Random Acts Of Kindness

Want to do something kind, but just can't think of what to do? You're in luck! We lots of ideas listed below -- ideas that take just little effort, ideas that cost little money, and other ideas.

General:
-Deliver fresh-baked cookies to city workers.
-Collect goods for a food bank.
-Bring flowers to work and share them with coworkers.
-Garden clubs can make floral arrangements for senior centers, nursing homes, hospitals, police stations, or shut-ins.
-Adopt a student who needs a friend, checking in periodically to see how things are going.
-Volunteer to be a tutor in a school.
-Extend a hand to someone in need. Give your full attention and simply listen.
-Merchants can donate a percentage of receipts for the week to a special cause.
-Bring coworkers a special treat.
-Students can clean classrooms for the custodian.
-Buy a stranger a free pizza.
-Distribute lollipops to kids.
-Sing at a nursing home.
-Offer a couple of hours of baby-sitting to parents.
-Slip paper hearts that say "It's Random Acts of Kindness Week! Have a great day!" under the windshield wipers of parked cars.
-Have a charity day at work, with employees bringing nonperishable food items to donate.
-Serve refreshments to customers.
-Draw names at school or work, and have people bring a small gift or food treat for their secret pal.
-Remember the bereaved with phone calls, cards, plants, and food.
-Treat someone to fresh fruit.
-Pay a compliment at least once a day.
-Call or visit a homebound person.
-Hand out balloons to passersby.
-Give free sodas to motorists.
-Be a good neighbor. Take over a baked treat or stop by to say "Hello."
-Transport someone who can't drive.
-Mow a neighbor's grass.
-Say something nice to everyone you meet today.
-Send a treat to a school or day-care center.
-Volunteer at an agency that needs help.
-Wipe rainwater off shopping carts or hold umbrellas for shoppers on the way to their cars.
-Give the gift of your smile.
-Send home a note telling parents something their child did well.
-Adopt a homeless pet from the humane society.
-Organize a scout troop or service club to help people with packages at the mall or grocery.
-Host special programs or speakers at libraries or bookstores.
-Offer to answer the phone for the school secretary for ten minutes.
-Volunteer to read to students in the classroom.
-Write notes of appreciation and bring flowers or goodies to teachers or other important people, such as the principal, nurse, custodian, and secretary.

Community Ideas:
-Give a hug to a friend.
-Tell your children why you love them.
-Write a note to your mother/father and tell them why they are special.
-Pat someone on the back.
-Write a thank-you note to a mentor or someone who has influenced your life in a positive way.
-Give coffee to people on their way to work in the morning.
-Donate time at a senior center.
-Give blood.
-Visit hospitals with smiles, treats, and friendly conversation for patients.
-Stop by a nursing home, and visit a resident with no family nearby.
-Plant flowers in your neighbor's flower box.
-Give another driver your parking spot.
-Leave a treat or handmade note of thanks for a delivery person or mail carrier.
-Give free car washes.
-Clean graffiti from neighborhood walls and buildings.
-Tell your boss that you think he/she does a good job.
-Tell your employees how much you appreciate their work.
-Let your staff leave work an hour early.
-Have a clean-up party in the park.
-Tell a bus or taxi driver how much you appreciate their driving.
-Have everyone in your office draw the name of a Random Acts of Kindness buddy out of a hat and do a kind act for their buddy that day or week.
-Give a pair of tickets to a baseball game or concert to a stranger.
-Leave an extra big tip for the waitperson.
-Drop off a plant, cookies, or donuts to the police or fire department.
-Open the door for another person.
-Write a note to the boss of someone who has helped you, praising the employee.
-Leave a bouquet of flowers on the desk of a colleague at work with whom you don't normally get along.
-Call an estranged family member.
-Volunteer to fix up an elderly couple's home.
-Pay for the person behind you in the movie line.
-Give flowers to be delivered with meal delivery programs.
-Give toys to the children at the shelter or safe house.
-Give friends and family kindness coupons they can redeem for kind favors.
-Be a friend to a new student or coworker.
-Renew an old friendship by sending a letter or small gift to someone you haven't -talked with in a long time.
-For one week, act on every single thought of generosity that arises spontaneously in your heart, and notice what happens as a consequence.
-Offer to return a shopping cart to the store for someone loading a car.
-Invite someone new over for dinner.
-Buy a roll of brightly colored stickers and give them to children you meet during the day.
-Write a card of thanks and leave it with your tip. Be sure to be specific in your thanks.
-Let the person behind you in the grocery store go ahead of you in line.
-When drivers try to merge into your lane, let them in with a wave and a smile.
-Buy cold drinks for the people next to you at a ball game.
-Distribute kindness bookmarks that you have made.
-Create a craft project or build a birdhouse with a child.
-Give a bag of groceries to a homeless person.
-Laugh out loud often and share your smile generously.
-Plant a tree in your neighborhood.
-Make a list of things to do to bring more kindness into the world, and have a friend make a list. Exchange lists and do one item per day for a month.
-Use an instant camera to take people's photographs at a party or community event, and give the picture to them.
-As you go about your day, pick up trash.
-Send a letter to some former teachers, letting them know the difference they made in your life.
-Send a gift anonymously to a friend.
-Organize a clothing drive for a shelter.
-Buy books for a day care or school.
-Slip a $20 bill to a person who you know is having financial difficulty.
-Take an acquaintance to dinner.
-Offer to take a friend's child to ball practice.
-Waive late fees for the week.

