Random Acts of Kindness

I visited the site of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation and notice that they have lists to help people and organizations with ideas for promoting the concept of random acts of kindness. Following is a list of suggested activities for individuals. If you have any that you think should be added to the list, feel free to post it. Or, if you have performed a random act of kindness that you would like to share with the class, then post that. Always looking for creative ways to help our fellow man.

• Help a neighbor weed or plant a garden.
• Select some people in your life who you feel need a special lift and send them a gift: flowers, tickets to a special event, or a gift certificate.
• Write a note to the supervisor of someone who has been particularly helpful, letting him or her know how the employee helped you.
• Stop for a person waiting to cross the street.
• Leave enough money in the vending machine for the next person to get a free treat.
• Call or write to someone you haven’t spoken to in a long time, just to say you’re thinking about them.
• Purchase a copy of a book about kindness, read it, put your initials, city, and state on the inside, and pass it on.
• Call loved ones just to say “I love you” or to tell them what you appreciate about them.
• Create or donate floral arrangements for a senior center, nursing home, police station, hospital, or the homebound.
• Smile and say “hello” to someone you don’t know.
• When you are waiting for service at the deli counter, trade “ticket numbers” with someone in a hurry.
• Put a flower on a neighbor’s porch.
• Pick up litter.
• Help someone struggling with heavy bags.
• Offer to baby-sit for free to give a single parent an evening off.
• Call someone who has no family nearby and invite him or her to your home for a visit.
• Call someone who doesn’t drive, and invite him or her out to lunch or a movie.
• Surprise someone in your house with breakfast in bed.
• Compliment a stranger about something they are wearing.
• Pay the toll for the person behind you.
• Volunteer to help at a school or library.
• Adopt a stray animal.
• Give a lottery ticket to a stranger.
• Include a note or joke in your child’s or spouse’s lunchbox.
• Shovel your neighbor’s driveway or mow the lawn.
• Write something nice about your waitperson on the back of the bill.
• Give your place in line at the grocery store to another person, such as someone in a hurry or a parent with restless little children.
• Smile and say thank you to the bus driver or toll collector.
• Hold the door of the elevator, subway, or bus for someone rushing to catch it. After loading your groceries into the car, return your shopping cart.
• Donate blood.
• Let someone merge into traffic during rush hour.
• If you play a musical instrument, visit a senior center or hospital and give a brief recital.
• Ask your children to go through their toys and donate some of them to children who are less fortunate.
• Make an anonymous donation to a charity that is actively helping your community.
• When visiting a hospital, spend a few minutes with someone who has no visitors. Tape coins to a pay telephone with a note saying that anyone who needs it can use it.
• After reading a book you enjoyed, send a note of appreciation to the author.
• Ask your children to wash an elderly neighbor’s car, mow the lawn, or rake leaves without charge.
• Next time you finish your punch card for a free cup of coffee, give it away or ask the cashier to give it to someone who might need it.
• Host a party for the kids in your neighborhood.
• Make snacks and watch a movie, giving the adults in the neighborhood a night off.
• Drive safely and courteously.
• Carry inexpensive, pocket-sized rain ponchos in your car and hand them out to pedestrians who are getting drenched in a downpour.
• Donate soda tabs or cans to a local organization that can turn them in to raise funds.
• Save box tops for education and donate to a local school, even if you don’t have children.
• Save coupons and send them to the commissary for military families to use overseas, they can use coupons expired up to six months.
• Send a card to a lonely person