June Bingham had never heard of Random Act of Kindness Day, so she wasn’t expecting schoolchildren to drop in Friday with specially made cards.
The Grade 1 and 2 children, from Selkirk Montessori School, made the short walk to the Selkirk Place care facility after putting personal touches on their creations. Each card had the message “Sending a Smile Your Way.”
“This is really a surprise and it’s a nice one,” Bingham said. “I didn’t know anything about this.”
She said the young visitors were wonderful and really brightened up the day. “They’re so cute,” she said.
Seven-year-old Annika Andersen summed up the class effort.
“We made friendship cards to make people happy.”
Kindness was at the forefront Friday at many spots around the region, everywhere from schools to social agencies to businesses.
They were part of Canada’a 10th annual Random Act of Kindness Day — meant to encourage people to do nice things for others. And once a good deed was done, the hope was that the person on the receiving end would pass the kindness along to someone else.
It’s a concept that has caught on since its start by the Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation. The day was co-ordinated locally by the Victoria Foundation, with other community foundations around Vancouver Island following suit.
Selkirk Montessori School had other classes involved in the day’s activities, including a Grade 8 group that stood at the corner of Gorge Road East and Jutland Road holding signs with slogans like “Honk If You Love Someone,” “Live Every Day to The Fullest” and “Smile, It Looks Good On You.”
“Everyone is doing it and they’re all doing different things,” Susie Rialp, who teaches a Grade 1 and 2 class, said of the school’s participation.
Some students made muffins that were delivered to Our Place, Rialp said. “There was a lot of baking, a lot of cooking and making sandwiches to give to other people.”
At the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society, there was a week of challenges sent out over social media leading up to Random Act of Kindness Day, said spokeswoman Keri Greenidge. “It was a five-day challenge,” Greenidge said. “Every day we had a different challenge. One of the challenges that we had was to write an inspirational quote for someone.”
The quotes were put on handcrafted notes for each staff member and handed out Friday, she said.
A key message for Random Act of Kindness Day is that it doesn’t take something big or expensive to be involved, said Victoria Foundation CEO Sandra Richardson.
“I think it raises that level of awareness if you say, ‘It’s Kindness Day,’ ” she said. “Most of us probably do something kind all the time, but when the emphasis is on the day people really go out of their way to make a difference in the lives of others.”
Businesses were widely involved, including Island Savings’ downtown branch where staff collected clothes for Women in Need and toiletries for Our Place. Monk Office Supply added a yellow rose to each delivery during the day, while free coffee and cookies were handed out in several locations.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Richardson said.