Group Ideas:
-Work with schools and service clubs to raise "Pennies for a Kindness Park" (or other community beautification project).
Pennies don't seem to have much value, but when combined, they do make a difference.
-Collect goods for a food bank or shelter.
-Develop interactive programs between retirement homes/senior centers and schools.
-Older children can read to the elderly and younger children can simply visit.
-Seniors can also tutor children in their schoolwork.
-Plant a Kindness Tree or Garden with the help of youth groups, service clubs, or other volunteers. Plant a tree or flowers in a public area like a park or walking trail, and ask the mayor to make a brief presentation at the dedication.
-Set up free coffee or hot chocolate for morning commuters. Offer lemonade or water during warm months.
-Organize a blood drive dedicated to Random Acts of Kindness.
-Ask a fast food restaurant to hold a "Customer Appreciation Day." They can decorate the dining area and post signs. Schoolchildren enjoy "hosting" at these events after school, carrying trays for people, getting beverage refills, or just greeting them at the door with a smile and suggestions for acts of kindness.
-Ask groups, such as a garden club, to create floral arrangements for a senior center, nursing home, police station, hospital, or the homebound.
-Prepare a special meal or dessert for seniors or nursing home residents.
-Hold a kindness concert with a band and give out ideas for kind acts.
-Invite role models and community leaders to public events to speak about the importance kindness have played in their lives.
-Instead of distributing invitations to a public Random Acts of Kindness event, create and distribute RAK "punch cards." The recipients punch a hole around the edge of their cards whenever they perform a kind act. Print the event information on the back, along with instructions to bring their completed punch cards to the event. Put all the cards on a wall to show how many acts of kindness the activity generated.
-Ask your library or bookstore to host storytelling parties, a children's kindness hour, etc. Create a special newsletter featuring kindness stories. Ask permission to put story collection boxes in stores.
-Create a Random Acts of Kindness mascot to circulate in high foot-traffic areas, distributing gifts and suggestions for acts of kindness. Then send the mascot to visit schools and talk about kindness.
-Hold a children's kindness drawing or coloring campaign.
-Hold a teddy bear drive and donate the bears to police or fire departments for traumatized children.
-Suggest that city hall host an open house for employees and residents.
-Organize interracial/interfaith programs and performances.
-Organize public presentations by community/religious/civil rights leaders about bringing kindness into the community.
-Get the police involved! Ask them to hand out "Kindness Citations" as they witness kind acts. (Seattle's Chief of Police spent the day on bicycle patrol giving out kindness citations.) Police can also give out "Good Driving" tickets, visit classrooms with stories of kindness they encounter on duty, put a banner over their entryway, or display kids' kindness drawings.
-After collecting safety tips from firefighters and police, organize a program to discuss safety with seniors living alone.
-Ask the mayor's office or city hall employees to host a coffee and cake party for merchants or community groups.
-Ask the librarian to forgive late fines during RAK Week.
-Place a "Practice Random Acts of Kindness" or "Kindness Zone" banner across a downtown street.
-Ask residents to drive with car headlights on to convey participation in Random Acts of Kindness Week.
-Start a ribbon campaign. Give out kindness ribbons to be worn and passed on to another person. The giver of the kind act can sign the back of the ribbon before passing it along. At the end of the campaign, display the signed ribbons at the mayor's office or city hall.
-Make cookies and bring them to downtown merchants.
-Organize spring and fall clean-up projects. Choose an area that needs attention and collect debris, abandoned items, and other materials that have collected in the area.
-Invite faith organizations and/or schools to come together as a "harmony choir" and perform.
-Ask the chamber of commerce to help you recruit merchants for a kindness planter box project. Suggest that the merchants buy the boxes and that schoolchildren have a penny drive to purchase the flowers. Paint the boxes with kindness slogans and pictures (e.g., hearts, stick figures holding hands).
-People can write stories about kind acts they have performed and received and post them on a community bulletin board.
-Help schoolchildren design and make Random Acts of Kindness bookmarks, stickers, or buttons. Ask teachers, libraries, and merchants to distribute them.
Create Random Acts of Kindness signs (stickers or clear static) for windows of official city vehicles, buses, factory worker safety helmets, or residential windows.
-Conduct an annual poster contest for all ages. Display the posters at city hall or the mayor's office, and ask a newspaper, radio or TV station to announce the winners.

