P.E.I. dad and son spread kindness, one surprise gift at a time

Maria Sarrouh on the heartwarming story of a father and his nine-year-old son who are spreading joy through random acts of kindness in P.E.I.

Some holiday shoppers at Charlottetown’s Confederation Court Mall got more than they paid for Friday, when a father-son duo handed out surprise gifts on a mission to spread kindness.

Emile Gaudet and nine-year-old John run Give Bliss, a movement where they approach strangers, offer them presents and film the encounters for social media.

Since launching in the summer of 2024, Emile says they’ve shared more than 400 of these moments in Charlottetown and on trips to cities such as Toronto and Montreal.

“I just want the world to be happier,” John says.

For Emile, the project grew out of his own struggles with severe social anxiety, which he says began when he was around his son’s age. Now, he sees it as a way to turn that pain into purpose.

“If you had asked me to do something like this six or seven years ago, you couldn’t have paid me $10 million,” he says, laughing. “I had zero self-belief or self-esteem that I could accomplish anything. And once I figured out how big of a lie that was, it kind of became my mission to encourage others to go for what they wanted.”

The idea for Give Bliss first came to him about three years before they started filming regularly. During that time, he immersed himself in philosophy content and did a lot of thinking about mortality.

“I think about how the number one regret of the dying is not living a life according to your beliefs and your behaviours,” Emile says. “If I didn’t try, I knew I would regret it for the rest of my life.”

Now, he says the project is as much about making memories with John as it is about brightening strangers’ days.

“It’s been really cool to see his progression. He was a little shy in the beginning as well,” Emile says. “That’s something I think is going to be important for him in the future, because with the way the world’s going - technology, AI - those people skills are getting less and less.”

John says the experience has already made him more confident.

“I’ve gotten way more better at speaking to strangers than I was in the past,” he says. “I want to keep giving the gifts to people and to spread kindness.”

Every gift comes with something sweet - often chocolate-covered chips, a popular treat from Cow’s - and a handwritten note filled with words of encouragement.

Reactions, captured on camera, range from pure delight to total shock.

In Michael Baglole’s case, it was the latter. He was walking home from work on Thanksgiving when the pair approached him.

“I really could use it that day,” Baglole says. “It’s that moment that someone recognizes you or just wants to talk to you for a minute.”

The video of that interaction is their most-watched to date, with more than 1.2 million views on TikTok. But their relationship has continued beyond that first surprise: the three have stayed in touch and now consider each other friends, with plans to meet up for lunch soon.

Gaudet says those ongoing connections - and bonding with John, are the real measure of success.

Their dream, he adds, is to keep taking Give Bliss on the road, bringing the movement to more communities across the country and around the world.