A big family spreading big karma (6 photos)

Luke Haynes and his son Bradlee, 10, were sitting in an A&W when they overheard two people talking about how they missed their bus and they’d have to walk in the pouring rain.

The father and son went up to the strangers, offered them a ride, and then went far out of their way to drive them downtown.

Bradlee later questioned what happened.

“We didn’t even know those people," he said.

“Yeah,” his dad replied, “but it's good karma. If you do something good for someone it will come back to you later on.”

Luke and his wife Angie Haynes are always setting examples like that in an attempt to pass good values on to their children, of which there are five.

There’s Bradlee, 10; Grayson, 8; Taylor, 8; Jersey, 7; and Jakson, 5.

The family actually formed a couple years ago in a Brady Bunch-style union.

Both Angie and Luke were single parents when they met on match.com and hit it off.

They knew it was much more than a hunch, that they must somehow form a family, and that's how they became the Haynes bunch.

On Saturday, July 30, the family set up a curbside lemonade stand on Lake Street and raised $310.50 for local charities.

“The kids got to choose the charity and with five kids it was hard to narrow it down to just two,” said Angie.

They settled on The Humane Society, because the kids love animals, and a cancer program at the Sault Area Hospital because their grandmother went through it.

“Any time we get a chance we try to show them how to be better people,” said Luke.

When food drives happen, the family will go to the grocery store together and pick out $20 worth of food.

Each of the kids will pick out a food item and then get to carry it in their own bag before dropping it off.

At home, the parents continue to try and pass on good values with a very structured and well-defined rule and chore system for the children.

There is a general list of house rules laid out, each of the children has a personalized typed-out list of chores, and there is a calendar for scheduling.

They said that with five children organization is key.

In order to make sure each kid gets their necessary one-on-one time, they have a mommy and daddy date night system in place.

All the kids' names are put into a jar and each week a name is pulled out.

The child then gets to pick a restaurant of their choice and after dinner they get to pick out the treat to bring home for the rest of the family.

Actually, Bradlee and his dad were on date night when they gave the two people a ride from A&W.

A couple weeks ago, Luke and some of the kids were driving on Third Line when they saw an older man fall off his bike.

Luke turned around the car to see if he was okay, telling the children that it's the proper thing to do.

“If it happened to me I’d want someone to pull over and make sure I was okay,” said Luke.

Luke said that Angie’s parents always watch the children for them but they never accept any money as payment.

So, when they went out of town for a couple of weeks, Luke and the kids - okay, mostly just Luke - refinished their entire kitchen.

“The kids were there every night watching us and always trying to help. We just want to show them how you should treat people and pay them back for the good things they’ve done for you, “ said Luke, who then repeated his mantra, “It’s just good Karma.”