Candy Kiss Lady Sweetens Strangers’ Day

started to take notice of people who just do not look happy.

“I started going to the stores,” says Battista, “and started looking at people. People don’t look happy; they look sad. What can I do to make people happy? I started giving inspirational words. Then I started giving them kisses.”

Through her actions, Battista says she noticed a shift and realized that her small gesture was cheering them up. It was making them happy.

Battista says she began her initiative before COVID but then stopped for a while “because I got bitter,” she admits. After a while, her bitterness wore off as she realized “I can’t let life ruin me. You can’t change the world but maybe make them happy for one moment. Be nice, be kind, show compassion. I am a very com- passionate person.

“I carry the bag of kisses,” she explains. She visits stores, places that she shops, and hands them to people who do not look happy “to show people working in stores they are respected, appreciated and acknowledged.” She puts the kisses in her cart and walks around handing them out.

“I just started giving kisses to strangers,” she says, men and women, especially those who just had a baby. “I try not to be seen when doing it. A lot of people are funny about it; others are like ‘thank you so much. You made my day!’”

While some may oppose taking candy from strangers, Battista says about 90% of the people accept her kind gesture. “They take it, they’re happy, they’re thankful.” When Battista’s mom was sick, she would visit her daily. “I was giving the security guards kisses every day,” she says, because they seemed unhappy. “The first day he was cranky,” says Battista, about one guard who got her kiss. But by the last day, when Battista visited her mom before she died in December 2022, “he said ‘thank you so much. You really made me happy. We’re really thankful for people like you.’”

During Women’s History Month, Battista visited the stores to give certain employees gifts “to at least make some of them happy. I always show appreciation,” says Battista. “We all know customer service is hard.”

And it’s funny because her customers now look forward to that candy kiss.

“I got to keep them in stock so I can keep my customers happy,” says Battista, who estimates that she has given out about 30, two-pound, bags of kisses over the years.

“I just like to spread love,” she says.

When she is not handing out her kisses, Battista worked as a babysitter for 15 years and currently works as a server for private parties. The mother of two teenagers also spends time volunteering to clean up around the town she has lived in most of her life.

“I bee bop around town,” says Battista who graduated from Mt. Olive High School in 1984. She has lived in Budd Lake since she was 11 years old, has lived in other states but returned 20 years ago to Budd Lake as “This has been my roots.”

Her actions run deep.

“I walk around and clean up garbage when I see it,” she says. Since last year, she and her girlfriend have been cleaning up Pax Amicus Castle Theatre by raking, picking up garbage, planting flowers and maintaining the grounds.

“I’m donating my time and cleaning up,” she says. “It’s a nice place to meditate, it’s beautiful.”

During a recent visit at the theater, she noticed a woman sitting in her car, so she went up to the car with her friend to hand her a kiss. “I said I hand out kisses to spread love; she took it.”

Danielle Fico Woelki was the recipient of that kiss, and she was so thankful that she shared it on the Mt. Olive Community Facebook page as a means to find out who they are. “You both have beautiful souls,” says Woelki about the two women who approached her car that day. You sure did make me smile. Thank you. They were so sweet; just amazing women. They made my day!

“There’s not many left in this world unfortunately so when you come across a kind soul like that you really appreciate it,” adds Woelki. “That’s really what the world should be about — people looking out for one another and just being kind and loving towards each other—that’s how you repair brokenness of the world.”

Perhaps more people should be a Karen after all.