Random Acts of Kindness - Suggestions Please

A totally random act that a friend had someone do for her recently was that the person in front of her in a drive through paid for her meal. Simple, and inspired my friend to pass it on.

I like this one not because it's something profound in and of itself (I know it's not), but because it inspired others to do the same.

Next time you go to a concession stand, pay the next order behind you.
If you are at a fair, buy some ride tickets and give them away.

Food pantries almost always need toilet paper and pet food. Maybe do a drive for those items.

Help with gleaning programs at local farms for food pantries.

Pledge to give $5 to every street musician you see, same with homeless people.

Make sandwiches & get fruit and pass out to homeless.

Homeless shelters always need pillows, blankets and SOCKS.

Have desserts catered to a soup kitchen.

Pledge to bring desserts once per month li a local shelter.

Good luck! Great idea!

I guess I'm pretty passionate about being kind to your own family, and I do think people overlook their family and neighbors. Sometimes it seems people can act more polite and good natured when talking with a store cashier than when talking with their own spouse, and creating more acts of kindness in your home counts for bettering the world too.

A couple of ideas for your home: leave random post-it message on a bathroom mirror that tells the person in the mirror something positive they need to hear, or do a difficult chore for someone in your family and never mention it. In your neighborhood, shovel your neighbor's walk and driveway when it snows.

By the way, I love your pledge! Good luck in the next year. :)

Such great ideas! We've done the pay for a drink/meal for the person behind us in the drive thru before. I love the way the employees look at us like we're crazy :-)
I used to keep bottles of water in the car & if I saw someone broke down on the side of the road I would stop to offer help & give them some water.
We've recently purchased a bunch of reusable water bottles & filled them each with some hard candy, crackers, & subway gift cards. We keep them in our vehicles & hand them out to homeless people that we see on the side of the road.
I'm also on a kick right now of randomly complimenting people. It's not a huge thing but it seems to really brighten peoples day. I'll walk by & say something about how their shirt looks good, what a nice smile they have, or how their hair looks awesome. It's wonderful helping people smile :-)

Remember the little things too. Smiling as you pass, holding a door open, letting someone just a couple of things to buy in front of you at checkout. A genuine smile from a stranger nearly always makes me feel good.

You could bake muffins, bread, etc, and take it those who who are elderly and shut-in. Also, for those who can't get around well....any yard work, pulling weeds...
Pick up the trash at the local playground or park
Our church also put together in gallon size ziplock bags some items for the homeless like a hat, granola bars, water, tissues, gloves, and hand them out to those we see needing a hand (I kept them in my car and handed them out when I see someone at an off-ramp).
Take groceries to the local homeless shelter.
Take a few rolls of quarters and go to the laundromat and pay for someone's laundry to be done.
The local foster agencies may need people to help provide Christmas gifts for children in foster care, or need other donations.
I'm sure you will get more great ideas! This is wonderful that you have chosen to do this. God bless you :-)

Shoveling sidewalks
Picking up sticks
Make care packages for battered women's shelter soap, shampoo etc
Make care packages for homeless shelters (mini bars of soap, shampoo and deodorant)
Gather books your children have outgrown donate to a teacher's library
Make muffins for the fireman at your local fire house
Same for police
Bring dog biscuits to a pet shelter
Take outgrown clothing to the local homeless shelter
Pack some school supplies and bring to a local food pantry
Serve dinner at a soup kitchen
Bag groceries at a food pantry

Hand out sandwiches and water bottles to the homeless.

My daughter called me in shock a couple months ago because when she went to pay for her Starbucks drink, she was told the person in front of her paid for her drink. So in turn, she paid for the person behind her!

When hubby and I are dining out and when we see policemen, firemen or military in uniform, we pay for their meals. It's the least we can do to say thank you.

I'm often buying groceries when the fire fighters are there buying for a meal and I will buy their food if they are in front or back of me at check out.