Kindness With Food:
-Make meals to reheat for a recovering surgery patient.
-Deliver soup and crackers to a sick friend.
-Gather friends together and prepare sandwiches, chips, cookies, and drinks. Fill lunch bags and distribute them to the homeless.
-Share a recipe.
-Begin a Comfort Food Group at your faith organization. Members rotate preparing and delivering food to those in distress.
-Make and decorate Halloween cookies and deliver them to a children's home or family shelter.
-Invite a teenager over for a cooking lesson or collaboration on a cooking project.
-Host a gathering of friends and ask each to bring a recipe to exchange. Make one or two of the recipes in quantity and distribute to neighbors or to an ailing friend.
-Collaborate with friends to bake cakes and pies, and arrange with a soup kitchen to deliver the desserts for Thanksgiving dinner.
-Bake cookies and make hot chocolate (in the winter) or lemonade (in the summer) to give away to commuters or wherever people are standing in line.
-Prepare treats for neighbors, emergency workers, mail carriers, coworkers, or other community members, along with a note of appreciation. Before mailing packages or letters to military service personnel, contact your American Red Cross chapter for current procedures and regulations.
-Bake an extra loaf of banana or zucchini bread and bring it to a neighbor.
-A cookie exchange is when several friends bake a batch of cookies and then gather to assemble a collection of the various cookies and recipes to take back home. At your next cookie exchange, ask each friend to bake some extra cookies. Create an assortment of the extra cookies and deliver them to a family dealing with illness or surgery.
-Call a soup kitchen to find out how many people they generally serve. Then offer to prepare and deliver muffins, salad, or dessert for one of their meals.
-Have a potluck at work to celebrate a milestone like a birthday, promotion, or successful event.
-With friends, organize an ice cream social, a tea, or a bingo event for residents at an assisted living center. Bake sweets or assemble root beer floats for the residents, and stay and visit.
-Create a cookbook with recipes from different cultures. In the cookbook, include kindness stories and information about the food or the region from which it came.
-Distribute the cookbook to teachers, administrators, friends, and the community.

Diversity Ideas:
-Have a photography contest after taking field trips to diverse locations in your city. Have the student photographers write essays about the differences and similarities among neighborhoods. In the essays, suggest ideas about how to help people, the environment, the buildings, etc. Post the pictures and essays in a school, at a shopping mall, or at a city building.
-Create a club that promotes multicultural awareness, increases tolerance of differences, and practices kindness and addresses critical social issues. Sponsor speakers from various backgrounds to talk to the group. Also, re-create different cultural holidays with food and festivities. Discuss the differences and similarities among all the groups.
-Have a "Show and Tell" day where students bring in items that represent their heritages, e.g., cookware, food, or clothing.
-Discuss kindness and the role it plays when experiencing various cultures.
-Have an ethnic potluck where everyone is given the name of a country. Each student researches an area and brings in an entrйe or dessert from that part of the world. Dress in clothing from that region and discuss kindness as the "international language."
-Create a cookbook with recipes from different cultures. In the cookbook, include kindness stories and information about the food or the region from which it came. Distribute the cookbook to teachers, administrators, friends, and the community.
-Create a multicultural event for the community. Each "exhibitor" should plan a display of his or her culture or heritage, an essay, a map, personal artifacts, music, costumes, or food. Include flags from the countries, and be sure to extend kindness and hospitality to every guest. Afterward, discuss the responses and comments of the visitors.
-Hold an "International Dress Parade" and collaborate with both art and music experts to include ethnic studies in the activities.
-Be sure to discuss the role that kindness has across the world.
-Hold an "International Dance Festival" where dancers will be able to actively participate with family and community members in learning about the customs and dances from across the world.
-During morning announcements at school, have the principal announce a little known fact about a country or culture each day of the week. Include a kindness quote from a famous person from that country.
-Set up pen pals from different countries for the members of your class, community group, or club to communicate with on a regular basis. Be sure to hold class meetings to discuss the differences and similarities between your students and their pen pals.
-Read a story from another culture. Ask students to choose words from the language of that culture. Practice speaking the words together.

