World Kindness Day

Kindness Day UK is celebrated nationwide annually, 13th November. It is a day to celebrate and promote kindness in all its forms. World Kindness Day falls on the same day and unites people in kindness globally. St. Mary’s recognises the importance of this day and this year we are supporting the NI Hospice. ‘Kindness Counts’ is their new, innovative campaign that allows teachers and pupils to explore the values of kindness and compassion.  Throughout the next few weeks we will be doing a range of fundraising activities for the Hospice. 

Here are some examples of kind acts which anyone can do on Kindness Day:

• Send a kind text to someone you know. This could be a thank you, well wish, compliment, remembrance of a kind deed or anything kind!
• Say good morning to everyone on your way into work and good evening on your way home
• Eat lunch with someone new
• Clean the communal refrigerator, microwave or oven in your workplace
• Hold the door open for those behind you
• Sign up to the organ donor register
• Give someone a compliment – it can make their day, week or year!
• Surprise your colleagues with a kind post-it note on their desk
• Volunteer at a soup kitchen
• Bring in treats for your colleagues
• Offer to buy a drink or some food for a homeless person
• Go through your possessions and donate items you no longer use to charity
• Make yourself known to anyone elderly or vulnerable in your community so they have somewhere to turn if they need help
• Become a pen friend to someone less fortunate than you
• Volunteer at a nursing or care home
• Take the time to get to know your colleagues
• Spend time with someone who might be lonely
• Send a thank you email to a friend or colleague
• Help an elderly person with their shopping
• Leave money in a parking metre, ticket or vending machine for the next person
• When paying for yourself, offer to pay for someone else too (e.g. in a coffee shop or at a train station)
• Write a letter to a member of the armed services thanking them for their service
• Join or set up a local community group with a view to getting to know your neighbours and increasing the sense of care and community in the area
• Write a blog about kindness in society
• Support charities and good causes on your social media pages
• Give food coupons to a homeless person
• Take the time to really listen to someone
• Give blood
• Donate coats and blankets to a homeless shelter
• Share positive posts on your social media pages
• Pay the road/bridge toll for the vehicle driving behind you
• Cook a meal for someone else – e.g. deliver a lasagne to a new mother
• Surprise a loved one with a kind note e.g. in their lunch box

Please visit the World Kindness Day website for further examples or information. 

"In a world where we can be anything, be kind."