drunk mother, but he came up with this great idea,” she says about the movie.

    “I always told myself when I had kids that I was going to be a good mom,” Shannon said.

    One day about seven months ago her son Kaden helped a neighbor wheel her garbage can out the curb. He said he did it because his mother had stressed the importance of helping others.

    That’s when Shannon came up with the idea of printing the “Pay It Forward” cards.

    “At first I thought it was kind of weird,” Kaden said. “Then I thought it through and thought it was pretty cool.”

    And so mother and son began looking for good deeds to perform for someone else, followed by the card prompting them to do the same for someone else.

    “I do it because it makes me feel good,” Shannon said.

    Good deeds Shannon has surprised people with include giving her coat to a teen girl who was shivering on the sidewalk while walking to school, buying a large soda for a group of youngsters trying to pool enough change or scoring a can of gas for a neighbor whose car had run out.

    Those are the small things.

    Shannon and her husband, David, have also picked up the tab for an elderly couple eating at a Pocatello Chinese restaurant and had the waiter give them a “pay it forward” card.

    Another day, Shannon spotted a couple sorting through one dollar bills at a gas station near the pump. She give the clerk an extra $25 to help fill the couple’s tank and a card to give to the couple.

    At the Sandpiper, Shannon paid for the drinks two guys ordered at the bar and had the bartender give them a card. A little later those two men paid for a meal a family was having in the restaurant and the card moved forward.

    Good deeds moving forward can change the world, according to Shannon.

    “It’s just the way I feel,” she said. “That one thing could turn their whole day around. It might even change their lives.”

    There is one other benefit.

    “It’s fun,” Shannon said with a smile.

Inspirational Idaho

“Inspirational Idaho” is the Journal’s series about what’s right with our communities. Every Sunday we will feature an inspiring local person or group, focusing on how they’ve made a positive difference in the lives of others. If you have someone or a specific group you would like to see featured, contact Journal Assignment Editor Tammy Scardino at 208-239-3134 or tscardino@journalnet.com.