Faith Groups:
-With other faith groups, create an ecumenical kindness prayer for faith leaders to use.
-Put information about Random Acts of Kindness and RAK Week in your bulletins or newsletter.
-Ask congregation members to write down acts of kindness they have given or received so they can be printed in a newsletter or read aloud during services.
-Hold a teddy bear drive and give the bears to police or firefighters for traumatized children.
-Put suggestions for acts of kindness in a congregation kindness basket. As congregation members leave the building, ask them to select one of the suggestions and perform it during the week.
-Hold a kindness potluck or dance. Attendees can bring a donation of food or clothing.
-Have a special Random Acts of Kindness celebration, during which the congregation gathers and shares inspiring stories of kindness from their lives.
-Hold a Random Acts of Kindness Bingo Night, and donate the profits to a community group or family in need.
-Set up free coffee, tea, or hot chocolate for morning commuters. During warm months, offer water and lemonade.
-Organize a sing along at a senior center.
-Collect home-baked cookies or other treats to send to a faith group you don't know.
-Put up a decorated collection box for kindness stories, then create a newsletter featuring these stories. Distribute or sell the book to congregation members.
-Draw Kindness Buddy names during a service. Participants can secretly do something kind for that person during the week.
-Organize a group of congregation members to prepare a special meal or dessert for nursing home residents.
-Organize a group of congregation members to provide hugs and conversation for senior citizens who live alone. Help them shop, do paperwork, or pay bills.
-Contact another faith group you don't know and suggest a joint RAK activity or social.
-Form a Random Acts of Kindness committee to implement your congregation's suggestions for acts of kindness with funds generated by RAK socials.
-Form a volunteer committee to visit nursing homes or senior centers with recordings of songs that bring back memories, such as Mitch Miller, Benny Goodman, and Glenn Miller.
-Plant a Kindness Tree or Garden with the help of youth groups, service clubs, or other volunteers. Ask your officiant to say a few words. Participants can offer wishes for the good of humankind as they empty a shovel of soil.

Family Ideas:
-Go to a children's zoo or a park where feeding animals is allowed. Offer a bag of food to another family to feed the animals.
-Bake cookies together, and take them to a neighbor who needs a lift.
-Pitch in and clean up the yard of a neighbor who is ill, has had surgery recently, or has had a family emergency.
-Walk to a nearby park and pick up trash, then have a picnic there.
-Go to the pool for a swim, and pay the entrance fee for another family.
-Organize a carnival for young children, and invite neighboring families or a group of preschoolers to have fun throwing foam balls, fishing for prizes, and playing games. Be sure everyone gets a prize.
-Bake a treat and take it to a police or firefighter station.
-Arrange to plant flowers or a tree at a school or park on a Saturday morning.
-Have each member of your family choose someone outside the family who has made a positive difference in his or her life. Write short thank-you notes, and mail the letters together.
-Discuss the best things about the area where you live, the best places to shop and have fun, etc. Have someone take notes.Then type up the ideas to give to new neighbors who move in.
-Volunteer with your children to help at a soup kitchen.
-Create a Thanksgiving basket of food for a needy family. Make a card with cheerful artwork drawn by each of your family members. Deliver the basket and card to the family.
-Leave a bouquet of flowers on a neighbor's front step anonymously.
-Make some small gifts or write kindness wishes and drawings on bright greeting cards. Deliver them in person to residents of a nursing home, children's home, or senior facility.
-Collect stories from family members about kind acts both given and received, and create a family scrapbook. If you have photos, include them with the stories. As years go by and as your children grow, all of you can review the many ways that kindness has touched your family's life.
-Choose a family who is facing a meager holiday season, and begin collecting items in September for them. If you buy a package of six socks, put one pair aside for the surprise gifts. When you shop for food, buy a couple extra nonperishable items each time. Be sure that both the parents and the children have at least two gifts each, along with the food. Gift-wrap it all, and choose a time when you know they are home. Leave it on their doorstep, and have one person stay to ring the doorbell and run.
-Tape a lunch bag to each family member's door. For a week, put a daily treat or note inside for them to find when they wake up in the morning.

Neighborhood Ideas:
-Plant flowers at a neighborhood school.
-Clean up litter on a stretch of road in your neighborhood.
-Work with a scout troop and paint house numbers on curbs to help emergency personnel find addresses.
-Shovel snow or rake leaves for a neighbor.
-Spruce up the yard of a neighbor or friend who is ill or who has just had surgery or a death in the family.
-Organize spring and fall clean-up projects. Choose an area that needs attention and collect debris, abandoned items, and other materials that have collected in the area.
-Start a neighborhood welcome service, with hints from residents concerning best shopping, childcare, restaurants, etc.
-Create a welcome basket or bake a treat for a new neighbor.
-Roll an elderly neighbor's garbage cans back up the driveway at the end of trash pick-up day.
-Sponsor a charity run/walk through your neighborhood streets. Runners either pay an entrance fee or get sponsors for their run, and the money goes to charity.
-Publicize a "Thank a Mentor" month in your neighborhood newsletter. Encourage residents to write a thank-you note to someone who has made a difference in the neighborhood or in their life.
-Collect brief personal stories about acts of kindness given or received, and print one in each neighborhood newsletter. People connect with personal stories, and stories are powerful community builders.
-Get a group together to drive to a children's facility and distribute Random Acts of Kindness bookmarks with kindness quotes on them that you have made.
-Gather a few neighbors to adopt an entrance to your neighborhood and periodically have a get-together to keep it weeded and cleaned up. Serve refreshments and make it a Saturday morning party!
-Collect teddy bears for police officers to give to traumatized children. Attach a note to each teddy bear for the donating resident to sign. Invite a police officer and/or trauma social worker to your neighborhood meeting to accept the bears and speak to the residents briefly about the role of kindness in trauma.
-Start an inter-generational program, in which senior citizens help schoolchildren with their reading, writing, or math.
-Create "Kindness . Pass It On" cards for residents to pass from one person to another to accompany kind acts that they do for one another. The card might have a simple graphic with the words: "This act of kindness was performed especially for you. Please offer an act of kindness to someone else, and pass this card on to that person."

