In light of Friday’s tragedy, Ann Curry has suggested we all do 20 (or 26) acts of kindness to honor those that were killed. I love this idea! My hope though is that people will continue to be nicer to each other as we move forward from this. I don’t understand how someone can do such horrible things – but every day I see things in the news that I don’t understand. There is too much violence in this country. Hopefully if people start treating each other nicer, acts of violence like this will stop. We can only hope.
I know we are all busy, especially this week before Christmas – but what nice things can you do for someone? I am going to be looking for opportunities to help others, how about you?
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I hadn’t heard about this Anne Curry thing–great idea! My family has already been doing Random Acts of Christmas Kindness since Dec. 1st; we’re aiming for 3–4 each week. Before that I did a Giving Challenge in Nov., which turned out to be similar in nature. My goal for 2013 is to do 2–3 random acts of kindness each week throughout the year. These have been funded with money from my change jar; I had cashed in a few times & just held onto the money for the “right cause”. We’ve found it!
Some things we’ve done–mowed/mulched an elderly neighbor’s yard, bought diapers for a 21 yr old single mom in our neighborhood & delivered them anonymously, donated things from the local animal shelter’s wish list, dropped off a jar of Christmas candy to our librarians, paid for the car behind us in McDonald’s drive-thru, adopted a deployed soldier (we’ve been sending cards every couple of weeks & did a Xmas care package), bought poinsettias for a neighbor & the secretary at the school where I sub, sent snail mail cards/notes to friends we don’t see often (have received great feedback from this!), donated to food & toy drives, left change in a baggie on a vending machine. We have more planned–snacks in the mailbox for our mailman, homemade treats to the neighbors & local fire station, donate to a homeless shelter, leave quarters in the carts @ Aldis.
Lots of these ideas & others I found on other blogs via Pinterest; I have a Random Acts of Kindness board there now with links if you’re interested.
What a great idea Kelly!
Yes! I had not heard the Ann Curry thing though I read this: http://www.daringyoungmom.com/2012/12/14/light/
I had been feeling before this tragedy even happened that I want to let people know how much I appreciate them. And I have time to do that right now – baby is 4 months old and sleeping pretty well and I don’t go back to work until after the holidays. So this weekend I baked several batches of cinnamon rolls (clone of a cinnabon recipe on allrecipes.com, actually pretty easy when you mix the dough in the bread machine) – my twin 7 year old boys helped. We had fun distributing pans of warm cinnamon rolls to two families who helped when baby was born, this morning we took them to the police officer who directs traffic near school and the principal and PE teacher who meet parents dropping kids off. We will give a pan to each of their teachers to bake on the first morning of Christmas break. Oh, and my husband took some to work. It seems that most people just smile when greeted by a warm cinnamon roll. I am also planning on delivering a special breakfast to the local men’s shelter, having my boys write thank you notes to their (volunteer) basketball coaches and religious ed teachers, and leaving a treat for the mailman in our mailbox.
I love your ideas! Definitely will be using some of them.