Back in December I wrote a post, Look For The Helpers, that talked about Ann Curry’s movement 26 Random Acts of Kindness.

There are things that I do everyday like; smile at people I walk past, compliment a stranger, hold the door open for people but there are so many more things I can do. It doesn’t even need to be something big, just something thoughtful. The little gestures can have the biggest meanings.

Last week my boss got wind of 26 Acts and encouraged us all to take part. There are 27 people on my team so we each were given a name to do a random act of kindness in memory of.

My act is in memory of: Jessica Rekos, 5/10/2006

Tonight while I was at Target, I bought a $10 gift card to Starbucks. On the sleeve that the gift card went into, I wrote, “26 Acts of Kindness”. As I was walking through the store doing my shopping, I handed the card to a random woman shopping. She looked stunned and asked me what the 26 Acts of Kindness was. By this time another woman had walked closer as she had overheard our conversation. I told both of the women what 26 Acts was and they seemed moved by it.

So I encourage everyone to do at least one-act. When Ann Curry started this she said, “If you do good, you feel good”. I just gave away $10 to Starbucks, which, let’s face it, isn’t going to change the world. However, one small thing could mean the world to someone else. You never know how much your act could change someone’s outlook on their day or life.

Here are few examples of things that can be done. I can’t take full credit for this list. Some of it was taken from other lists I came across, some of it I came up with.

1. Buy the groceries of the person behind you in line
2. Order pizza and have it delivered to one of your friend’s house that just had a baby (I heard this is a nice thing to do for new parents)
3. Buy the coffee or food of the person behind you in line
4. Volunteer — anywhere, for any amount of time
5. Give up your seat for someone
6. Give some food to a homeless person
7. Purchase something from a stranger’s registry
8. Lend something to someone. Tell them they can keep it.
9. Cover someone’s bill
10. Leave a gift card anywhere — in a classroom, in a drive-through window, in a conference room
11. Buy lunch for a stranger
12. Help a stranger carry things to his or her car
13. Leave cash in a stranger’s mailbox or front door (I recently had a friend have this happen to her, there was $200 left at her house)
14. Leave a (still packaged) present in a public place
15. Pay a toll or parking garage fee for the person behind you
16. Take flowers to an area nursing home or hospital
17. Donate food to a food bank
18. Give a gift card to an employee at the store who helps you find something
19. Pay for a stranger’s gas
20. Give a gift to your mailman
21. Take a trip to the dollar store for gifts for any neighborhood kids
22. Leave extra money in a vending machine

So get out there and play it forward!!!

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