Our Story

TAMPA - It all started with a dream.

At first, George Mason dismissed the dream, but this did nothing more than prompt its perpetual recurrence.

Then ten years ago, George decided to print a few hundred bumper stickers that said – Just Be Nice (JBN).

He began spreading the JBN message.

It wasn’t out of the norm for George to leave a bumper sticker casually on a park bench, a stop sign, a coffee shop table, or really anywhere people might discover and remember the important message: Just Be Nice.

“His idea of promoting JBN was getting a daily cup of coffee and leaving behind a Just Be Nice card without anyone noticing,” Finley Mason said, one of two daughters left to carry forward the vision for their father.

George Mason had a Big Heart. Witnessing the ways in which people responded to his three magic words was the driving force behind his work. He was a compassionate man who sought to give back to the world in any way he could.

Following his death, Finley and Kat Mason discovered much about the donations their father made over the years to both the local community and organizations around the world.

“He donated a lot of his time, care, and money,” Finley Mason said. “We didn’t know all that he gave back to the community until he passed away and people began to tell us.”

They knew their father as a playful person and someone who truly believed in the magic of a universal good.

But it wasn’t until the winter of 2008 – six months after his death – that they decided to pick up where he left off in the world.

That Christmas, both Finley and Kat were in Maine for the holiday and made the decision and commitment to carry on the JBN message. They agreed that they weren’t ready before then.

It was the calls and e-mails which began filtering back to them – story after story about JBN – that solidified their decision.

By the summer of 2009, they looked to the future of JBN and prepared to expand their father’s dream.

“Just Be Nice is such a simple message, but it's something that people forget everyday,” Kat Mason said. “I want to remind them, by wearing a shirt, by putting a sticker on my car and by using this message as something positive to strive for on a daily basis.”

Like their father, they too believe in the universal good of all people and want to engage communities across the globe to Just Be Nice.

They care about the environment and the people of the world, just as George Mason did

“Just be nice meant everything to our father, and he meant everything to us,” Kat Mason said. “So after his death it finally feels right to continue his work."