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 thanks to our students and employees.”
Angelia Case, academic projects assistant/media specialist at Northwestern, also is a part of the local Kindness Day group. She serves as the sponsor/coordinator of two university areas that took part in last year’s event — the NWOSU Art Society and the Northwestern Campus Cabinet food pantry.
“Getting our students involved in Kindness Day is amazing,” Angelia Case said. “It’s so much fun spreading kindness and being the recipient of random acts of kindness. We encourage anyone who gives or receives an act of kindness to post online about it, too. It just spreads good feelings everywhere.”
Several businesses, organizations and schools in Alva and Waynoka also participated last year and plan to again this year.
“Although we believe that kindness should be shown every day of the year, Alva State Bank is thrilled to be part of the Kindness Day event for the second year in a row,” said Magen Lehr, information security officer at the Alva bank who also is a member of the local Kindness Day event sub-committee. “We believe that any time we can come together as a community and bring smiles to the faces of those around us is a good day.”
Lehr noted that the bank’s employees get excited to see how their small acts of kindness can really make someone’s day brighter.
Alva State Bank also serves as a monetary sponsor of the event because its leaders feel strongly about supporting local organizations and events that bring people together.
“The United Way of Enid serves all of northwest Oklahoma, and by being a sponsor for the World Kindness Day event locally, it allows the United Way to bring some funds back into our community to support local organizations in need,” Lehr said. “It also helps to grow the event to expand its reach and touch even more lives in our area.”
Dan Scheidel, CEO and executive director of United Way of Northwest Oklahoma in Enid, said in a meeting of overall event organizers Wednesday that more monetary sponsors are needed to help fund the event’s efforts because of the rising costs of food and supplies.
Lehr noted that sponsors can request how their funds are spent in their local communities and added that last year the bank was able to designate its sponsorship money to be used to support the Northwest Family Services with the purchase of first aid kits, box fans and bottled water.
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 at vcase@nwosu.edu, Angelia Case at arcase@nwosu.edu or Lehr at magenl@alvastatebank.com. Those interested in becoming local sponsors also may contact one of these three women 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.
“Our local group has met twice to discuss this year’s event and plans to meet again Nov. 1 at 3 p.m. in the J.W. Martin Library on the Alva campus for anyone interested in taking part this year so we can firm up details before the event,” Valarie Case said. “If you’re planning on participating, please let us know about your activity as soon as possible rather than waiting for the next meeting. If you’re not sure what type of activity you might like to do, look through the information in our Facebook group for ideas.”
Contact Case closer to the local meeting date if interested in attending the meeting via Zoom. The United Way group will meet again Nov. 2 at noon in Enid or via Zoom.
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