Recently, I was the recipient of a random act of kindness when someone I barely know realized I was having a difficult time with something and offered her support. At the time, I didn’t realize what an impact this simple act of kindness would have on my day. It also changed my perspective on the problem I was having. Suddenly, things were not as bad as they seemed.
I started thinking about ways I could make someone’s day a little brighter. For me, it all started with my family. What could I do to show kindness and to help them have a better day?
My first thought was directed to my husband. We all know the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach so I planned to make one of his favorite dinners. I could tell he enjoyed that after a long day at work.
For my kids it’s all about the cookies. When my daughter got home from school, she and my 2 year old had a fresh homemade batch of cookies waiting with a glass of milk. Cookies also seem to draw the neighborhood kids, which is a lot of fun, too.
For as much as I enjoy providing random acts of kindness for my family, I was thinking about my neighbors, friends and total strangers. What were some things I could do to show my kindness to others? Here is a list of ideas I came up with:
* Smile and say “hello” as you pass someone on the street.
* Thank the people who provide endless hours of service without a lot of recognition, like grocery clerks, librarians, school administrators and PTA board members.
* Offer to let someone with fewer items check out in front of you.
* Call a friend or neighbor out of the blue and offer to baby-sit.
* Compliment a stranger on something positive about them.
I would like to encourage all of you to “look up” and see what you can do to make someone’s day a little brighter …
Kids can be amazingly kind. Take the daughter in a family of five who used her meager $20 gift allotment to help someone she didn’t even know. Salvation Army Food Pantry Coordinator Jill Brink recently received a letter from the girl’s father, along with a donation for $120, describing how it happened.
The family was facing a grim Christmas last year, so the father took the children to the local mall and gave each child $20 with which to purchase four gifts at no more than $5 each.
When the family reunited, they were all laughing and talking — all except this 8-year-old girl, who appeared very serious and was carrying a small, flat bag that contained only four, 50-cent candy bars.
Apparently while looking for gifts, she had come across one of the Salvation Army’s “Giving Trees,” which carry cards describing real local children for whom the agency is seeking “angels” to buy their presents. One card featured a little girl who asked for a doll and a hairbrush. The young shopper made the purchases and returned them with the card to the Salvation Army booth in the mall. Then she bought candy with the money she had left.
“This girl felt she was so richly blessed that she gave to another girl who was less fortunate,” Brink said.
That is the kind of holiday spirit that prompts generous friends and area residents to make gifts to the Pocono Record’s annual Toys for Joy campaign. We collect the donations between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, and then turn over the proceeds to the Salvation Army and the Pleasant Valley Ecumenical Network, which buy and distribute the gifts to needy children all around Monroe County.
You, too, can brighten a child’s holiday. Send your check to: Toys for Joy, Pocono Record, 511 Lenox St., Stroudsburg, PA 18360.
For the past year, Laura Miller has been living a double life of sorts: administrative assistant by day, secret agent of kindness by night.
The 32-year-old Duquesne University employee only recently revealed herself as the woman behind “Secret Agent L,” a giver of random acts of kindness that has been brightening the days of unsuspecting Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, residents since July 2009.
The project began, Miller says, with the birthday of one of her blog readers who had become a close friend. But instead of asking for the latest book on the best-seller list or an iTunes gift card, the friend suggested Miller perform an act of kindness in her name.
So with a single, lavender hydrangea bloom tucked under the windshield wipers of a random vehicle, Secret Agent L was born.
Miller used her friend’s birthday idea to launch a new blog documenting subsequent secret missions, posting photos of the gifts
It is said that 160,000 kids a day miss school because of bullying issues
Bullying was a factor in 2/3 of the 37 school shootings reviewed by the U.S. Secret Service
Research indicates that bullying occurs at approximately the same rate in kindergarten as in elementary school
The Children’s Kindness Network, a nonprofit 501(c)(3), has produced a new CD aimed at kids ages Pre-K to 3rd Grade, featuring 17 celebrity voices – and the 90-piece Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra (led by Conductor Timothy Russell) – in a story and musical performance promoting kindness and identifying kind behavior. Moozie’s Musical Adventures is available in stores or on the website (www.ckn-usa.org) for $9.99–digital downloads also available on this site.
There are neighbours who smile and wave at each other, maybe get together for the occasional barbecue or shovel each other’s driveway.
There are neighbours who never speak and secretly wish the other people would just move away.
And then there’s Tracey Louvros and Dave Kozoris, neighbours in Brocklehurst for the past eight years.
Dave needs a kidney.
Tracey is jumping through all the medical hoops she needs to so she can give Dave one of hers.
Why?
“Because he needs one,” Tracey says matter-of-factly.
Right now, Dave’s living without his kidneys, which were removed in February as a result of the polycystic kidney disease he had — essentially, his kidneys were filling up with grape-shaped growths, distending his stomach and shoving all his other organs into places they weren’t meant to be.
After the surgeons removed the two organs, they were weighed. One hit 20 pounds, the other was seven pounds.
Kidneys usually weigh not much more than four ounces.
“I couldn’t breathe,” Dave says. “It was hard to walk.”
Kindness in Motion would like to highlight this program and its service. A little bit about Feed the Children and their Mission:
Feed The Children is a Christian, international, nonprofit relief organization with headquarters in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, that delivers food, medicine, clothing and other necessities to individuals, children and families who lack these essentials due to famine, war, poverty, or natural disaster.
This organization is worthy of the Kindness in Motion 5 star award. Kiva is a wonderful organization dedicated to helping the impoverished. Donors can help by providing a loan for as little as $25 to a needy individual in another part of the world. The power of micro-finance…it is an amazing story.
Check out the site, form a team and start making a difference! www.kiva.org
Recently, I was the recipient of a random act of kindness when someone I barely know realized I was having a difficult time with something and offered her support. At the time, I didn’t realize what an impact this simple act of kindness would have on my day. It also changed my perspective on the problem I was having. Suddenly, things were not as bad as they seemed.
Kids can be amazingly kind. Take the daughter in a family of five who used her meager $20 gift allotment to help someone she didn’t even know. Salvation Army Food Pantry Coordinator Jill Brink recently received a letter from the girl’s father, along with a donation for $120, describing how it happened.
