GUELPH — If you found a gift card on a shelf at the local Chapters store Friday, Teresa Allaire left it there for you.

If your parking meter had more time on it than you paid for, the person in front of you in the drive-thru paid for your coffee, you found additional diapers and wipes on a public change table, a note stuck to the mirror in a public bathroom told you how nice you looked, there was a bouquet of flowers waiting for you on your car or your children found a quarter in the playground, that was her as well.

The Guelph woman decided to celebrate her 28th birthday — a few days early — with 28 random acts of kindness.

"I think the older you get, you really want the world just to be a bit of a better place and do what you can," Allaire said.

She and goddaughters Charlotte Hack, age seven, and Piper Hack, five, spent a few days preparing for the big day; making cards and calling some of the local agencies they planned to visit "to see what they need."

On Friday morning they went shopping and then headed out.

They dropped off coffees and cookies at the police station and main firehall, delivered grocery gift cards to the Welcome In Drop-In Centre, dropped off dog toys and food at the Guelph Humane Society, took flowers to a new mother and taped change to a vending machine at the hospital with a note to enjoy a free treat. They went onto a crowdsourcing website to donate $25 to a single mother in Thailand.

"We got such a great reaction everywhere we went," Allaire said, noting Charlotte and Piper particularly enjoyed a tour of the firehall and meeting puppies at the Humane Society.

Handmade cards left with each treat encouraged the recipient to pay it forward.

"Maybe it'll catch on," Allaire said of the birthday idea. "Hopefully one of the things we did will find someone who could really use it."