Let's Spread Kindness Together

It’s random acts of kindness week so we thought it would be fun to share a list of ideas that you can share in doing around your neighborhood or community.  There are hundreds of ideas out there, but to get you started you’ll find several different bullet points below that may help to inspire some of those ideas of your own.

One thing we can all agree on is that simply doing good feels good, and we want to add another element of fun to that so when you spread kindness we’ll also spread some love with a few prizes purchased from “locally owned businesses” that everyone will have an opportunity to win courtesy of The Gardner Team.

We believe that to truly “spread” kindness there shouldn’t be restrictions, so please feel free to share your acts from wherever you are — should your name be drawn we will make sure to send you a gift certificate that can be used anywhere!!

The Power of Kindness 

When you spread goodwill everyone benefits.  The kindness you initiate leaves an impression that inspires more kindness that spreads from one person to another like a ripple effect.  We’d like to put the power of kindness to the test with a fun challenge EVERYONE can participate in right on our facebook page.  This is not a competition,  just a fun challenge to spread kindness and be kind to one another.  Of course The Gardner Family will pitch in with some random acts of kindness too, making a point to be more aware and act on opportunities all around us to spread kindness – but we will not be entering the drawing, that’s fun is reserved just for you!

To kick off the week I performed several Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) to pay it forward and make another persons day – but the one I felt was the most profound today was free!  When I made a point to make eye contact with more people and smile big – that simple gesture never failed to make the other person smile back and in that moment, it made both of us happy!  So here’s to smiling purposefully!

Be a good neighbor, pay it forward with a random act of kindness in your neighborhood or community.

Here’s the rules to enter our drawing:

1. Simply share your act of kindness with us.
2. Leave a comment and share what you’ve done on our facebook page.
3. You can enter more than once, the goal is to spread as much kindness possible. Each post will be automatically entered into our “Good Neighbor” drawing.
4. Random Acts of Kindness week runs Monday, February 13th through 19th, 2012. Make sure to submit your comments/post during that time frame to be entered into our “Good Neighbor” drawing to be held Monday with all winners announced here on our blog and facebook page. Make sure to check back, we will post the winners names and request that you email us at @amber@gardnerteam.net if at that time you see yours so we can make arrangements at that point to deliver or mail your prize.

Ideas to Spread Acts of Kindness in Your Neighborhood or Community

Ideas courtesy of RandomActsofKindness.org and The Gardner Team

• Say “Thanks-A-Latte” for being a good neighbor with a coffee gift card from your “local” coffee shop. Leave it on your neighbors doorstep with a little note of appreciation from you.
• Plant flowers at a neighborhood school.
• Clean up litter on a stretch of road in your neighborhood.
• Clean up your neighborhood park.
• Make a point to smile and wave at everyone, and wish them a good day.
• Be a good neighbor and offer to 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.
• Welcome a new neighbor with a welcome basket or baked treat.
• Be a good Samaritan and roll an elderly neighbor’s garbage cans to or from the curb on pick-up day.
• Put together a charity run/walk through your neighborhood streets. Runners either pay an entrance fee or get sponsors for their run with money raised going to a charity, like Liam’s Six Dollar Club!
• 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.
• Be a good citizen, hold the door open for someone.
• Don’t participate in gossip or bullying.
• 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 fun like a Saturday morning party!
• Offer to share your skills at your local school such as reading, writing, or math help.
• 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.” Here’s a fun idea that’s being spread all over, check out what our sons teacher is doing with her Kindness Kard campaign!
• 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 HOA meeting to accept the bears and speak to the residents briefly about the role kindness plays during a traumatic time of need.  If you’d like you can also donate any “new” stuffed animals to a local campaign that collects annually.  Also spearheaded by our sons teacher Lindsay Walker, her mission brings people of all ages together to collect animals for the Michael Grimm Foundation. Each “With Love From Michael” animal is donated to our very own local children’s hospitals to bring joy to children in treatment there.  Something you may have also heard about or seen through “Stuff the Truck” projects held around Sherwood.
• Anything else you come up with… Please share!

Here’s to spreading kindness, and more importantly having fun living a healthier life though being kind to one another.

Amber Gardner and friends!