Random Acts of Kindness

The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is a resource for people committed to spreading kindness. We provide a wide variety of materials on our website, including activity ideas, lesson plans, project plans, teachers guides, project planning guide, publicity guide, and workplace resources - randomactsofkindness.org – all free of charge. We invite you to use our kindness ideas along with those offered by many other terrific kindness websites (google “acts of kindness”) on World Kindness Day (and any other day) to celebrate, create and share acts of kindness. It doesn’t matter how simple or complex, whether you’re the doer, receiver or observer, a kind act inspired by the wisdom and compassion of the heart is how the kindness movement is making a better world.

For elementary schools and classrooms compose a kindness pledge like this one from Alberta, Canada. Start each day or assembly with this kindness reminder.

I pledge to myself, on this day,
To try to be kind, in every way,
To every person, big and small,
I will help them if they fall.
When I love myself and others too,
That is the best that I can do.

ATA News, published by the Alberta Teachers’ Association, 1999

World Kindness Day is being acknowledged by over 40 Bloggers from Bloggers Unite who are writing posts about kindness and reporting what they did from experiences they personally had with kindness.

Thanks to our friends at Liquid Hip you can read about some inspirational acts of kindness that have occurred on past World Kindness Days. “In Idaho (U.S.), one teacher gave her students winter gloves to pass on to someone in need. In Singapore, 45,000 flowers were handed out. And Grammy-winning filmmaker Mark Johnson organized "Playing For Change", which brings together the performances of more than 100 musicians from Tibet to Zimbabwe (hat tip: Tony Berkman).”

In 2009 the focus for World Kindness Day was on our kindness commonality and embracing each other no matter what our differences. The Singapore Kindness Movement created a drive to get everyone to affirm and thank the kind people they know last year. Check it out here.

“If someone has done something nice for you, no matter how big or small, take time out on 13 November to present the person with a yellow gerbera daisy, to say a big ‘thank you’ to him or her! You can also gather a few of your friends or colleagues to surprise the person with a ‘Kindness Ambush’. This group demonstration of appreciation can involve any number of people with each presenting a daisy to the person.”

It’s still a good idea and easy to do! What will your Random Acts of Kindness be on November 13th? Feel free to share your suggestions and thoughts on the special World Kindness Day section of our newly designed Random Acts of Kindness website: www.randomactsofkindness.org.