This time of year, many food pantries are very low on food.
Maybe purchase a case of Tuna, Jars of Peanut butter, Canned fruit in their own juices, Bags of dried beans, Bags of Rice.
Maybe get on FB or on your neighborhood website and tell people you are doing a back to School Food Drive for families in need. Then take it to the local food bank.

We always participate in Coats for Kids in the winter. But they also need Winter hats and gloves. Again collect these and donate.

Our City Wide PTA Council also collects donated New packages of Socks and Underwear for children during the fall. This is all sizes even for High School aged students.

Collect Greeting cards and envelopes that can be given to Nursing homes for the patients. Or have your kids write Thinking of you cards for Nursing home patients.

Many animal shelters need newspapers to line the cages.

Collect pet food for animal rescue places. They also need old blankets and towels.

During the cold months, make a big pot of soup, stew or chili and drop some off to neighbors that live alone or are elderly.

Cut out coupons and at the grocery store place them with the items that the coupons are for.

Make sure the school bus drivers are appreciated by your children's schools. Same with the crossing guards. Give them each a school tshirt. Maybe offer them coffee, apple cider or hot chocolate every once in a while.

Purchase nice hand soaps and lotions for the teachers restrooms at school.

Offer to take the grocery cart from someone in the parking lot, back to the store do this every time you are in a store parking lot about to go into the store. Your children will learn to do this too.

Always thank the cashiers and people that bag your groceries or assist you in stores or businesses.
If they do an extra good job. Take time to fill out a comment card and put their name on it.

Updated

This time of year, many food pantries are very low on food.
Maybe purchase a case of Tuna, Jars of Peanut butter, Canned fruit in their own juices, Bags of dried beans, Bags of Rice.
Maybe get on FB or on your neighborhood website and tell people you are doing a back to School Food Drive for families in need. Then take it to the local food bank.

We always participate in Coats for Kids in the winter. But they also need Winter hats and gloves. Again collect these and donate.

Our City Wide PTA Council also collects donated New packages of Socks and Underwear for children during the fall. This is all sizes even for High School aged students.

Collect Greeting cards and envelopes that can be given to Nursing homes for the patients. Or have your kids write Thinking of you cards for Nursing home patients.

Many animal shelters need newspapers to line the cages.

Collect pet food for animal rescue places. They also need old blankets and towels.

During the cold months, make a big pot of soup, stew or chili and drop some off to neighbors that live alone or are elderly.

Cut out coupons and at the grocery store place them with the items that the coupons are for.

Make sure the school bus drivers are appreciated by your children's schools. Same with the crossing guards. Give them each a school tshirt. Maybe offer them coffee, apple cider or hot chocolate every once in a while.

Purchase nice hand soaps and lotions for the teachers restrooms at school.

Offer to take the grocery cart from someone in the parking lot, back to the store do this every time you are in a store parking lot about to go into the store. Your children will learn to do this too.

Always thank the cashiers and people that bag your groceries or assist you in stores or businesses.
If they do an extra good job. Take time to fill out a comment card and put their name on it.

Donate toiletries to the local homeless shelter (ours takes all the little bottles of lotion and shampoo you get free from hotels too), make cookies for the shelter if they'll accept

collect pajamas for the Pajama Program
www.pajamaprogram.org/
Pajama Program, a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, provides new, warm pajamas and new books to children in need in the United States, and around the. ..

Donate supplies to an animal shelter

Send ecards to people just because you're thinking of them.

Let someone skip ahead of you in line at the store.

The possibilities are endless! Have fun!

Food pantries are horribly low in the summer. People go on vacation and don't think about it, and low income kids are home and away from school lunch programs. We have a neighborhood block party every Labor Day and we use that to collect from the group.

There's a Latino social service agency about a half hour away that does phenomenal work with immigrants who come with so little. In addition to a food pantry, they have a "clothing pantry" (they can use hangers as well as decent clothes and volunteers to hang & organize), a "household pantry" for dishes and pots/pans and towels/sheets and knick knacks and wastebaskets and shower curtains (all the things we take for granted), and a "toy pantry" for games, toys and stuffed animals for little kids who have nothing. In an age when there's a lot of anger about immigrants, it's especially important to reach out to those who fled poverty or civil strife or drug wars. Whatever ethnic minorities are in your area, reach out.

