Hannah's fight

"I am lucky enough to have two healthy boys and I can't imagine the pain that parents have to go through when they see their child sick in the hospital." I received an email today from a man who donated to help a little girl named Hannah who was born 7 weeks early. He doesn't know Hannah or her family and he probably never will, and that is the part that makes me smile even more. He didn't do it because he knew her, he did it out of pure kindness. "I hope that the small donation showed support to a family that surely needs it" he said. Doing what this man did, donating to a family in need, shows how much better off we are when helping one another out. Every dollar makes a difference, so if you would like to help Hannah fight you can read more at http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/hannah-s-fight Keep fighting Hannah!

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page,  tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog, or fill out the form under the SHARE YOUR STORY page right on this blog!

Finals and donuts

A couple days ago our school had finals. Usually finals aren't that crazy but, we had so many snow days last quarter that our finals got pushed back until after spring break. For some students finals don't make a difference in their grade and for others it can make or break it. Test taking isn't fun, for me at least, but I have a teacher who made it a little better this quarter! He had bought donuts for his classes and after we got done with the final we were allowed to have some! It's simple things like this that make me even more appreciative of the wonderful and caring faculty and staff at my school.

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page,  tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog, or fill out the form under the SHARE YOUR STORY page right on this blog!

Random Act of Kindness #41- Donating clothes

Twice a year my family goes through all of our clothes in our closets and everything we don't want or that doesn't fit gets donated to Goodwill. It's something we have always done so, for this random act of kindness I wanted to try something new. The other day I had drove past a store and I noticed these two big bins sitting in the parking lot. I drove up to them and saw that it was a clothing and shoe donation bin. All you have to do is bring what you wish to donate and dump it in! The thing that I love most about this is that you could donate just one t-shirt if you wanted, you don't have to have a bin full every time. If you have one of these near you, you should think about it next time you skim across something in your closet that you know you aren't going to wear again.  It is such a simple way to allow your clothes to be reused!

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page,  tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog, or fill out the form under the SHARE YOUR STORY page right on this blog!

Happy balloons

An 8th grade class from the Gibbsboro school district in New Jersey thought of a creative idea to show their computer teacher how much they appreciate her. They said she "showers us with kindness everyday... She deserves to know we appreciate her kind and thoughtful ways." They cut up pieces of paper and wrote down all the things they found amazing about her. They then took the pieces of paper and placed each and every paper in its own balloon. "The bell for computer class rang and we excitedly ran up the stairs holding a giant assortment of colored balloons for her. We barley fit through the door" they said. They gave her all the balloons and watched her face light up with each and every balloon she popped. They learned a lot, "the power of kindness touches all who are involved." I am impressed with this class, keep it up.

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page,  tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog, or fill out the form under the SHARE YOUR STORY page right on this blog!

Yellow Gumball

I was babysitting a girl in my neighborhood and we decided to go to the movie store. At my local video store there is a gumball machine and each week a random color is picked to be the color of the week. If you get this colored gumball out of the machine you get a free movie or game rental! Once we walked in she saw the gumball machine and gave me a look that made it impossible for me to say no. I gave her a quarter and once she saw the color green come rolling down she looked at me and said, "I never get the right color, I bet you have to be really lucky." I had never gotten the right color gumball either when I would try, so I couldn't disagree with her. We then decided we were going to put as many quarters in as needed, until we got a yellow gumball. It surprisingly didn't take long, only three quarters. She was so excited to had finally "won", but the best part is she let someone else have the reward. She went up to another kid in the store and said, "The color of the week is yellow, you can pick out a game or movie it's free" and then she handed him the gumball. I couldn't be more proud.

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page,  tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog, or fill out the form under the SHARE YOUR STORY page right on this blog!

GiftWrapper

I received this email from the GiftWrapper team and I can't believe I had never heard of this before now. This organization shares kindness and makes sure what goes around comes around. Basically how it works is you make a member profile and every month you get to send others gifts based on their interests and others send you gifts as well. It's comparable to a secret Santa but, it's never ending! I'm very glad they emailed me about what they do because, I would love to try it out! If you think you would like to try being a GiftWrapper go to http://giftwrapper.spruz.com/home1.htm and learn more! It's a simple way to make someone smile every month. 

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page,  tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog, or fill out the form under the SHARE YOUR STORY page right on this blog!

