Random Acts of Kindness Week on College Campuses Feb 11th - 17th

In case you need to remind someone to do something nice for someone else, or if you are looking for a theme, there's a week coming up dedicated to doing Random Acts of Kindness. The official website  is filled with stories, ideas, and inspiration to get you started. Here are some of the many suggestions it gives for colleges:

• Give another driver your parking spot.
• Give an extra concert or ball game ticket to a stranger. (Hand out free movie tickets)
• Help someone struggling with heavy bags.
• Invite someone new to lunch. (hand out free lunch cards) 
• Compliment a stranger about something he or she is wearing.
• Smile at people you pass on your way to class.
• Bring coffee, donuts, or chocolate kisses/hugs to campus workers who don’t usually get thanked.
• Form a group to help the school staff with activities like clearing cafeteria lunch trays, picking up trash, or cleaning up classrooms for the evening custodian.
• Write anonymous positive notes to one another, saying what makes the recipient special.
• Hand out coffee and hot chocolate to passersby on a cold, wintry morning, or lemonade and water during warm weather.
• Hold a campus-wide kindness story contest.
• Put up blank banners in public areas and invite students and faculty to write their kindness stories for all to enjoy.
• If you have a radio station, ask the radio staff to create Random Acts of Kindness programming, such as listeners calling in their stories of kindness, or the ANNOUNCER reading submitted stories or selected readings from kindness books.
• Hold a campus kindness rally and invite speakers and musicians to give awards to kind students, professors and staff members.
• Hold a teddy bear drive. Deliver the bears to police and firefighters to give to traumatized children.
• Collect kindness stories and create a customized campus kindness book for distribution.
• Post banners with kindness slogans.

Here are some for the staff:

• Praise the work or attitude of a teacher.
• Bring someone a cup of coffee, hot cocoa, or a soft drink.
• At a faculty meeting, talk with teachers about acts of kindness you all have given or received.
• Leave a kind note in the faculty lunchroom with suggestions like, “Take a deep breath and move peacefully through your day.” 
• Post copies of inspirational poems or thoughts for all to enjoy.
• Put a supportive note on teacher’s desk or in his/her mailbox.
• Carry small wrapped candies in your pocket to give as “angel kisses” to someone who needs a lift.
• Attach suggestions for acts of kindness to Hershey Kisses and Hugs. Each administrator, teacher, or staff member takes a candy and then performs the RAK suggested to benefit another administrator, teacher, or staff member.
• Sponsor a kindness drawing or coloring campaign for your staff’s children.
• Put plants in your facility. A study at Washington State University indicates that living indoor plants may increase productivity and reduce stress for employees.
• Boost morale on campus by having your staff submit stories about kindness in the workplace. Start with a memo giving them information about the RAK movement and asking them to submit their stories. When the week is over, distribute the stories as a collection, post them on a Kindness Bulletin Board, or include one or more in each school newsletter. If you don’t have a newsletter, create a weekly or monthly Kindness Bulletin and keep it going throughout the year!
• Create a “good news” bulletin board to fill with upbeat news about teachers (such as write-ups about the teachers’ accomplishments and ideas, or photos of their families or newborn babies).
• Invite someone new to lunch.
• Welcome and get to know new hires.
• Tell a fellow teacher or a principal why you appreciate him or her.
• Walk a colleague to the car or bus at nighttime for safety.
• Leave a treat on the desk of a teacher with whom you normally don’t get along.
• Write, draw, make, or buy something encouraging for a colleague who is experiencing difficulties.
• Place a flower on the desk of each of your team members or fellow teachers.
• Surprise a colleague with a soft drink, coffee, or bottled water.
• Keep a Kindness Journal of kind acts you observe among your students. Read it aloud and discuss it with your students once a week. This will help raise students’ awareness of the impact of their daily actions, and it may encourage you as well.
• Give a compliment.
• Allow a colleague’s teenager to shadow you for a day and learn about your job
• Write a letter commending a colleague who helped you, and address it to your principal.

There's even a PDF guide to start a RAK (Random Acts of Kindness) Club on your campus to keep the idea going throughout the year. Acts of kindness do a lot more than just make someone smile. From their website:

Kindness activities teach students a lifelong interpersonal skill and affirm students who may not be recognized in other ways.

Comments

[Brian]

When I was a student (only about a handful of years ago), the Circle K club that I was president of did a different "act of kindness" each day of the week.

RAoK week is so so much fun. Students enjoy it, especially those who are already engaged in service opportunities.

[Jennifer Blackwell]

Sara,
Thank you for the reminder! Doing something kind for someone else will brighten your day - no doubt about it!

If anyone is attending NACA's National Convention next week, Random Acts of Kindness is the theme for the Educational Exhibits - a main display will be set up near registration.

[Sara Evans]

Oh that is great info. Thanks Jennifer.