Battered women's shelters need toiletries and things for kids. Ask area dentists to contribute toothbrushes & toothpaste, ask salons for nail polish and some make-up, ask hotels for shampoo, buy some tampons and lotion and nail files and so on. You can't always be told the location of a shelter, but either a local organization can help you or your police department may have a domestic violence officer who can deliver or guide you to an intermediary person or agency.

Our local veterans shelter happily accepts leftovers from events (big parties, church functions, bar mitzvahs…). Take some fresh fruit from the farmers' market to your firefighters or police who work the night shift. Or your local food pantry - they need more than Spaghetti-O's and peanut butter!

Our ambulance crew accepts small soft blankets and stuffed animals for children being transported to hospitals. The kids can keep them on the gurney when they leave the ambulance.

We did an off-site "baby shower" for women with AIDS/HIV who were too ill to work or who had lost jobs due to discrimination. Check with your local AIDS agency for needs.

Clean socks, sweatshirts & toiletries for the homeless shelters. Ask about razors before donating those.

Clean up litter from a local nature area (town, Audubon, local conservation group).

Collect sports equipment (gently used) for an agency specializing in foster car for older kids. They always get forgotten in toy drives at Christmas from churches or Toys For Tots. Get a list of what the 12 and 14 and 16 year olds need. We did that for my son's bar mitzvah project - he collected from friends and neighbors and temple members, and he got a letter from the rabbi which he took to stores proving it was a legitimate project. So we had soccer balls and frisbees and skates and wiffle ball sets and so on which went to group homes for older kids.

If you have an Interfaith Hospitality Network or similar organization, volunteer to make a meal or welcome a family as they come into the church or synagogue housing them for that week. Help the kids with homework so the parents get a break. Or help collect furnishings for those getting their first apartments.

A friend of mine collected suitcases for kids (especially tweens and teens) going into foster care. These kids were taking their meager belongings in paper bags and garbage bags. A re-purposed suitcase helped a lot in making them feel a little more put together.

If you lose momentum, go small. Pay the toll for the car behind you. Pay for the coffee of the person behind you. Ask a waitress to bring a free drink to the soldier in uniform or the mom struggling with 3 small kids or who is getting hassled about breastfeeding in public. Hold a door for a senior citizen or take her shopping cart back to the store. Smile at a store clerk or store pharmacist who has been on her feet for 12 hours and hasn't seen a ladies room in most of that time. Over-tip a waiter.

Join a team that walks for a cause. Most communities have cancer walks but try something that needs more visibility - suicide prevention, ALS, Alzheimer's, etc. Make sure it's a charity that gives a high percentage of the money to services and not to overhead and executive salaries. My company has a foundation that puts 97% of donations directly into food products. That's a huge percentage but if you can find 80% and up, that's a start.

For several years, we had teams from area synagogues that went into hospitals on Christmas Day to fulfill the functions of non-medical staff. We peeled onions and made salads, we delivered meals to rooms, we made box lunches for patients admitted later in the evening after meals were served.

I think this is awesome that you are thinking beyond your own lives! I hope you motivate each other and keep it going!

Clean up some littered area of your community.

I don't plan my random acts of kindness, but, I see what you are trying to do!! As "random" means - unexpected, done without method or thought, unplanned.

If I were to do this? I would call food banks and ask what they are short on...then supply it. People usually don't donate paper goods - so when the Boy Scouts do their program in the Fall? We give paper towels, napkins, toilet paper and canned goods.

Call my local elementary school and ask if they have a donation program for kids without backpacks and supplies and then fill it, bring what my budget would allow for those less fortunate.

Truly random? Buy a gift card at the check out and hand it to the person behind you. Surprise someone with paying for their meal.

