One day last May, Coastsiders were confronted by teens they didn’t know paying their gas bill at the pump, dropping off a box of donuts in their office, buying their breakfast at the diner.

The teens were Pilarcitos High School students in a life skills class taught by Montara resident Lacey Clark. The occasion was a day of random acts of kindness.

“People weren’t used to the idea we were giving something for nothing,” said Clark. “But once they got over the shock, they were really appreciative. I think they felt really special, being chosen for a random act of kindness.”

Lacey Clark works with Pilarcitos High students in her life skills class.

They might have been even more shocked to learn that the kindnesses began with an “Oprah” show and Clark, a young Coastsider turning around her own rough teen years.

Clark saw an “Oprah” episode in which the television host gave guests $1,000 each, to be spent in acts of kindness on total strangers.

“I thought that would be a really cool thing to do but I didn’t have $1,000,” said Clark.

But she did have a yen for philanthropy. At her husband’s suggestion, she urged colleagues at the Mizu salon, where she is a cosmetologist, to pool their tips. They wound up with $1,500, which Clark donated to Coastside Hope. Then a client “Oprah’d me — she gave me $1,000 to be spent on a total stranger” – and a new avocation was born.

A lifelong Coastsider and 1998 Pilarcitos graduate, Clark returned to her alma mater to give away kindness. She collected donations and approached principal Bob King with an idea of having his students experience giving.

“I knew how it felt to be a student” at Pilarcitos, a continuation school, she said. “I felt people looked at the students there as badly behaved kids.”

If so, people had new information after Clark’s students launched a series of projects in spring 2007: giving backpacks of basic supplies to the homeless, bags of supplies and toys to Coastside Children’s Programs kids or holding an art contest to raise funds for an art scholarship.

She also presented an idea of teaching a life skills class – covering basic banking or job interview skills — to King, who “let me run with it.”

The class was such a success that Clark added a field trip to the College of San Mateo and a career day in the second semester of 2007. And she found out that giving was a two-way street.

“I could see good feelings they were getting, goals being accomplished. They were learning how good it feels to give,” she said. “And it’s nice to do something I always wanted to do.”

This year, Clark plans to start a mentoring program at Pilarcitos, in which adult Coastside professionals give a couple hours a month to mentor life-skills students.

She says her own experiences helped shape what she does now. Of having a rough start, she now says “I’m glad I did because it’s what gave me the understanding to work with these kids.” Her philosophy is that everyone has a passion, and once they find it, life is rewarding.

Besides mastering skills like job interviewing, she said, her students are building niches in their community. “Students need to feel like they’re part of a community,” she said. “When they feel more connected and not so anonymous, they rise to the occasion. Then they feel part of something bigger than and better about themselves, with no reason to act out.”