February 17th is National Random Acts of Kindness Day! We’re using the holiday as an opportunity for our staff to come together to spread kindness to our community. When it comes to random acts of kindness, it’s the more the merrier. So we’re inviting you to participate in National Random Acts of Kindness Day on February 17th with us.

To make sure we’re spreading kindness to all corners of the community, we’ve divided acts of kindness into categories based on who will receive your kindness. Our hope is that you will complete at least one random act of kindness in each category—but don’t let that limit you.

MAKE IT A GAME:

By inviting friends to participate with you, you can multiply your random acts of kindness. If you and your friends are competitive, you can even turn it into a competition. Each participant can get a point for each act of kindness they commit. Turn your competition up a notch by giving bonus points when someone does at least one kind act from each category and a bonus if someone completes all the acts in a single category.

FOR PEOPLE YOU DON’T KNOW:

• Let someone cut in front of you in line.
• Pay for the car behind you in the drive-thru.
• Let someone merge in front of you in traffic.
• Put money in an expired parking meter.
• Become an organ donor.
• Give encouragement to a parent whose child is acting up.
• Leave a thank you note (or treats) for your mail carrier.
• Drop off treats for the teachers at your local school.
• Carry a couple “tire inflator” bottles in your car in case you see someone with a flat.
• Give blood.
• Pick up litter.

FOR SERVICE WORKERS:

• Return carts in the parking lot to the cart corral.
• Leave a great review for a local business and mention an employee by name. BONUS: get the others with you to also leave a positive review.
• At a restaurant, leave a tip for your server and a second one for the cook in the back.
• When out to eat, clean up your table and stack your dishes when you’re done so it’s easier for your server to clear everything.
• Ask your server about him/herself.
• Put your phone away when ordering or speaking with your server.
• Tell the manager how much you appreciated your server.

FOR ORGANIZATIONS THAT HELP OTHERS:

• Sign up for an organization’s charity event. BONUS: Invite friends to go with you.
• Volunteer for a local homeless shelter. BONUS: Organize a group to volunteer.
  Donate clothes, shoes, blankets, towels and other necessities to an organization that gives items to people in need.
• Volunteer at an animal shelter.
• Donate books or other media items to your local library.
• Collect school supplies for children in need and take them to your local school.
• Ask a teacher what items they’d like for their classroom and purchase those items for them.
• Donate food, towels and litter to an animal shelter.

FOR CO-WORKERS:

• Donate a vacation/sick day to someone who is sick or caring for a sick loved one.
• Bring in treats for your co-workers. It can be extra fun to do this anonymously.
• Stay late to finish up a task so a co-worker doesn’t have to.
• Compliment a co-worker to your boss.
• Make friends with a new co-worker who’s still learning the ropes.
• Write thank you notes to co-workers who were helpful.
• Offer to take the task no one likes doing.
• Clean up a mess that you didn’t create.

FOR NEIGHBORS:

• Shovel your neighbor’s sidewalk or mow their lawn.
• Offer to babysit or take your neighbor’s dog for a walk for free.
• Make dinner for a neighbor that is going through a difficult time. BONUS: Organize a week’s worth of meals with your other neighbors.
• Introduce yourself to neighbors you haven’t formally met yet. BONUS: Take them some treats when you go to introduce yourself.
• Scrape ice off your neighbor’s windshield in the morning.
• When baking, make a double batch and take the extra to your neighbors.
• Create “gift certificates” for free yard work and give them to your neighbors for them to use when they’d like.

FOR FAMILY MEMBERS:

• Write a note telling a family member what you appreciate about them.
• Clean up a mess you didn’t create.
• Do a task that you know others in the family don’t like doing.
• Be the one to take care of the pets (feeding, walking, cleaning the litter box, etc).
• Call a family member that doesn’t live in town just to say hello and catch up.
• Create a gratitude journal where you write things each of your family members have done that you are grateful for.
• Tell a family member what you love about them.