How to plan a Community- Wide Random Acts of Kindness Day
In our church we have a group of women who regularly get together. One night we were brainstorming how we might help some seniors in our congregation. This lead to the discussion that there were probably quite a few people in the community who could use help.
This morphed into the idea of a Random Acts of Kindness day in the community.
Being the event coordinator, I was assigned with the task to make this happen.
I Googled in search of some ideas, but found there wasn’t any information posted similar to what we wanted to do, so all the information is what I created. In this post, I will include the forms to make it easier for you.
One Month Before the Event
Start publicizing the event.
Through the Church bulletin, the local column in the newspaper and personal connections, we started asking people to sign up as a volunteer, or to have a job done.
Here is the publicity blurb I used.
I also created a sign-up form that we passed out to people, and included in the bulletin. It was used for both volunteers and people requesting a job to be done.
Gather Supplies
Part of our Random Acts day would include a garbage clean up, so I contacted Clean Nova Scotia to get supplies.
Here’s how to get clean-up supplies in Nova Scotia.
Convincing People
I really didn’t need to convince people to sign up to help. Most people were eager to volunteer! In fact, we had whole families sign up who wanted to do projects together.
We also had a few people from a neighbouring town (with no connection to the village) who heard what we were doing and signed up to help because they thought it was a great idea!
Many people felt guilty for having us come to work for them! We had to convince them that it was ok!
In the future, I would suggest to them that they could bake cookies for the communal lunch, or offer a snack to those who come to labour for them!
One woman who was having work done at her house decided to pay it forward. She baked rolls for everyone in her neighbourhood as her random act!
Finding Jobs
Besides the jobs that people signed up to have done, I also contacted the village library, public school, private school, and village office to see what other jobs needed to be done in the community. A list of everything from gardening to sweeping the parking lot and washing chairs was created.
A Few Days Before
Knowing how most people are last minute, a few days before the big event, I wrote all the jobs out on chart paper.
I created intergenerational teams of people that I felt could do the jobs (based on age, gardening ability, etc). This is another advantage of being in a small village and knowing all the people!
Some families wanted to stay together, while some of the teenagers wanted to be on their own. However, everyone wanted to make a valuable contribution!
I assigned one individual as a team leader, so that people would know who to report to.
I sent out information sheets to each individual a few days before the event. This included the job location, team members’ names, and the tools that would be required.
Day of Event
Everyone gathered at 12pm for a picnic lunch. Cookies and lemonade were supplied. This made a great launching point.
On the wall, I posted all the chart paper with the jobs and volunteer names. It was a great visual to see just how many jobs were getting done.
After lunch, the teams grouped and set out to finish their tasks.
In total, we had over 75 volunteers doing tons of jobs around the community! They ranged in age from 3 to 73! There were meaningful jobs for everyone!
We gardened.
We washed windows.
We moved furniture for seniors.
We organized the library.
We washed chairs.
We picked up garbage.
We rocked it!!
We had budgeted for 3 hours, but found that most jobs were down within 1 to 1.5 hours, and that was enough time before people got too tired.
We were also lucky that the weather cooperated!
What Made it Easy
The day ran perfectly smoothly without a hitch.
Everyone worked hard. No one complained. Not even the youth who were mostly assigned to garbage detail! “We are doing it for the earth,” said one wise 7 year old!
A bit of pre-organization was all it took so that people knew where to be with whom and with what.
We ran this Random Acts of Kindness day in my hometown village (about 10 minutes from where I live now). It is a small community of around 1000 people – all of whom know each other. The spirit of helping is already strong in this community.
We also ran this event through the Church so we had a ready-made group of people.
It also made a difference in the small community because people were more comfortable having people they knew come to their homes to help with jobs rather than complete strangers. There was an added level of comfort and safety.
All in all, the Random Acts of Kindness was a huge success, and I highly recommend the idea to other groups and communities!
Feel free to write me with any questions on how to plan the day.
There is a great sense of accomplishment and team building that went into it. We were certainly proud at the end of the day.
I hope this will become an annual event that will just continue to grow!
Together we can do great things and be the change we want to see!