Homebound Persons:
-Send cards or letters of appreciation to people you read about in the news who have done good deeds. Send kind thoughts to people you hear about in your community who have suffered a setback.
-Provide homework help to younger relatives or neighbors.
-Create art or crafts, such as quilts, Afghans, or baby blankets, and donate them to be auctioned or given away by a nonprofit organization or group.
-Sew comfort items for the police trauma unit or a children's hospital. Traumatized children and pediatric cancer patients appreciate small quilts or stuffed animals for cuddling. Chemotherapy patients often need head coverings.
-Write a kind note to relatives and friends, letting them know why they are special.
-Create photo albums for your family and friends to remind them of special times.
-Help a neighbor or friend who has lost a job write a resume or cover letter.
-Gather a collection of kindness stories from friends and relatives. Copy these stories and give the collection as a gift.
-Communicate by e-mail with a friend, sharing kindness stories and your current kindness projects.
-If your town or city has a Kindness Coordinator, offer to help create giveaways or other gifts, such as RAK ribbons or handmade prizes.

Kindness For Individuals:
-Create a "smile file" with cartoons and pictures that make others smile; pick out a cartoon to cheer up a friend in need.
-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.
-Extend a hand to someone in need.
-Pay a compliment once every hour.
-Write or draw a kind note to relatives, coworkers, and friends, letting them know why they are special.
-Put up "Kindness Zone" signs and banners at the entrance to your house, place of work, etc., to remind people to practice kindness.
-Approach bookstore owners and publishers about ordering and carrying more books in large print or on tape.
-Hold a canned food drive and give the food to a food bank or shelter. Be sure to include some kindness cards or quotes with the delivery.
-Ask the mayor or city council to build a wheelchair-accessible park or to enforce laws requiring accessible ramps and doorways.
-Create a "good news" bulletin board to fill with upbeat news about your family and friends.
-Go out with a group of friends and family and perform acts of kindness.
-Help out with community events by making crafts, planting flowers, etc.
-Put up "Kindness Zone" signs and banners to remind people to practice Random Acts of Kindness.
-Write a kind note to relatives and friends, letting them know why they are special.
-Open the door for another person.
-Arrange with a nursing home to visit a resident who has no family nearby.
-Give the gift of your smile.
-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.
-Give a lottery ticket to a stranger.
-Include a note or joke in your child 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 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.

Animal Kindness:
-Adopt a stray animal.
-Write a play about being a responsible pet owner. Ask brothers, sisters, and friends to help. Make programs for the play to hand out to the audience. Include information about the play and the actors. Sprinkle in a few tips about kindness to animals and being a responsible and caring pet owner.
-Make posters reminding others to spay or neuter their pets and to place them in a safe, quiet place during parades, fire-works, and picnics. Get permission to hang these posters in stores.
-Set up a booth at a town, church, or neighborhood fair. Give out information encouraging people to be responsible pet owners.
-Make bookmarks to remind people to spay or neuter their dogs and cats. Distribute them at an animal shelter or pet store.
-Call an animal shelter and find out what donations they need. Collect treats, food, first aid supplies, toys, cat litter, towels, and soft blankets for the homeless animals.
-Help others to create safety kits for their pets. Supply these emergency kits with pet food, medicines, pet carriers, ID tags, leashes, and blankets.
-Make a birdbath from a plastic dish and put it in your yard or on the windowsill.
-Keep it filled with water.
-Notify authorities immediately about pets left in hot cars. You may save a life.
-Set aside a special time each day to play with your pet.
-Cut up plastic six-pack rings. Place them in the proper trash receptacle so small animals don't get caught in them.
-Talk to younger children about why catching wild creatures like frogs and turtles is not a good idea. Remind them that wild animals need to stay wild and free.
-Offer to wash your dog or a neighbor's dog.
-Make nutritional treats for dogs and cats, and give them to neighbors for their pets. Make extra for animal shelters.
-Be sure your pet's shots are current.
-Brush pets daily to keep their fur smooth, clean, and free of ticks and fleas. Trim their nails regularly.
-Research animal's shelters and gather information about their services for a flyer.
-Distribute copies of the flyer to classmates and friends so they know what to do if an animal needs help.