Caught in a vending machine

When I buy something out of a vending machine I always worry that whatever I buy is going to get caught on the silver ring and not fall down. A story that I received started out just like this. A woman put money into a vending machine and tried to buy herself some M&M's. Right before the M&M's fell they were caught on the silver ring. The person who sent in the story was someone walking by who saw what had happened. She said, "I was about to walk away, but I knew I had some dollar bills in my backpack." She walked up to the women at the vending machine and said, "Here, I got you." She put in some money and pushed the buttons for the M&M's and when both packages of candy fell she looked at her and said, "Looks like you have two now." This is a true random act of kindness and I know doing what she did made this women's day. 

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page,  tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog, or fill out the form under the SHARE YOUR STORY page right on this blog!

West Leyden High School RAK club

A high school in Illinois has been doing some pretty inspiring things. This year they have started a random acts of kindness club. It's new for everyone and they say they are still figuring out their true purpose and goals, but you've got to start somewhere and they have taken the first steps already. One of the things this club has done multiple times is standing in the main hallway on random mornings with big signs that say inspiring things, as said in the email, "it is just a fun way to welcome students (and teachers) to that school day." One of the days they did this was on Halloween so not only did they hold up signs but, they gave out candy! They also came up with an awesome idea called the kindness box. Teachers and members of this club were given kindness tokens and when they saw students doing kind things they would give them a token. If you received a token and put your name on it you could drop it in the Kindness Box for a chance to win a gift card! The good ideas don't just end there however, this school has kindness challenges everyday as well. On the announcements they say something along the lines of "Today, try to sit by someone new in the cafeteria." or "Hold the door open for another person." They play music during passing all of which relates or has something to do with being kind and helping out as well. The best part about this story is that even though this is a club with only a handful of student members they have got their whole school involved. I would love to try and get my school and other schools doing the kindness box or the daily challenges. Thank you West Leyden you have made a change in your school and inspired me, keep it up!

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page,  tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog, or fill out the form under the SHARE YOUR STORY page right on this blog!

The kindness is spreading

If you are viewing this on a computer you can probably see the map in the upper left hand corner and the tab named, "Where the kindness has spread". Recently we joined ClustrMaps, which tracks where the views, tweets, and Facebook posts are coming from. We have been only doing this for 6 days and it's incredible to see that there are people around the world checking out this blog daily. To each of you who read, comment, email, tweet, post, and most of all take action, thank you for all you have done to make this world a better place. If I have learned one thing, it's' that you can have an impact no matter where you are. Please keep spreading the kindness and sending in your stories!
 If you can't see the map or the tab here is the link if you would like to check it out:  http://www2.clustrmaps.com/counter/maps.php?url=http://experienceactsofkindness.blogspot.com/

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog

Including others

The story that I am sharing today is one of the coolest that I've read so far. Someone in my community emailed me a story about their nephew and an amazing friend of his. She started off telling me about some of the great qualities and interests her nephew has and then she mentioned that he also has autism. While some may see this as a limitation an amazing friend of his looked passed it and instead saw his strengths. His friend and her boyfriend included him in a night that all teenagers should get the chance to experience, a formal dance. They went to dinner, had pictures taken, and then got to to dance. She said in the email "he was overjoyed to be included" thank you Kimberley for sharing this story, you made my heart happy.

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog

Random Act of Kindness #40- "can I play?"

Today when I was at the mall I walked past those machine rides and I instantly wished that I was still small enough to be able to use them. There was a kid who ran up to the rides as I was walking by and she was yelling, "mommy, mommy can I play?" I remember being a little girl and always asking my parents it I could play on these machines just like this little girl did. For this act of kindness I left money for the little girl so she could ride which ever machine she wanted. 

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog

Update on Philippians project

The snowflake memorial was hung up at our school a couple days ago. It is hanging from the ceilings at our main entrance and it looks absolutely beautiful. Seeing them makes me smile because it's a lasting reminder of how our school came together and helped out. Thank you Mr.Bonnstetter for creating this idea, you rock!

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog

High-five Friday

Today at our school we have started high-five Friday! Teachers and students are going around giving everyone high-fives because its Friday, so that means the weekend is finally here! Music is playing and people are smiling, I couldn't be more proud. Thank you students and teachers here at BHS for helping us share the kindness. If you haven't yet, I encourage your school or your work office to participate in high-five Friday too. I hope everyone has great high-five Friday and an even better weekend!

