ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – A St. Augustine non-profit launched an initiative to spread love and peace through conversation.
You may see purple benches popping up around St. Augustine. It’s part of an initiative by Compassionate St. Augustine to allow strangers to leave as friends.
Executive Director Robin Thomas talked about the initiative.
“We have started this purple bench initiative so that we can spread love and peace and a wonderful conversation,” Thomas said. “We want to create a space like this purple bench to come and sit down and have a civil conversation with respect and compassion and to show the world that we are not that different.”
Thomas said that so far, there are over 20 benches in churches, businesses, and residential homes.
St. Augustine Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline has been an ambassador of the movement to make the city more compassionate.
The organization plans to expand to other cities including Jacksonville.
“The goal is to have a purple bench at every business, every state house, government, just to promote peace and a respectful conversation with them,” Thomas said.
She said there is a QR code on the benches that will show who bought it, why they bought it, and where they placed it.
Click here for more information about the initiative.