Adults and Families:
-Ask lawmakers to establish dog parks in your community, and offer to raise money to help maintain them.
-Hold a fundraiser and donate the proceeds to an animal shelter or wildlife fund.
-Participate in beach cleanups to remove debris that can harm birds, sea turtles, and other beach creatures.
-Maintain water bowls during cold months for both migrating and local birds. Make birdseed available as well.
-Create a pet care plan in your will to guarantee a happy and secure future for your pets, should you die before they do. Cats and dogs may live past 15 years, and some birds can live 50 to 100 years.
-Switch to pet-safe antifreeze. Antifreeze contains propylene glycol that carries a tempting but fatal taste to animals. Just one teaspoon can kill a cat and two ounces can kill a dog.
-Ensure your pet's safe return if it scoots out of the house by putting an identification tag, license tag, microchip, or tattoo on it.
-Offer ID tags as gifts for your friends who own pets.
-Place a sticker on your window, alerting firefighters to the number and types of pets inside your home.
-Encourage people not to buy baby bunnies and young chicks for children's springtime gifts. These animals grow up and are not always appropriately handled and loved.
-Delay adopting a dog or cat until a couple weeks after the winter holidays. Just like other gift returns, far too many pets offered as presents end up in animal shelters.
-Slow down on curves on winding roads in areas frequented by deer. Each year, 500,000 deer are killed and 29,000 people are injured in deer-vehicle collisions. Deer roam at dawn, dusk, and the first few hours of darkness.
-"Adopt" a lion, tiger, whale, or other animal. Many zoos, aquariums, and animal sea habitats have adoption programs. In exchange for financial support, you get a photo and biography of your new adoptee.
-Don't allow your dog to ride in the back of your pick-up truck. Not only will you risk the dog falling out of the vehicle, but in hot weather, a dog's pads get burned standing on the metal floor of a truck bed.
-Provide outdoor animals with food, water, and shelter. Ensure that their drinking water does not freeze. Bring them inside, if possible, during extremely hot or cold weather. Provide them with regular human contact.

Kindness To The Environment:
-Clean up trash and refrain from littering. Keep your neighborhood looking its best by promoting a regular neighborhood cleanup day for homeowners.
-To reduce air pollution, consider these options instead of driving: carpooling, taking public transportation, biking, or walking.
-Plant trees and plants in your yard.
-Clean up trash and don't litter. Keep your area looking its best.
-Recycle all aluminum, plastic, newspapers, papers, etc.
-After obtaining permission, plant flowers around a school, church, park, or other public area.
-Make signs with tips on how to save energy and water. Post these reminders in stores and other well-traveled areas.
-Fix faucet leaks promptly, and don't leave water running.
-Use a clothesline to dry your clothes instead of a dryer.
-Cut down on the energy you use by lowering the heat and turning off lights, TV, etc., when you are not using them.
-Decide what you want before you open the refrigerator.
-Wash only full loads of laundry and dishes to save water, electricity, and soap.
-Make sure your car has a tune-up regularly. Unchecked cars can waste fuel and pollute the environment.
-Create contests for poster, T-shirt, bookmark, and stationery designs. Proceeds from the sale of these items can be used to support environmental action groups.
-Take short showers to conserve water.
-Make or buy recycled paper.
-Investigate the purchase of recycled paper for school use.
-Try not to buy any foam packing materials or aerosol products.
-Make birdhouses and feeders or other wildlife feeding stations. These can be sold as a fundraiser.
-Give houseplants to teachers, friends, or coworkers to display as air fresheners.
-Give people a mug for coffee or tea to cut down on the use of disposable cups.
-Begin recycling programs in your school, business, or neighborhood, or analyze the ones already in place and suggest improvements.
-Organize spring and fall clean-up projects. Choose an area that needs attention and collect debris, abandoned items, and other materials that have collected in the area.
-Plan a school field trip to a sewage treatment facility, sanitary landfill, zoo, arboretum, or nature center.
-Make a scrapbook of newspaper and magazine articles about environmental issues. Include labels from products that are and aren't "Earth friendly," and explain why.
-Help maintain park, bicycle, and recreation trails.
-Make a large Earth on a bulletin board and have each student trace his or her hand and write one thing they can do on it to save our planet. Staple the construction paper hands around the world and post this message: "The future of the Earth is in our hands."

Ideas For Gardeners:
-Create or donate a floral arrangement to a senior center, nursing home, police station, hospital, shut-ins, etc.
-Tend a garden at a school or faith organization.
-Bring fresh produce or flowers to neighbors, coworkers, or homeless shelters.
-Put a flower with a RAK note on a neighbor's porch.
-Organize a flower-planting party in a nearby park, school, or faith organization.
-Donate individual flowers for food trays delivered to the homebound.
-Help a neighbor weed his/her garden.
-Set aside a portion of your garden for a neighbor child to tend, and work in the garden together, offering ideas and expertise as you go. Or simply help the child start a vegetable plant, teach the child how to tend it, and allow him or her to take the produce home.
-Assemble and deliver a basket of vegetables or fruit and a few flowers for a homebound person.
-Grow herbs and offer them to your neighbors for recipes that require fresh herbs.
-With your garden's yield, bake some zucchini bread and share it with neighbors or coworkers.
-Nurture small flowering plants in pots until they are in full bloom. Then deliver them to shut-ins or recent surgery patients.
-If you have plants that propagate easily, offer cuttings to neighbors and their children to take home and root.
-Select some people in your life who you feel need a special lift, and send them flowers or a houseplant.
-Why do you love to garden? Share your gardening inspiration, knowledge, stories, and favorite sources for seeds and plants with interested groups of adults and children.

