Midwest Energy Cooperative RACKed up goodwill across Cass County on Thursday.

RACK stands for Random Acts of Community Kindness, which in Dowagiac meant startling people when a five-member squad in Santa hats presented red-and-white carnations, putting their own twist on flower power.

The customer-owned electric utility serves about 28,000 customers in rural Southwest Michigan. Community involvement is one of the Cassopolis company’s core values.

Cass County concluded a three-day blitz by teams of employees deployed each morning to mid-afternoon.

Midwest “RACK attacked” Van Buren County on Tuesday and St. Joseph County on Wednesday.

Each day included a variety of activities, including providing a surprise breakfast to teachers and staff at a school, visiting a local preschool to read and gift books to children, delivering flowers to individuals working in downtown businesses.

Team Midwest spilled from a van at 10:30 and made their way from one end of Front Street to another, then west on Commercial Street to Huntington Bank, Dowagiac District Library and the post office.

They popped in the new vacuum shop, The Hairitage, Red Raven, Front Street Crossing, Tipsy Gypsy, Underwood Shoes, Weaver Insurance and Beeson Street, urging recipients to “pay it forward.”

“I thought it was very cute,” said Laura Kinzler, owner of Tipsy Gypsy and Laurie Anne’s, though, when she saw them coming, she mistook Midwest for Christmas carolers.

Kinzler said their gesture reminded her of a fast-food worker who regularly comes in and “pines over the purses.”

“They made me want to pay it forward,” she said. “It would be a good thing to be contagious. We’ll take it over the flu.”

Thursday’s itinerary took them from breakfast at Marcellus Elementary School to Hilltop Gas Station in Union to purchase and pay for a customer at random, reading and giving books to students in Edwardsburg, purchasing a Subway platter in Cassopolis and delivering lunch to Satori Salon and Spa in Jones, where they also bought lunch for a random customer at The Friendly Grille and Tavern.

Back in Cassopolis for the afternoon, Team Midwest gave out $10 gift cards at Harding’s and paid for a random customer at Porky’s.