THE KIND TIMES NEWSLETTER • OCTOBER 2010
IN THIS ISSUE Harvest Some Kind Ideas New Website Launched World Kindness Day Acts of Kindness Ideas World Giving Index Our Sister Foundation Random Acts of Kindness 1727 Tremont Place Denver, Colorado 80202 United States Phone (800) 660-2811 info@actsofkindness.org Friend us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter	Harvest Some Kind Ideas... Dear Friends, The first month of fall is upon us in the Northern Hemisphere. Our daily rhythm changes once again. Students are busy with school, communities are holding autumn festivals, and we prepare for cooler weather. And, while harvest may be winding down for farmers and orchardists, we thought we might take this opportunity to plant a few seeds of kindness to harvest along with those fall activities. As always, thanks for being part of our kindness community. We value all of you. Kind Regards, Marilyn Decalo, Manager marilyn@actsofkindness.org
	The new Random Acts of Kindness website is up and running! We invite you, our special friends and neighbors to visit our new website: randomactsofkindness.org and give us your feedback. You’ll find an amazing kindness ideas database, some outstanding features and voices for kindness on our guest bloggers page, as well as lesson plans, inspirational quotes, kindness stories and free stuff. While we have plans to continue to grow the site we’re excited to have a new way to interact with the kindness community. Don’t forget you can find us on Facebook and Twitter, too.
	Plan to celebrate World Kindness Day this November! As global citizens we have an opportunity to celebrate a very special day on November 13th , World Kindness Day. World Kindness Day gives us a way to acknowledge the value of sharing kindness, participate with friends and strangers in kind acts and show appreciation for those who do random acts of kindness across the world. While we strongly encourage doing kind acts every day, World Kindness Day promotes kindness front and center as a focus for everyone around the world to connect with each other. How fabulous is that! World Kindness Day evolved from a series of conferences in 1996-1997 in Japan by a group known as the World Kindness Movement (WKM). These conferences brought together groups interested in promoting more kindness around the world. It culminated in the "Declaration of Kindness" on November 13, 1997. With this declaration, a new and very kind day was born. The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is pleased to be affiliated with The World Kindness Movement headquartered in Singapore, Malaysia. The mission of The World Kindness movement is to inspire individuals towards greater kindness and connect nations to create a kinder world. Many of the WKM affiliated countries have unique ways of celebrating World Kindness Day. Here’s a wonderful idea from The Kindness Foundation of Canada: World Kindness Concert
	We’ve got tons of ideas for creating World Kindness Day activities! The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is a resource for people committed to spreading kindness. We provide a wide variety of materials on our website, including activity ideas, lesson plans, project plans, teachers guides, project planning guide, publicity guide, and workplace resources - randomactsofkindness.org – all free of charge. We invite you to use our kindness ideas along with those offered by many other terrific kindness websites (google “acts of kindness”) on World Kindness Day (and any other day) to celebrate, create and share acts of kindness. It doesn’t matter how simple or complex, whether you’re the doer, receiver or observer, a kind act inspired by the wisdom and compassion of the heart is how the kindness movement is making a better world. For elementary schools and classrooms compose a kindness pledge like this one from Alberta, Canada. Start each day or assembly with this kindness reminder. I pledge to myself, on this day, To try to be kind, in every way, To every person, big and small, I will help them if they fall. When I love myself and others too, That is the best that I can do. ATA News, published by the Alberta Teachers’ Association, 1999 World Kindness Day is being acknowledged by over 40 Bloggers from Bloggers Unite who are writing posts about kindness and reporting what they did from experiences they personally had with kindness. Thanks to our friends at Liquid Hip you can read about some inspirational acts of kindness that have occurred on past World Kindness Days. “In Idaho (U.S.), one teacher gave her students winter gloves to pass on to someone in need. In Singapore, 45,000 flowers were handed out. And Grammy-winning filmmaker Mark Johnson organized "Playing For Change", which brings together the performances of more than 100 musicians from Tibet to Zimbabwe (hat tip: Tony Berkman).” In 2009 the focus for World Kindness Day was on our kindness commonality and embracing each other no matter what our differences. The Singapore Kindness Movement created a drive to get everyone to affirm and thank the kind people they know last year. Check it out here. “If someone has done something nice for you, no matter how big or small, take time out on 13 November to present the person with a yellow gerbera daisy, to say a big ‘thank you’ to him or her! You can also gather a few of your friends or colleagues to surprise the person with a ‘Kindness Ambush’. This group demonstration of appreciation can involve any number of people with each presenting a daisy to the person.” It’s still a good idea and easy to do! What will your Random Acts of Kindness be on November 13th? Feel free to share your suggestions and thoughts on the special World Kindness Day section of our newly designed Random Acts of Kindness website: www.randomactsofkindness.org.
	The World Giving Index In the category of good news in brief there is this kind story we’re happy to tell from The Guardian: The "World Giving Index" used Gallup surveys of 195,000 people in 153 nations and asked people whether they had volunteered or given money or help in the last month. It also asked respondents to rank how happy they are with life. It found that a fifth of the world's population had volunteered, almost a third had given money to charity, and 45% had been "good samaritans" and helped a stranger. Read the article here.
	Our Sister Foundation Our sister foundation, The Foundation for a Better Life, is offering a free set of posters promoting positive values plus a free DVD with our public service TV Spots for teachers, youth group leaders and others. For more information on The Foundation for a Better Life please visit values.com. To request your a free set of posters and a DVD visit www.values.com. Keep in mind they can send only one set of posters per request and there are no substitutions on the poster designs.
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Harvest Some Kind Ideas...

The new Random Acts of Kindness website is up and running!

Plan to celebrate World Kindness Day this November!

We’ve got tons of ideas for creating World Kindness Day activities!

The World Giving Index

Our Sister Foundation