Service Clubs:
-Deliver Baskets of Kindness to shut-ins. Include items such as stationery, stamps, a deck of playing cards, a puzzle or game, a magazine, fresh flowers, a book, a mug, cookies or other treat, and a greeting card signed by the service club members.
-Create art or crafts, and donate them to be auctioned or given away by a nonprofit organization.
-Take a Head Start class or a youth organization to a fast food restaurant for conversation and possible future mentoring.
-Prepare a special meal or dessert for seniors or nursing home residents.
-Create kindness handouts for merchants to give out.
-Host a kindness storytelling party at a veterans hospital or other health care facility.
-Organize a blood drive dedicated to Random Acts of Kindness.
-Support Random Acts of Kindness initiatives by donating support and volunteer time to a nonprofit organization.
-Work with retirement/senior centers or residential facilities to develop interactive programs with young children.
-Sponsor a "Kindness Zone" or "Practice Random Acts of Kindness" sign at entrances to the downtown area of your community.
-Sponsor the planting of a Kindness Tree or Garden. With the help of youth groups, service clubs, or other volunteers, plant the tree or flowers in a public area like a park or walking trail.
-Collect personal care items, new underwear, and socks for homeless shelters and safe houses.
-Create art or crafts, such as quilts, afghans, or baby blankets, and donate them to be auctioned or given away by a nonprofit organization or group.
-Sew comfort items for the police trauma unit or a children's hospital. Traumatized children and pediatric cancer patients appreciate small quilts or stuffed animals for cuddling. Chemotherapy patients often need head coverings.
-Write a kind note to relatives and friends, letting them know why they are special.
-Create photo memory albums for your family to remind them of special times.
-Help a neighbor or friend who has lost a job write a resumй or cover letter.
-Gather a collection of kindness stories from friends and relatives. Copy these stories and give the collection as a gift.
-Communicate by e-mail with a friend, sharing kindness stories and your current kindness projects.
-If your town or city has a Kindness Coordinator, offer to help create giveaways or other gifts, such as RAK ribbons or handmade prizes.
-Draw secret pals and do anonymous kind acts for your secret pal.
-Have a donation drive for dog food, cat food and kitty litter for your local animal shelter.
-Make cards and favors for homebound people that can be delivered with meals.
-Create a "good news" bulletin board filled with upbeat news about your coworkers and friends (such as pictures of coworkers' babies or articles about their accomplishments).
-Hold a special class and teach neighbors and members of service clubs basic sign language skills, such as the alphabet and common phrases.
-Organize a group of friends and family to go out and perform acts of kindness, such as cleaning up a schoolyard or park; delivering baskets of goodies to elderly people in the community; visiting a nursing home to provide conversation and company to the residents; and teaching at an adult literacy center.
-Invite community organizations to participate with you and your group in reading to, helping with, and singing to physically and mentally challenged children.
-Sponsor the planting of a Kindness Tree or Kindness Garden. With the help of youth groups, service clubs, or other volunteers, plant the tree or flowers in a public area, like a park or walking trail. Display a kindness plaque for others to read about kindness.
-Give lectures and attend special events at high schools, colleges, universities, and rehabilitation clinics. Your presence and ideas about kindness will promote tolerance and a sense of community.
-Organize a wheelchair basketball tournament and invite children from the community to participate in borrowed wheelchairs.

