Todd Briggs doesn’t usually diverge from his routine, even if it leaves his hands a bit chalky.

He’s up 5:30 a.m., strolls downstairs with Winston, his 12-year-old yellow Labrador retriever, flips through a notebook and searches for just the right words for the day.

From an extensive selection of chalks that the 60-year-old doesn’t think he’ll be able to use up in this lifetime, he gives those words a little color.

The daily inspirational quote on a chalkboard outside Briggs’ home in West Towson has been a staple for neighbors, and sometimes a draw for far-off visitors, over the past five years. And there have been more than 1,800 so far; Briggs has never missed a day.

“You got to kind of engage with people in a way that probably I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t done it,” Briggs said.

Buried in a short stack of notebooks on a wooden table in the kitchen is the origin of this passion project, a Desmond Tutu quote he jotted down in April 2020.

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness,” it reads.

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Briggs, like many others, struggled with isolation. A widower since 2016 who has long been a community-centered financial planner, he grasped for ways to connect.

He was inspired by the way a restaurant used a chalkboard in a video on Instagram and thought he’d try something similar. And he already had the chalkboard, stashed in the kitchen. His wife had bought it more than 20 years before at a yard sale during their annual summer trip to Maine.

His daughter, Samantha Briggs, back home from college in North Carolina, helped him pick out quotes in the beginning. She also posted about the project on Facebook, asking other people for quote recommendations.

Eventually she convinced her dad to start an Instagram page for the signs and doesn’t skip a chance to gift him a book of quotes or chalk for holidays or special occasions.

“I think it has just evolved into this really, really wonderful moment for so many people where they can expect to see the quote, can expect to see the board,” said Samantha Briggs, who now lives and works in New York. “And my dad’s just been incredible throughout all of it.”

Just as people make vacation arrangements for their plants and pets, Todd Briggs has a plan for his signs. He pre-writes the quotes and has a neighbor or family friend put out the sign. When it rains, he makes sure it’s not at risk.

Karen Tran, a neighbor to Briggs for 20 years, loves seeing the signs when she walks her dog. They pair well with a neighborhood that she says is full of people who look out for each other.

“One of the biggest blessings for me after losing Ellen is just the closeness of this neighborhood,” Briggs said. “It’s been real.”

And though she’s not shocked that Briggs — a welcoming neighbor who hosts an annual Putt-Putt event each year — is putting up chalkboard signs, she is amazed and grateful for how constant the messages are.

“To do it consistently, people can count on it and it means that that light is always there,” Tran said. “We don’t always have that in our lives and in our world.”

Briggs also sends a photo of the signs to a group text of nearly a dozen people.

Parker Carroll, Briggs’ former Lehigh University classmate and Chi Psi fraternity brother, said hearing about the daily message helped reconnect them after losing touch over the years.

Carroll, who lives in Philadelphia, looks forward to the text each day and picked up on a recurring theme of kindness in Briggs’ chosen quotes.

“It’s just this subtle, kind little reminder, not a lecture that can change the trajectory of your day potentially,” Carroll said.

Occasionally, Briggs wonders whether the chalkboard project has run its course. But his daughter’s encouragement and kind coincidences derail those thoughts.

One day, someone put a Starbucks gift card on the sign to thank him for the messages.

Another time, a Towson University student told him she intentionally drove by the sign every day and wrote about the chalkboard for her senior paper.

An older woman brought him flowers, and a mother on the app NextDoor said her young daughter uses the signs to practice reading.

It’s difficult for Briggs to simply chalk up these exchanges to chance. They often make him think of Ellen, he said, who he knows would have eagerly participated in the quote sharing.

Samantha Briggs said her mom loved quotes, and it wasn’t uncommon for her to snag a cocktail napkin with a funny or clever saying on it. Several signs around their house highlight cherishing life or living in Baltimore.

Some of Todd Briggs’ sign messages reflect similar themes. But many are open-ended and ready to resonate with whoever might need it.

Grow through what you go through.