· FOR THE BEGINNING COORDINATOR CHOOSE AN ACTIVITY:
IDEAS FOR KINDNESS
Use these ideas as your own, adapt them to your community, or brainstorm new ones!
Be sure to pass your experiences and results along to The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation so we can continue to expand our idea database for Kindness Coordinators to use during future RAK Weeks.
· Work with local schools, businesses, and merchants to raise “Pennies for a Kindness Park” or other community beautification project.
· The idea is that pennies don’t seem to have much value, but when combined, they do make a difference. In the same way, one kind actmay seem insignificant, but many kind acts practiced daily have great impact.
· Collect goods for your local food bank or for shelters for the homeless or abused.
· Organize retirement homes or senior centers to work with schools to develop interactive programs. - - Older children can read to the elderlyand younger children can visit or play games with them.
· Plant a Kindness Tree or Garden with the help of youth groups, service clubs, or other volunteers. Plant the tree or flowers in a publicarea like a park or walking trail, and ask your mayor to say a few words.
· Set up free coffee or hot chocolate for morning commuters.
· Organize a blood drive dedicated to Random Acts of Kindness.
· Ask your local fast food restaurants to hold a “Customer Appreciation Day.” They candecorate the dining area and hang signs. School kids enjoy “hosting” at these events afterschool, carrying trays for people, getting beverage refills, or just greeting them at the doorwith a smile and suggestions for Random Acts of Kindness.
· Have volunteers or members of a local service club prepare a special meal or dessert forseniors or nursing home residents.
· Hold a Kindness Concert with a local band and give out ideas for kind acts and other RAK items.Invite role models, such as local sports figures, to public events to speak about the importance kindness has played in their lives.
· Instead of distributing invitations to a public RAK event, create and distribute RAK “punch cards” a couple of weeks ahead of time with the event information on the back. Include instructions for participants to punch a hole in the card whenever they perform a RAK; then they bring their punch cards for admission to the event. Put all the cards on a wall to show how many acts of kindness the activity generated.
· Ask groups such as your local garden club to create floral arrangements for senior centers, nursing homes, the police station, hospitals, shut-ins, etc.
· Ask your library or bookstore to host storytelling parties or children’s kindness hours.
· Create a special publication featuring local kindness stories. The newspaper or TV station can collect them, or you can place collection boxes in merchants’ stores.
· Create a Random Acts of Kindness mascot to circulate in high foot-traffic areas, distributing gifts and/or suggestions for acts of kindness. Then send the mascot to visit schools to talk about kindness.
· Hold a children’s kindness drawing or coloring contest.
· Ask the police to give out safe driving awards during the week.
· Organize interracial/interfaith programs and performances to be held during RAK Week.
· Organize public speeches by community/ religious/ civil rights leaders about bringing
Random Acts of Kindness into the community.
· Ask the police to give out “Kindness Citations” and “Good Driving Tickets” during RAK Week. Have them visit classrooms with stories of kindness that they have encountered on duty.
· Ask local firefighters to visit shut-in residents and discuss safety.
· Ask the mayor’s office or city hall employees to host a coffee and cake party for merchants, residents, or community groups.
· Ask the town library to forgive late fines during RAK Week.
· Place a “Practice Random Acts of Kindness” or “Kindness Zone” banner across a downtown street. Ask residents to drive with car headlightson to convey participation.
· Start a ribbon campaign. Give out kindness ribbons to be worn and passed on to another. Variations include signing the back before passing it along and gathering “completed” ribbons at the mayor’s office or city hall for display.
· Hold a teddy bear drive and donate the bears to police or fire departments for traumatized children.
· Make fresh-baked cookies and bring them to your downtown merchants.
· Invite faith groups and/or schools to come together as a “harmony choir” and perform.
· Ask your chamber of commerce to help you recruit merchants to host a Kindness Planter Box project. The merchants buy the boxes, and the schoolchildren have a penny drive to purchase the flowers, then decorate the boxes with kindness pictures or slogans.
· People can write kindness stories and post them on a bulletin board.
· Help schoolchildren design RAK bookmarks, stickers, or buttons. Then have teachers, libraries, and local merchants distribute them.
· Create clear static stickers for windows of official city vehicles, factory worker safety helmets, or residential windows.
· Ask the mayor to have Random Acts of Kindness slogans or quotes affixed to city dumpsters and trucks.
· Conduct an annual poster contest for all age levels. Display the posters at the city hall or mayor’s office and have a local newspaper, radio, or TV station announce the winners.
