Allen Arnold, left, and Jay Buchanan hold up their depleted debit cards after they completed their rounds of random acts of kindness.

By Pat Hammert/Staff Writer

A germ of the idea from the movie “Pay it Forward” settled in the like-minded brains of Jay Buchanan and Allen Arnold, two friends from the small town of Calumet.

And recently, the two Canadian County employees drove around the county, armed with a donated camcorder looking for ways to spend $2,000 of Oprah Winfrey’s money.

“It was the most incredible experience and we hadn’t prepared ourselves for the reaction we got from people — and we pretty much got overwhelmed at the need that was there,” Buchanan said.

It was Buchanan who had earlier e-mailed Oprah Winfrey after her producers called for ideas on making the world a better place.

“I was really impressed with Bono and Alisha Keyes and their Red Campaign to raise funds for AIDS in Africa. I loved that, and my idea grew from that. Why couldn’t we turn the city red for a day?” Buchanan said, by enlisting a country music artist to hold a concert to raise AIDS funds.

From that e-mail, which Buchanan posted and forgot, the pay-it-forward concept emerged. Show officials liked his energetic desire to make a difference so much so that soon Buchanan and Arnold flew to Chicago to be part of Oprah’s audience for the television show’s episode called “Make a Difference for the Holidays.”

Three hundred members of the audience, including Buchanan and Arnold, were each handed a $1,000 debit card and a DVD camcorder.

“We decided to just have fun with this and do random acts of kindness,” he said. At El Reno’s Save-a-Lot grocery store, they filled a basket full of grocery items, about $100 worth. They then spied a family with several small children in tow, cashing in aluminum cans.

“They had just come from California and had been picking up aluminum cans. So we told them to take the groceries. And at first they thought we were crazy,” he said.

With $1,900 to go they headed to the local discount superstore to buy snacks, magazines and DVDs to fashion gift baskets. Next stop: Mercy Health Center’s intensive care unit and the neo-natal unit where they gave them away.

“When we went in the neo-natal unit we spotted a mother of a 2-month-old preemie. When we gave her the basket, she said, ‘How did you know this is just what I needed today?’”

Next stop, Yukon, where they filled a pickup bed full of new toys. They surprised a couple they’d heard about who had a little-known program that provide toys and clothing for the holidays for about 160 children in state custody.

Their videotaped activities and the reaction of those recipients will be shown on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” later this month.

As for “paying it forward,” Buchanan said he has a feeling the recipients of the gifts will extend a helping hand to someone who needs it.