Ideas For Correctional Facilities:
-Write a thank-you note to a staff member who went out of his or her way to help you.
-Draw bookmarks with kind sayings on them for the library to copy and hand out.
-Pass on personal books, newspapers, or magazines to another inmate.
-Refrain from judging others or harassing them because they may be different or because of their crime.
-Send money to a utility company to pay a bill for a family member or friend.
-Forgive a debt.
-Become a tutor. Help someone write a letter or learn something new.
-Put notes of encouragement in library books for someone else to find.
-If you are in a self-change group, initiate positive affirmations to be given out to one another. To make sure everyone gets one, make a master copy of names of group members, then copy it for each member. Suggest that each member write at least three positive statements: qualities that they admire about the person, for everyone on the list. An example of a positive statement would be: "You have made great progress in your communications skills."
-On the outside of an envelope to a loved one, write: "This letter is being sent to an angel!"
-Send a kindness story or poem to a friend or family member.
-Refrain from telling "war stories" about drugs or criminality.
-If someone lets you use a radio, return it with new batteries.
-Give a birthday card to a friend on his or her birthday.
-Send your children candy or other goodies from the canteen.
-Do not talk behind anyone's back or spread rumors.
-Send positive letters to a juvenile detention facility.
-Have your family donate something of yours anonymously to a charity.
-Learn how to repair used eyeglasses, toys, etc. (donated by the community), for distribution to homeless or low-income people.
-If you have a print shop, make flyers, posters, bulletins, and newsletters for faith organizations, schools, or charities.
-Hold a read-a-thon for a worthy cause. Find sponsors from the staff who will pay money per book read by an inmate, and donate the proceeds to a charity such as child abuse causes. Also, consider holding walk-a-thons or "lift-a-thons" (using barbells) inside the yards.
-Perform paralegal services or research for the elderly or for low-income people.
-Most adult correctional facilities have fairly comprehensive law libraries.
-Repair computers, VCRs, furniture, etc., for schools or faith organizations.
-Run a recycling center for the community.
-Make quilts, baby clothes, dolls, etc., for low-income people.
-Establish a community volunteer program inside the institution to help with outside community volunteer activities. Meet with community organizers to determine what jobs (e.g., writing, collating, design work) could be done by inmates.
-Begin an assembly program to assist with houses being built for lower-income people. Assemble parts of housing structures or cabinetry for use in the community.
-Most adult correctional facilities have wood shops or vocational programs.
Bring in a craftsperson to teach papermaking, bookmaking, or other crafts. Use the skills to create thank-you gifts for family, community members, social workers, or benefactors.
-Make frames to display the artwork of students in hallways, libraries, airports, etc.
-If the institution has a good wood shop, make park benches or trash receptacles for the community at cost (to cover of the materials).
-At the end of a youth class or group gathering, do a "validation chain." One student begins by sharing a respectful, appreciative remark to another person. His is passed on and on until everyone has been included. In a living situation that can be demoralizing, the participants leave feeling good about one another.
-Present a special event or a Poetry and Inspirational Reading evening at juvenile hall. Incarcerated youth read original and selected poetry and inspirational material, focusing on tolerance or another positive trait. Invite parents, institutional staff, supervisors, district leaders, and the press. This gives the students a chance to engage in a cooperative, kind, respectful activity with staff as well as to develop self-esteem.
-Create a knitting program. Teach inmates to use knitting machines to Create caps, teddy bears, scarves, mittens, and dolls for homeless or poor children throughout the state. Inmates earn the right to enter this program through good behavior.

Misc. Ideas:
-Volunteer to set up, decorate, register guests, serve lunch, or sell raffle tickets at a community event for the elderly, students, or a nonprofit organization.
-Sort, wrap, organize, or deliver holiday presents for people who can't do it themselves.
-Celebrate senior citizens or students by having a special holiday dinner. Set up the dining room, prepare and serve dinner, visit, and play holiday games.
-Prepare treats for neighbors, emergency workers, mail carriers, coworkers, military personnel, or other community members, along with a note of appreciation.
-"Adopt" a family, child, or senior citizen and spend time with them, especially during the winter holidays.
-Call an animal shelter and find out what donations they need. Collect things like treats, food, first aid supplies, toys, cat litter, and blankets for the homeless animals.
-For a charity, volunteer to distribute or deliver clothes, food, and gifts.
Dress up as a holiday helper and visit neighbors and friends.
-Make or teach holiday crafts.
-Mentor, tutor, or teach youth, especially before final exams.
-Organize, clean up, or provide entertainment for holiday parties and get-togethers.
-Donate gift certificates to be given to families in need during the holidays.
-Collect coats, hats, gloves, socks, scarves, boots or other warm items for the various homeless shelters to be distributed before the cold sets in.
-Delay adopting a dog or cat until a couple of weeks after the winter holidays. Just like other gift returns, far too many dogs and cats offered as presents end up in animal shelters.
-Visit a neighbor and help him or her prepare for the holidays.
-Help decorate a senior center or an elementary school for the winter holidays.
-Sing or carol throughout your neighborhood.
-Volunteer at an animal shelter or pet-sit for a neighbor during the holiday season.
-Organize a diverse holiday exhibit or parade to kick off the holiday season.
-Showcase different celebrations, such as Kwanzaa, Christmas, Hanukkah, and Ramadan.
-Plan and help with holiday activities for homeless children.
-Participate in family-oriented activities, such as helping together in a soup kitchen or sponsoring a homeless family.
-Design and send homemade holiday cards and send them to people in the military, homeless shelters, or nursing homes.
-Perform acts of kindness rather than buying gifts.
-Provide transportation for elderly neighbors to help with their holiday gift or grocery shopping.
-Serve holiday meals at a shelter, soup kitchen, community center, or faith organization.
-Put together a notebook and fill it with holiday kindness stories. Share these treasures with your peers and family.
-Cut out the pictures from holiday greeting cards, and send them to a charity that uses them for projects.
-Help an elderly neighbor or nursing home resident with holiday decorations.

****It's simple to get started. Do something to bring a smile on someone's face and leave behind a Random act Of Kindness card to keep the kindness going.