I know when we are out at a restaurant and a military member comes in? We pay for their meal. We find out who their waiter/ress is and give them money for the meal.

what's your homeless population like in Zanesville? Why not make sandwiches or something like that for some and drop it off? Does your local shelter allow donated food? I guess that would make the difference.

There is much you can do. Surprising people with paying for their order, or anything like that - truly - random - is the best in my book!

enjoy and have fun!!! It's great to see good deeds in motion!

I am good at sending cards for no specific reason OR they can also have a reason... Example.. my uncle's GF lost her son this last May and while I did send a card at the time, I've also sent several others that say, thinking of you today.. OR checking in on you.. I do this because I know that after the funeral and everything simmers down, sometimes people forget that someone is still suffering and may need a little pick me up.. so I would suggest sending cards.. it needn't be for sad occasions.. but could be someone is beginning a workout program and needs encouragement OR whatever the case.. cards go a long way...
sometimes we think acts of kindness need be big or expensive.. but that is not always the case.. the cards I have sent over the years have gone a long way... and this just reminded me. I need to send one out today :):)

Take food and cleaning supplies to animal shelters, go walk and spend time with the pets at the shelter... I think what you and your friends are doing is awesome :)

I'd steer clear from altering personal property without permission(mowing, planting, painting)... While I know the suggestion came with the best of intentions, best to ask/offer first :)

How awesome of you guys! Fantastic idea.

Some little things we've done are:
-random compliments of people who may not look like they often receive them (I can't tell you how their expressions change when I've said what a pretty smile they have, or even "i like your purse")
-baking something for a neighbor
-we made gallon size Ziploc packages for homeless people, included a small bottle of water, beef jerky, applesauce, new socks, etc. (we included a scripture, but obviously you wouldn't have to do that). we kept them in our cars and handed them out the window to the people who stand on the corners with signs.

Bigger things:
-donate supplies to an animal shelter
-once in a while (can be expensive) we will pay for someone's dinner at a restaurant. my daughter loves helping 'spy' a family to pay for. we tell the waitress what we are doing, and just to bring us their bill WITHOUT saying anything to them. we bring a pre-printed note that says something like "surprise! your dinner is on us! we hope that if you are able, you pay it forward and do something big or small for someone else soon. if you aren't able to, then just enjoy and God bless!". One time we did it and secretly watched the reaction, and the mom started sobbing. After they left, their waitress said that the family told her that they had a very challenging time in the last few months, and this was the first bright spot in a long time. Another time, we paid for two moms dining out with babies. They were just tickled! We saw them taking pictures of the note and posting things on FB and twitter, etc. We loved this because we hope it got others to want to do things like that.

Anyway, awesome ideas on here so far, and awesome of you for your kindness! Are you blogging about it? Let us know if you do!!

What about donating your time? I know at my daughter's dance studio, they always need help setting things up, taking down, cleaning, etc. It doesn't take any money, but it takes time. Sometimes people are too happy to donate money but not time, and time is needed a lot.

Cleaning/ Beautifying is a nice act of kindness- arrange to deep clean a house of worship, a stretch of roadside, a shut-in's home, a public space.

Spread the joy of reading-
you can collect and distribute books at parks, playgrounds, theater spaces, on your front lawn, at gas stations, coffee houses, etc. probably requires nothing more than an old crate or box of books and a sign which reads- free for the taking.

What irks me, but might be beyond a random act of kindness, is to see rusted out infrastructure, peeling paint on bridges, faded street signs, lampposts festooned with old flyers and tape. Maybe you can clean some of those up.

Adopt a street tree. They can use some extra water when they are getting established.

Take a case of gatorade to "men at work" a road works crew. Their work is hot and dangerous, and I don't think that many folks go out of the way for them.

Buy and give out socks and underwear. You can't get these at thrift shops. Homeless shelters, women's shelters, and other places would love to have them for their clients.

How about bird feeders/ bird baths? the feathered set need a little help from time to time.

What about a school supply drive for needy college kids? a pot, a blanket, a case of ramen, a gift card to the bookstore, extra long twin bedding, a set of toiletries ( i bet the registrar/ bursar could help you with that).

