2023
Choose Kind Week
July 28 – August 4
In 2020, our family established Choose Kind Week as a way to honor our daughter and sister, Ashton, who was needlessly killed by a drunk driver on July 28, 2019. Through our grief, we have found that spreading kindness and doing right by others is helpful. It’s just as important to tell Ashton’s story so that we might change someone’s actions and prevent another family from suffering.
Over the past four years, we have asked you to participate with us by choosing to do acts of kindness in Ashton’s name. While an exact number is hard to reach it’s reasonable to estimate that we’ve touched over 800 people since we started this mission. Your participation in this effort fills our hearts with joy. We don’t get to make new memories with Ashton, but hearing what others have done in her honor means her spirit lives on.
Last year we created the ChooseKindACD foundation, a 501C3 non-profit. Our vision for the foundation has always been to pick causes that were near and dear to Ashton’s heart or spoke to us in some way about her spirit. This year our organization will be focusing on senior citizens and based on many community recommendations 3 organizations will be supported: Magnolia Memory Care in Fort Mill which supports caregivers of loved ones living with Alzheimer’s & other kinds of Dementia, Mecklenburg Health and Rehabilitation, and The Fort Mill Care Center.
Through the foundation, we will focus on one thing per year but don’t want to lose sight of small everyday ways we can still work to touch people’s hearts. Again we are asking you to join us this year in doing something small in the week between when Ashton was killed (July 28) and what should be her 20th birthday (August 4th), to spread kindness. This could be as easy as bringing cookies to a neighbor, paying for someone’s coffee, just holding the door open for someone, or smiling at them in line at the store. One of our favorite memories of Ashton is how she would wave at other drivers just to make them smile and laugh. We can still hear her laughter especially if they waved back. You can download this letter and/or some small sheets you can give to the recipients of your kindness that share Ashton’s message.
Looking for other ways to choose kind or honor Ashton?
- The Ashton Dickey Memorial Scholarship was created by her classmates at St. Anne Catholic School to help kids who need a different learning environment to succeed in high school. It has raised over $20,000 and have issued two scholarships so far. ( https://payit.nelnet.net/form/VZW09aBz)
- You can donate to our foundation, ChooseKind ACD Inc. You can mail a check to 7077 Harbor Court, Tega Cay. South Carolina 29708 or Venmo the foundation @ChooseKindACD
If you can participate, please share your ideas with us. We have created a website to post updates and provide a space for you to share your acts of kindness and hopefully to hear from those who were impacted by your kindness (www.choosekindacd.com). Tag us on social media – Facebook or Instagram and use the hashtag #choosekindacd. Not on social media? Send a text to
Dawn (614-403-7898) or Jim (614-203-1763) or click the button below to send us an email.
We continue to be grateful for all the love and support we still receive. There is never a day that goes by that we do not miss her, your continued check-ins, random texts of love and support, and gifts that made you think of us or Ashton are all treasures. People tend to believe that grief shrinks over time, but what really happens is that we grow around our grief. We hope that you will help our hearts continue to grow by choosing kind in Ashton’s honor. By keeping her memory alive, we keep our love for her alive.
Dawn, Jim, and Faith Dickey
#Choosekindacd for Ashton