Today’s post comes from Marilyn Decalo, the Education Director for The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation.
Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week! The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is sharing ideas and stories from hundreds of people celebrating kindness and performing kind acts across the country this week, and we couldn’t be more thrilled! Friends, teachers, parents, children, co-workers and communities have taken kindness to heart by doing kind acts and inspiring us with their stories on the Random Acts of Kindness and website.
One of the most inspiring stories we found is told in our Extreme Kindness Challenge winner’s video “Peach’s Neet Feet” produced by The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation and Storytellers for Good,. Madison Steiner paints art in the form of footwear and donates them to children with long-term illness and cancer. What an awesome act of kindness!
While Random Acts of Kindness Week is designed to celebrate the value of being kind to one another, we really don’t need a special day or week to 
do kind acts. Focusing a little more on the positive and treating others with kindness can happen everyday in simple ways like saying thank you or smiling at someone. Our kind acts can be as small as holding the door open for someone or as big as volunteering at the local food bank. We don’t need to wait for a natural disaster to show kindness, and everyone from pre-school students to seniors can be kind.
Here’s how you can start practicing kindness. As you look around in your community this week, whether that’s your school, workplace or city, notice where someone can use a little more kindness in their life. Choose to make a difference by offering a little something of appreciation. A note of thanks, helping with a chore, or just holding a door open for someone can make them feel appreciated and brighten your day. Commit to doing it again the next day. Pretty soon you’ll be doing kind-hearted acts everyday.
The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation invites you to join the kindness movement and use our free resources to for teaching, sharing and doing kindness. We’ve got ideas, quotes, lesson plans, activities and videos to inspire and empower everyone to be kind
Kindness can change our world; one joyful, selfless act at a time!
Kindly,
Marilyn Decalo, Education Director
The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation
Check out Peach’s Neet Feet the winner of the Extreme Kindness Challenge. This was originally posted on
Happy Valentines Day to all! We hope that you are enjoying your chocolates, cards, or flowers from your sweetheart today. Did you know Valentines Day can be more than just honoring the love you share with your significant other? It is also a great way to show your volunteers just how much you love them and the tremendous service they give to you and your organization! Below are some great suggestions to show your volunteer love not only just today but always!
Andrew: After Katrina in the fall of 2005, I got an email about a volunteer trip being organized to Biloxi, MS. I thought to myself, “What else am I doing during Christmas break? This could be fun.” So I went to the info session and as I walked in—bam! There sat this super cute girl. She introduced herself as Anna Snoeyenbos, and as the group leader she then launched into a briefing. I was too impressed by her combination of beauty, intelligent, and social presence to pay much attention to disaster relief logistics.
Anna: We had just finished a long day of gutting moldy houses along the Gulf Coast. My friends and I were tired but having fun and looking to party. Some of the older long-term volunteers at the HandsOn shelter invited us to the “hottest club” around, the “Spin Cycle” – a.k.a. the volunteer laundry house, and the only place we were allowed to drink via a technicality (no alcohol IN the volunteer center). And so a bunch of us, including this funny redhead, Drew Flowers, found ourselves drinking beers and telling stories over the rumble and thump of a half-dozen washers and dryers working overtime. Drew kept telling these crazy stories about growing up in the Deep South – which sounded as wild and foreign to me as if he were talking about hitchhiking through Mongolia. I was hooked. “He’s a keeper,” I thought – of course referring to my friend who was dating him at the time.
Andrew: Over the next few years, my friendship with Anna grew. After I ended my previous relationship and was preparing to leave for Nigeria for a human rights internship with Kiva, a micro-financing organization, I called her from O’Hare Airport and asked her to keep in touch over the summer.
Andrew: After graduating from college, we moved to Atlanta where I took a job with the Federal Reserve Bank.
that fight causes, or a teddy bear for charity you are sure to make an impression with these gifts!
l media channels lately, you may be asking yourself what is this #Haiti365 stuff? It is a good thing you are reading our blog today because we are about to tell you exactly why we are talking about this and why 
UNICEF has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization in the world. Working in more than 150 countries, UNICEF provides children with health and immunizations, clean water, nutrition, education, emergency and disaster relief, and more. The U.S. Fund for UNICEF supports UNICEF’s work through fundraising, advocacy, and education in the United States.
African-Americans and Canadians have made tremendous contributions to every facet of life—from science to music to athletics. Take your family to a local museum to learn about the significant contributions of African Americans.
I first learned about GYSD when I was researching youth service ideas and opportunities on the Internet. I knew I wanted to be part of this global celebration that unites and connects youth throughout the world with the common goal of making a difference to improve their communities. GYSD provides information and grants for youth to create their own projects and/or partner with non-profit organizations. As a current member of the YSA Youth Council (watch the PSA we made!), I have the opportunity to not only increase the impact of my project from last year, but also show young people around the world that they too can use service to solve important issues in their communities. But my favorite thing about GYSD is that it shows age is not a barrier to serving! Anyone at any age can do something to make a difference.
