Greensboro News & Record
Saturday, February 11, 1995
Section: LIFE, Page: D3
By Clara G. Herrera, New York Times News Service
During Kindness Week, organizers want random good deeds to have a ripple effect.
Do a good deed with no strings attached. It could be as simple as telling a stranger to
have a nice day or baking cookies for the janitor who empties the trash at work.
Your opportunity is coming up to contribute toward a kinder, gentler nation during the
first organized Random Acts of Kindness Week, which begins Sunday and ends Friday. It's a
week for people to perform kind acts for no reason whatsoever.
Already, 123 communities in 46 states and thousands of schools nationwide are
participating, said Nancy Briggin, the national coordinator for Kindness Week.
A good deed starts with one person. Who knows? Kindness could be contagious.
"The purpose of recognizing Random Acts of Kindness Week is not only to give a week
where everybody's going to be good to each other, it's to generate awareness of human
kindness," Briggin said. "This kind of thing just mushrooms out."
People hit by the kindness bug will do everything from planting trees to helping
someone carry groceries to the car.
The grassroots movement took off two years ago when editors at Conari Press published
"Random Acts of Kindness" ($8.95). The book includes a mixed bag of stories highlighting
good deeds.
Two additional books, "More Random Acts of Kindness" (Conari, $8.95) and "Kids'
Random Acts of Kindness" (Conari, $8.95), have since been written. Ten percent of profits
from books sold benefit Volunteers of America, a nonprofit human services organization
that has programs to help homeless people, senior citizens and those with mental and
physical disabilities.
Random Acts of Kindness Week and Random Acts of Kindness Day (Friday) may get people to
extend their giving spirit beyond the Christmas season, said Stan Culpepper,
vice president of development for Volunteers of America Northern Texas.
"Why is it that we're just that way around Christmas?" Culpepper said. "Hopefully we
can get people thinking more on a day-to-day basis about being a little more kind to each
other and, through that change in attitude, we hope we can see some real changes
overall."
About 30 people at Culpepper's Arlington, Texas, office are putting their heads
together for random "ideas" of kindness. Culpepper wants to get as many people involved
as possible.
"You hear people say that just one person can't do anything, but we think we can, if
we can just get enough 'one persons' out there to do acts of kindness," he said.
Teachers can give students assignments to perform one act of kindness. Individuals can
visit retirement centers.
The main objective is to get the word out about how people can participate.
SOME RANDOM IDEAS