There are a lot of programs which help those in the third/ developing world including ones which provide mosquito netting, vitamins, water purification, solar ovens etc. You might want to look for these.

War torn areas are also often in need, Syria, the Ukraine, Israel, Iraq, Afghanistan come to mind.

Places which sustained natural disasters often have reprecussions long after the fact - there are still those suffering from Katrina, Sandy and others stateside. I know there is still need in Hatii.

Best,
F. B.

PS- thanks for being so purposeful about this.

When you mow your yard just keep going. Mow the neighbors front yard then their neighbors front yard, buy an extra container for gasoline so you can just fill up a few times and go.

Plant some flowers in the neighbors flower bed, if the won't mind, and water it with water in a watering can from your own house.

Go find a camp grounds, re-paint their signs on the trails, pick up trash, offer to take some tools and trim stuff off the trails. Clean the lodge/buildings.

There are tons of stuff to do anywhere you go.

In addition to all the great ideas below:
-Arrange a sing-a-long for a local nursing home.
-Donate school supplies to the Boys and Girls Club.
-Offer to photograph activities of seniors having fun at the local Senior Center and make a photobook for the front desk.
-Bring small vases of flowers to the Town Hall for the workers. Truly, how often do they get noticed positively?
-Scrounge through your jewelry and trinket collection and donate to the local Senior Center, if they have a re-use gift shop. (Very popular here.)

And thanks for this inspiring question!

You can mentor a foster child, or a young adult that has aged out of the system. Donate household items to the older ones that are trying to get started & invite them for holiday meals.

I have a friend who often pays for the car behind her at a drive through. She does it both at fast food restaurants and coffee shops. Another friend will pre-pay at the coffee shop. She will overpay and tell the barista to let the next one or two people know that their coffee is on the house.

I read about a little girl and her mom who bought a dozen roses. Then as they went about their day they handed out a rose to anyone who looked like they needed a smile. I definitely want to do this with my kids.

Check with your local hospital. I know at our hospital they collect books that can be given to patients. They specifically focus on kids' books. Also read about a group that put together fun bags for kids at the hospital. They included books, craft supplies, small games, all things that can easily been done while in a hospital bed.

One of my friends' daughter made little care packages for the teachers who had to stay outside in the cold for pick up and drop off. They included things like chapstick and gloves and whatnot. The teachers loved it.

I was just thinking if my kids ride the bus to school this year I should do something for the bus driver. One time we took cookies to the fire department and police department.

My youngest & I go visit the children's ward at Christmas time.
I go to a convelescent home twice a week to sit with & visit some of the
elderly that don't have visitors.
Donate toys for kids at Christmas time.
Pay for the car behind me at the toll booth on the bridge.
Pay for the person's meal behind me at a drive through fast food
restaurant (I've only done this twice but it's so fun).
Leave encouraging, positive post it notes on the stall door in public
bathrooms.
Helping an elderly person at the store.
Letting someone (elderly or lady w/children) ahead of me in line at the
grocery store.
Donating Toys for Tots.
Donating a toy for less fortunate kids at our local pharmacy stores.
Our local furniture store takes clothing for foster kids.
Salvation Army (donating items like clothes, furniture etc.).
Great post!

Animal shelters are always in need of towels and blankets to make the kennels more comfortable for the animals. I have had great success doing blanket and towel "drives" through friends, as it seems that almost everyone has an old, torn, or bleach-stained towel or blanket that they are happy part with.

My husband was a police officer and was always a little sad that people constantly brought cards, cookies, etc, to the fire fighters but not the cops, so don't forget police officers need love, too!!!

More simple in nature but -
Picking up the tab for the person behind you on the drive-thru lane
Driving more respectfully (letting people pull on the road, change lanes, turn, etc)
Holding doors for people - while smiling and saying have a great day
Smiling in general and thanking people by name (especially store clerks etc whom are mostly faceless to most patrons)

Little things can often go a long way!

Have a great day!