In less than one month, students and employees at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, as well as community members in Alva and surrounding towns will be presenting others with random acts of kindness for Day of Kindness in Northwest Oklahoma on Nov. 15.
This is the fourth year for Northwestern personnel at Alva, Enid and Woodward to join community members for this special day, which is based on World Kindness Day celebrated each year on Nov. 13. The overall organizing group, the United Way of Northwest Oklahoma in Enid who has been involved with this kindness event since 2015, generally selects a date close to the world event, so Nov. 15 is the day to celebrate in this area this year.
This special day was introduced in 1998 to promote kindness throughout the world. It is observed in many countries including Australia, Canada, India, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.
Northwestern employees, students and community members have met twice this semester to visit about this year’s event and plan to meet again Oct. 29 at 3:30 p.m. in the Ryerson Hall Conference Room, second floor, so anyone on and off-campus can come to discuss their plans for the day. A Zoom link is available by request.
This local group reports to the United Way with a list of the random acts of kindness projects or activities the local area will be doing on campus and within the communities in this immediate area.
Several businesses, organizations and school groups in varying northwest Oklahoma communities have participated in past years. Everyone is welcome to be a part of the event.
Additional monetary sponsors are always needed to help fund the event’s efforts because of the rising costs of food and supplies. Sponsors can request that their funds be spent in their local communities.
Any club, school class, group, business, church, etc., that would like to be involved in this project locally and wants to be added to the overall list of kindness activities that will be shared with the United Way of Northwest Oklahoma should contact Valarie Case, assistant director of university relations and organizer of the local effort, at vcase@nwosu.edu. Those interested in becoming local monetary sponsors also may contact Case. If interested in donating directly to the United Way group that helps purchase needed items for areas across northwest Oklahoma, please contact Dan Schiedel with the United Way at dan@unitedwayenid.org or Alex Mantz with OG&E at mantzaj@oge.com.
“Currently, we have 11 confirmed campus projects and nine Alva community-related projects, so we hope to hear from others planning to complete projects soon,” Case said. “Remember, it doesn’t cost anything to be kind, so there are a lot of activities that can be completed by groups that don’t include spending any money. Projects could include picking up trash in the community, raking leaves, washing windows, volunteering with a local organization to help with whatever they might need, and having a drive to collect non-perishable foods and toiletries for the local and campus food pantries and Blessings Boxes. If you’re able to spend a little money, think about randomly paying for someone’s meal at a restaurant without them knowing or purchasing an order at the drive-through for the person sitting behind you. It’s just a good feeling to do something for someone else, randomly.”
A web page recently was created to provide information about the Day of Kindness at www.www.nwosu.edu/day-of-kindness-nw-ok. This page includes a link to the local Facebook group, “Day of Kindness in NW OK area,” which has helpful files available for download for those needing logos, posters and ideas for projects. A direct link to the group may be found at www.facebook.com/groups/bekindnwok. The web page also provides a form link for groups and individuals to submit information about the project they will be completing, on what day and time and how many people are involved in the project.
“Everyone taking part is asked to document their projects from beginning to end with photographs that can be emailed to me after the event so we can keep a record of everything that happened,” Case said. “We also encourage you to share posts about the Day of Kindness on your social media accounts and photos of the projects you’re participating in. We’d also love to see posts about any random act of kindness you witnessed or were the recipient of.”
The overall hashtag on social media channels is #BeKindNWOK.
“If you’re planning on participating, please let us know about your activity as soon as possible,” Case said. “If you’re not sure what type of activity you might like to do, look in the Files section of our Facebook group for ideas. Our list is a lot shorter than in past years so far, so please let me know your plans soon.”
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