Act of Kindness Day

It could be simple as saying “good morning”, or even just smiling.

Random acts of kindness — big or small — can have a huge impact on someone’s day.

The Oakville Community Foundation held its fourth annual “Random Acts of Kindness Day” Friday afternoon.

Volunteers, also known as “kindness crews”, were scattered all across the town of Oakville with one goal in mind.

Elyse Maxwell, United Way: “The goal of today is to really is to just create a better day for anyone we can in the community. Life goes by quickly so it’s nice for us to have a day to slow down a remind people of what’s important and how easy it is to be positive. We are going around the community with little coupons for coffee, cupcakes and giving them to people who we feel deserve some recognition or just to have their day brightened.”

“Yeah, they inspired me, so I’m going to hand out some donuts now.”

Crossing guard: “I think it is wonderful, it should be done every day.”

The Oakville Community Foundation and its partners are encouraging others to take some time out of their day to perform an act of kindness for someone in their community.

Sarah McPherson, Oakville Community Foundation: “The most important thing is to decide that you want to get involved and then finding what fits for you as a person. So if you wanted to volunteer with an organization that’s fantastic, if you want to try to join an organization and be a member of it and take part in what they do and their needs, that’s another way of doing it.”

Members of the Halton Islam Association rolled up their sleeves and rolled on a fresh coat of paint at the Kerr Street Ministries.

The community centre’s youth room was in need of a little TLC.

Suad Hasam, Halton Islam Association: “We wanted to be out there to see what other things we can volunteer, outside our community other than within the our own community the Halton Mosque.”

Over 14-hundred students in Oakville were also getting into the act.

Grade 3 and 4 students at Montclair Public School shared how they plan to spread kindness outside of the classroom.

“If they are new, you can smile to them and be nice.”

“I say thank you after my mom or dad cooks dinner. I help my brother clean up his room when he has a big mess. And when my brother is having a bad day I always try to cheer him up.

Organizers are hoping people will continue performing an act of kindness even after today because small, simple acts of kindness can go a long, long way.

“Spread the kindness!!!”

As you can see it doesn’t take much to brighten someone’s day. A lot of people were quite surprised and one woman was even brought to tears by some of the volunteers kindness. The best part is, doing something nice for someone doesn’t have to cost you anything. Let me know what random act of kindness you’re doing today. Send me a tweet and show me how you’re making a positive change in your community.