Random Acts of Kindness

Page: 1 2 (of 2)	Previous

The Kindness Network

Chuck Walls didn’t set out to create an entire movement. It was September 1993 and the Bakersfield (California) College business and communications professor was simply looking for an assignment to give students. After hearing a radio report on a random act of senseless violence, he had an inspiration. What would happen, he thought, if he changed one word? “You can find something positive in every negative if you look hard enough,” he says. Suddenly, he had his assignment. He told his students to commit one random act of senseless kindness in the community within the next two weeks.
           
And they did. One woman took her daughter to visit patients at a hospital. Another student, after hearing his mother worry about paying the electric bill, withdrew money he’d saved and paid the bill himself. Another student cleaned up a stray dog, then found the owner.
           
A newspaper reporter wrote about the class assignment and soon the story was picked up by the Associated Press. Within three weeks the story dominated the news, and the college was flooded with phone calls from people wanting to know more. “We lost count at 10,000,” Walls says. “The university almost had to shut down because the switchboard was so jammed.”

In the 15 years since Walls’ idea took shape, the concept of performing random acts of kindness has become a treasured part of the cultural lexicon.

Ideas for Bringing Kindness to Your Community

• Volunteer to read to children at a local hospital.
• Write thank-you notes to people who have influenced your life.
• Compliment a stranger. Tell her you love her outfit, the color of her nails, or the sound of her laugh.
• Bake a tray of cookies and take them, with a pot of brewed coffee or hot chocolate, to the local police station.
• Let someone go in front of you in line at the market—even if she has more groceries than you.
• Stop by a nursing home, and ask the staff which resident hasn’t gotten a visit in a while. Spend a half-hour with him or her.
• Roll a neighbor’s garbage can up to his house after the trash has been picked up.
• Buy two Christmas trees this year and leave one on the door of a neighbor or friend having financial trouble.
• Shovel a neighbor’s driveway. Or pay a local teenager to do it.
• Give another driver your parking spot in a crowded lot.
• Put a lottery ticket—or a note that reads, “Have a nice day!”—under someone’s windshield wiper.
• Brush the snow off your neighbors’ car windows or make a snow angel in their yard.
• Leave change in the vending machine so the next person can enjoy a free snack.
• After you have finished reading a newspaper or magazine during your commute or while waiting for an airplane, offer it to bystanders. It’s good for the environment, too.
• At the drive-through window, pay the bill for the person in line behind you.
• Leave a bouquet of flowers on a neighbor’s doorstep.