As long as Michelle Valdes is alive, she’ll keep helping people in need. That’s the fire within her and it’s never going out.
Valdes, best known as the driving force behind Operation Paying it Forward, has been that way for her entire adult life. Many people around the Tampa and Plant City areas have been touched by her kindness whether they knew it was her or they only knew that someone in the grocery store paid all or much of their bill before running away. She used to prefer the anonymity; now she’s more comfortable not having much of a choice.
“People started recognizing that it was me and I couldn’t hide anymore,” she said.
Much has been written about her nonprofit, which she formed in 2018 with the support of a handful of friends and business partners in Plant City. There’s no act of kindness too large or too small for Operation Paying it Forward, which will use any means to help any person. It may be a fundraiser one month, a free house painting the next month and a vehicle giveaway later. OPIF has a “100 percent in, 100 percent out” policy for donations because Valdes doesn’t believe in paying it forward just to pay herself.
“That’s the difference between me and a lot of charities,” she said. “There’s no directors’ fees, there’s no salaries, no nothing. It’s purely volunteer-based because it comes out of love and compassion and my heart from what I grew up with.”
Valdes had a tough childhood in Tampa. She suffered abuse and dealt with the effects of alcoholism in her family. She often found her way into trouble — or perhaps trouble found her — and she could easily have become a statistic. Those were a guidance counselor’s words to her in high school.
But there were bright spots. Two stood out among the rest: her mother and grandmother, who came to the United States from Cuba to start a new life. They never asked for handouts, Valdes said, but they were also never afraid to give them.
“My mother, even though she was an alcoholic and I suffered abuse and all that stuff — we all have stories — she taught me to pay it forward, to give always to the less fortunate,” Valdes said. “And even though we might not have had a milk jug in the refrigerator, it was like half of it was going to the neighbor. So when I was young, she used to take me to Metropolitan Ministries on North Florida Avenue (in Tampa) and she used to cook meals. She worked seven days a week, raising a bad child… her taking me to Metropolitan Ministries when I was young, it stuck with me as I got older and it resonated. It stayed with me to teach me that we’re all blessed in our own ways. It’s how we look at our blessings that we have. I’m thankful I’m able to wake up every day, to see and breathe… that’s something my mom taught me.”
Valdes did not become a statistic. She became a successful business owner and defied the expectations for “a girl from the hood” whose stubbornness was a defining trait.
“To go back to the schools and talk to the (Career Academy) students about everything I went through — the abuse, the alcoholic parents and so forth — and being able to say I’m not a statistic, I own several businesses in Plant City and I’m able to pay it forward but I remember where I came from, that’s what makes me humble,” Valdes said.
It wasn’t until 2005 that Valdes began to make random acts of kindness a major crusade of her life. Cancer took her mother away that year and Valdes said that sent her into a deep depression for “about a year.” She sought counseling for a while but nothing seemed to click until one gave her a simple piece of advice.
“I finally saw one counselor who told me ‘one person at a time,’” Valdes said. Bam. An epiphany, a light came on for me.”
That’s when she decided to start helping one person at a time, anonymously, whenever she could. Though she lived in Plant City, she would often go to a Kash n’ Karry in west Tampa to look for people who needed help paying for their groceries, hustle over to the register to give the cashier some money and scurry off before anyone could stop her. She would often ride around with gas canisters and tanks in case she found someone on the side of the road who had run out. Nothing was ever really planned — Valdes was just ready for anything at any time.
That is, until 2010 when she, her friends from East Bay Raceway and the folks at Tint Plus customized a motorized wheelchair for a young local racing fan with cerebral palsy. Valdes used to race on that track and said the boy was a fan who “lived vicariously through us.” Seeing his and his family’s reaction to getting surprised with the tricked-out wheelchair — his parents cried, he took it out to do donuts in the nearest parking lot and Valdes raced him on foot — inspired her to keep going.
“From then on it was like, I had to do it,” she said. “Every year, I had to look for a big act to do besides my little small, random ones.”
The COVID-19 pandemic made OPIF’s mission a little more difficult than usual in 2020, but Valdes said she and the group will hit the ground running and make up for lost time as soon as more restrictions are lifted. There’s always someone out there who needs help, and helping is all she knows.
“You have to make your mark somehow,” Valdes said. “If everyone did one act once a week around the world, the world would be in a better place. Just one act from one person, once a week.”
GET TO KNOW MICHELLE
Who is a woman that has inspired you?
My mother and grandmother, the rocks of my life. They’re no longer here on Earth. They sold everything in Cuba to the government to come to this country and work for the American Dream without a handout. They’d work two to four different jobs and never stopped. They push me to do more every day. I miss them deeply, but they’re watching and I must keep going.
What books are you currently reading?
I am currently reading “Better than Good” by Zig Ziglar… It’s an older book but it’s classic, it’s definitely needed in everyone’s life.
What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?
When I was a teenager I had a guidance counselor tell me, “Do not be a statistic,” because she didn’t want to see me back in the hood… I still to this day think about it every day to work harder and always go for it.
If you had the power to change one thing in Plant City tomorrow, what would it be?
We should hold more community events. For example, once a month have an event where we call the younger generation to come out and pick up trash and beautify our community, then end up downtown with live music playing. This is our community, we should take pride in it and definitely unite in doing it.
What’s the hardest life lesson you’ve learned?
Starting over a couple times with relationships and work, but it’s OK because without those struggles I would not be where I am today. It took me a long time but I’m happy now and that’s all that matters.
What advice would you give to the next generation of women?
Never believe your age or gender can stop you from achieving your dreams… we only have one life, go big or go home.
If you could have any actor play you in a movie about your life, who would you pick?
Maya Angelou even though she passed away in 2014. She grew up with the same struggles with lots of adversity. She had a soft heart that was not tainted by her past and her kind heart and words, also her poetry, will live on forever.