Random Act of Kindness #39- What goes around comes around

One day one of my teachers told our class about something she had done nice for someone that day. Another teacher she knew had made a mistake and became frustrated with herself, so my teacher decided to  buy her flowers with a note. While she was telling our class this story my teacher explained how it made her feel so much better about herself knowing that she made someone smile who really needed it. For this random act of kindness I wrote a letter and gave the other Peachwave gift card away to my teacher. What she did was amazing and truly changed someone's day for the better and I hope I did the same for her.

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog 

Random Act of Kindness #38- UNICEF

Last week one of the teachers at my school showed me this really cool mobile website (http://tap.unicefusa.org/mobil) This site allows you to give back by not using your phone. All you have to do is visit the link on your mobile device, hit continue, and then just set your phone down. Every 10 minutes you don't use your phone UNICEF will donate one days worth of clean water to people around the world. I did this during class for 30 minutes, that's three days of water I helped UNICEF give to people in need. It was such a simple way to help out, I plan on doing this at least once a week. If you have a phone with internet access you should try it out too, we all could learn that we don't need to use our phones every minute anyways.

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog 

Stuffed animals for sick kids

My teacher, Mr.Pisel, has read and shown this blog to his 4 year old son Brady. Brady was sick last week, so Mr. Pisel stayed home with him until he felt better. However, while Brady was home sick he helped out is father with a random act of kindness. My teacher says he puts all of the change into a coffee can at the end of the day, which they have never done anything with, until that day with Brady. He gave Brady the coffee can and told him to take out all the money he wanted to keep in his piggy-bank and the rest would be donated. Brady grabbed only a little handful and said, "I want to give the rest to kids so they can have a stuffed animal when they are sick like me."  When Mr. Pisel told me about this I was amazed that he was thinking so much of others at such a young age. Brady, way to share the kindness even when you aren't feeling your best, you made me smile!


Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog

Random Act of Kindness #38- Holding the door

Like I said in my very first post on this blog, when someone holds a door open for me I smile. It's simple, but for some reason it's not done often. Most people just push the door a little harder to keep it open instead of taking that extra time to hold it. For this random act of kindness I held open a door during passing time at my school for students as they walked by. While I was doing this a couple girls who were walking towards the door paused, looked at me, then smiled. I think they were surprised to see someone standing there to hold the door open for them. This only took me a few minutes and it brought a smile to someone's face, holding the door for someone can make a difference in their day.

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog

A helping hand

A little random act can go a long way.  I received an email today from Vicki that proves just that. Vicki's story was about her son Steve who was diagnosed with cancer. Steve had chemo treatments often for the past two years. Vicki says in the email, "There were several people who said, just call and I'll be there. But, there were times when no one was able to take him or pick him up." During times like this, Steve's brother, Mason, would say, "I can't do it, but I'll find someone who can." Vicki said neighbors, mothers, and so many others who did not even know Steve would show up and help out. I bet some of those people didn't realize how much they were helping them. Vickie said it meant a lot, everything they did for their family and Steve. I emailed Vicki back asking if I could share her story on this blog, in her response she gave me permission and then added that Steve had passed away this past December. She told me that the stories she reads on this blog have helped her get through some tough days and it made me realize that I'm beyond blessed to have the support from others and the privilege to do this blog. Vicki has shown me that acts of kindness not only help one person but they help everyone as a whole, and they truly do stay with you forever. Thank you Vicki for this realization and for sharing your story. Prayers to your family.

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog

Random Act of Kindness #37- Philippines project

My high school participated in a huge service project for a couple weeks, it was called the Philippine project. The goal of the project was to provide aid to the victims of the typhoon that hit the Philippine Islands. Students in our school donated money every day, with a goal that together we could raise 10,000 dollars. One of our Spanish teachers, Keith Bonnstetter, prepared paper snowflakes for everyone in our school to cut out. The snowflakes each had 10 angels on them, so when all the snowflakes were cut out it would represents the lives lost and angels gained due to the typhoon. The project ended a few weeks ago, so today Mr.Bonnstetter was stringing together the snowflakes to make a handing memorial for our school. He asked students to come help and me, along with a handful of other students, did! I can't wait to see the memorial hung up in our high school. It was a great project and I am glad I got to help out. 

Remember if you perform an act of kindness email us your story at sharethekindness22@gmail.com , share it on our Facebook page, or  just tweet about it and add the #kalarkind for it to appear in the right hand column of this blog