5th Bridge invites everyone to participate in Random Acts of Kindness week and experience the “utter joy” that comes from doing good for others. To help get things started, here is a template for the week complete with a daily theme, thought for the day, and a few ideas or tips to make it easy to participate. You will find additional teaching and motivation resources www.actsofkindness.org.
Day 1 (Mon. Feb 9th)
Theme: Say Something Nice, give sincere complements to everyone you greet
Quotes for the Day: “Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.” Mother Teresa “If someone were to pay you 10 cents for every kind word you ever spoke and collect 5 cents for every unkind word, would you be rich or poor?” Nonpareil
Ideas/tips: Complement the person, not their possessions (you have a great sense of style vs nice outfit) Praise the cook; Praise a classmate’s project; Praise a co-workers job performance; send a thank you card to someone who made a difference to you; etc…
Day 2 (Tues. Feb. 10th)
Theme: Be kind to a stranger, do something nice for someone you don’t know
Quote for the Day: “A kind and compassionate act is often its own reward” William John Bennet
Ideas/tips: Scrape the snow off a stranger’s car, sit with someone you don’t know at lunch, take flowers or treats to someone in a nursing home who doesn’t get many visitors, buy an extra soda or coffee and hand it to someone you don’t know, give another driver your parking spot; give a pair of tickets for an event like Rock & Roll Revival to a stranger, etc…
Day 3 (Wed. Feb 11th)
Theme: Value friendship, do a good deed for a friend.
Quote for the Day: “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ideas/tip: Mend a relationship or reconnect with an old friend; tell your friends why you appreciate them; give your friend a small thoughtful gift; treat your friend to lunch or coffee; give your friends a hug; etc…
Day 4 (Thurs. Feb. 12th)
Theme: Give generously, donate to a good cause.
Quote for the Day: “A Person’s true wealth is the good he or she does in the world” Mohamed
Ideas/tips: Donate to your favorite charity; donate books to the school or library; sort through your clothes and donate nice unwanted in season clothes to the Clothes Closet; donate your change to a good cause; etc…
Day 5 (Fri. Feb 13th)
Theme: Make a new friend today, it will bring both of you good luck.
Quote for the day: “A friend is a stranger you have yet to meet” Walt Disney
Ideas/tips: Sit with someone new at lunch; take a treat to a new neighbor; invite someone you would like to get to know better for lunch or coffee; be a friend to a new student or co-worker; …
Day 6 (Sat. Feb 14th)
Theme: Reach out to someone, who is going through a hard time or just having a bad day.
Quotes for the day: “No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” Aesop
“It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do a little.” Sydney Smith
Ideas/tips: Send a card or flowers to a sick friend; take a meal to someone recovering from surgery; run an errand or shovel snow for a neighbor with an illness in the family; volunteer to baby-sit for a few hours to give a single parent a break; etc…
Day 7 (Sun. Feb. 15th)
Theme: Be kind to your family
Quote for the day: “Families are like fudge…mostly sweet with a few nuts.” Author Unknown
Ideas/tips: Help with chores; give your family members hugs; tell your family you love them, etc…
The Future…
Theme: Pass it on and keep it going
Quotes for the future: “Have you had a kindness shown? Pass it on; twas not given for thee alone, pass it on; let it travel down the years, let it wipe another’s tears, till in heaven the deed appears, pass it on.” Henry Burton
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you can.” John Wesley
Ideas/tips: Take the 5th Bridge volunteer pledge, we will encourage you to continue your good work and we will help make it easier by giving you service and kindness ideas.
The week might be over, but we hope you will develop the habit of doing random acts of kindness and keep passing it on.
If you have any questions or ideas to make this celebration of Random Acts of Kindness more meaningful then email candy@5thbridge.org or call Candy Taylor at 507-581-3017
