Portland, Oregon's Myron Boyer is a familiar face at the local farmers market. For the last six years, he has ambled through the market with rhinestone and enamel brooches pinned to his T-shirt. When he sees someone who looks sad, distracted, or just plain busy, he stops to speak with them. While chatting, he offers them a brooch. According to the owner of a local coffee shop, folks "...kind of blush a little, look a little frazzled, but they're very accepting, because he's a very approachable man." Now fondly nicknamed 'The Bling Fairy,' Boyer started the giveaway after his friend Bob Lamberson died. Lamberson was a 'bigger than life' character and heavily involved in theater. While he was hospitalized, Boyer brought him brooches to cheer him in that sterile environment. After he died, Boyer gave the brooches to the nurses. A tradition was born.
Boyer doesn't ask names, but folks who accept his gift tend to tell their stories: a woman struggling with depression, someone who just received a cancer diagnosis, a homeless couple who appreciated being noticed. Boyer listens, then watches the transformation as the brooch is fastened to a shirt or lapel. "Putting one smile a day on someone's face is making the world better," he told a local newspaper. "And that's basically where it's at."
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