For the third year, Northwestern Oklahoma State University personnel are welcoming the campus communities in Alva, Enid and Woodward, along with all others in northwest Oklahoma to take part in Kindness Day in Northwest Oklahoma activities scheduled for Nov. 10.
Northwestern-Alva employees created a local organizing sub-committee of campus and community members that reports to the overall group, United Way of Northwest Oklahoma in Enid, to discuss the possible random acts of kindness that can take place on its campuses and within the communities in this immediate area.
World Kindness Day is observed each year on Nov. 13, but the local organizers selected Nov. 10 as a day to celebrate in northwest Oklahoma.
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.
The United Way of Northwest Oklahoma has been observing this day to promote random acts of kindness in the area since 2015.
“We had a great representation of Northwestern clubs, organizations and individuals last year in providing a full day of kindness activities across our campus locations in Alva, Enid and Woodward,” said Valarie Case, assistant director of university relations at Northwestern and one of the organizers of the local efforts. “Not only did random acts of kindness occur on our campuses, but many activities took place within our communities.”
Several businesses, organizations and schools in Alva and Waynoka have participated in past years. All communities and schools in this area are welcome to be a part of the event.
Dan Scheidel, CEO and executive director of United Way of Northwest Oklahoma in Enid, said in a meeting of overall event organizers that more monetary sponsors are 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 Case at vcase@nwosu.edu. Those interested in becoming local sponsors also may contact Case or Scheidel directly at dan@unitedwayenid.org.
Organizers would like to firm up the Kindness Day activities and sponsor list as soon as possible, so please make a connection with them soon.
Locally, a public Facebook group named “Kindness Day in NW OK area” has been established to disseminate information to those who are interested in taking part in the event. It can be found at www.facebook.com/groups/bekindnwok. 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 through the information in 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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