'Secret Agent L' Unmasks Identity To Further Charity Work

Until recently, Pittsburgh resident Laura Miller was known only as 'Secret Agent L' -- an elusive Good Samaritan responsible for the random gifts strangers are finding around the city. She came forward with her identity at a fundraising event for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, saying that her anonymity had hindered her efforts to expand this charitable giving.

With the unmasking of her identity, Miller has been able to take a larger role in the organizing of other mysterious Samaritans around the world, a group she has termed Affiliated Agents. Whenever a new person registers as an Affiliated Agent, they are assigned a random act of kindness and given a copy of Miller's calling card that explains to the recipient of the gift what it is they're holding. When the assignment is complete, she'll post about it on her blog. The gifts can be anything from a roll of quarters at the laundromat to an inspirational knick-knack that is guaranteed to spark a smile.

Comments

[educatedvagabond]

02:07 PM on 08/05/2010

This is such a brilliant idea! I definitely want to get involved. What a nice way to build up some good karma.

[jymfrancais]

11:02 AM on 08/05/2010

Cutie.

[JumpySnark]

04:34 PM on 08/04/2010

Wow, I met her a decade ago and remember her as a real sweetheart. Fantastic job, congratulations to (formerly) Secret Agent L!

[John Ison]

01:24 PM on 08/04/2010

pay it forward - remember that?

[WTFbush]

12:39 PM on 08/04/2010

Scooter Libby was just about to "out" her. I'm glad she came forward on her own.

[common-tary]

10:10 AM on 08/04/2010

Finally...someone doing something anonymous and random that's also NICE. Good for her!

[willkesling]

10:19 AM on 08/04/2010

@ Huffpost super user. Sad to think that random gifts are associated with multi-level marketing. If this were indeed the case, there would be a call to action for such promotion. A way to measure the ROI and a paper trail back to the agency. Simply put, SAL is doing something good for the sake of doing something good. I think it is awesome.

[General Public]

03:10 AM on 08/04/2010

Free gifts are always nice, especially random ones from strangers, but something about this seems a wee bit suspicious to me. Laura Miller is a very nice, cute lady though. She didn't have to do all that secretly. The "Affiliated Agents" title unfortunately sounds like something out of mutli-level marketing (a.k.a. pyramid schemes like Amway that are *technically* legal).

[Pgh Perambulations]

10:18 AM on 08/04/2010

Pyramid scheme? This is not a business. Nobody makes any money off of this in any way, shape, or form. In fact, I know that while SAL gets some donations for the anonymous gifts, SAL herself normally pays for the "missions" she does out of pocket -- simply because she believes there's a lot of hurt in this world and she wants to brighten people's day.

[General Public]

04:57 AM on 08/05/2010

Sorry, I never heard of her before I read this article.

[Pyorick]

10:30 AM on 08/04/2010

What part of random acts of kindness equal "pyramid schemes" or "suspicious'? I've known
of SAL for a some timed. They work on nothing more than kindness and their own money.
Like Pgh Perambulations already stated, this isn't some sort of business. What is so very
hard to understand about a person trying to spread happiness through random acts of
charity? Why does there have to be a catch involved?

[General Public]

04:58 AM on 08/05/2010

I haven't known of them before this article, so I don't really know what it's about. Sorry. :-)

[skexie]

09:11 PM on 08/03/2010

Kinda cute...