Nearly 40 groups with numerous projects have been registered at Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s three campus locations, as well as within the community of Alva for the upcoming Day of Kindness in Northwest Oklahoma event on Nov. 15.
This is the fourth year for these Northwestern and Alva community members to work with the United Way of Northwest Oklahoma in Enid to shine a bigger light on kindness, something the Enid organization has been doing since 2015. And, although the Day of Kindness in Northwest Oklahoma is being observed on Nov. 15 this year, the international observance of World Kindness Day, which has been in existence since 1998, is always celebrated on Nov. 13.
“We have projects happening at Northwestern from the Agriculture Department handing out bee-friendly seed packets and Delta Zeta members sharing cookie cake in the Student Center to groups placing kind messages on sticky notes all around campus,” said Valarie Case, assistant director of university relations and one of the organizers for the local Day of Kindness event. “Our Distance Learning Office is collecting items from all three campus locations for Creature Concerns in Alva and Furever Friends in Enid, the J.W. Martin Library staff will be handing out popcorn, and administrators and academic department chairs are again taking up a monetary collection to donate to one of the public schools within our campus site cities to help pay off lunch bill balances for various families who need it.”
Other Northwestern groups who have registered a project include Sadie Bier’s and Kaylyn Hansen’s Habitudes classes, Karen Koehn’s and Julie Lehr’s Ranger Connection class, President’s Leadership Class with numerous projects, Pre-Nursing Association, Psychology Club, SAAC, Student Nurses Association, and the Enid and Woodward campus locations. Oklahoma Intercollegiate Legislature (O.I.L) members will hand out positive sticky notes while attending their annual convention at the Oklahoma State Capitol on Nov. 13.
“Groups within the Alva community also are taking part in a big way,” Case said. “Alva State Bank has planned several surprise acts of kindness throughout the day, and BancCentral is donating to Alva’s Nutrition and Senior Citizen Center.”
Other groups in Alva who have registered include the BJCC staff, Grow and Share Extension Group, Hope Pregnancy Center, The Little Red Hens, Nam & Pops, Nescatunga Arts and Humanities Council, Northwest Domestic Crisis Services and UpliftAlva. Alva High School also is having its BALTO Week (Be A Light to Others) all week at the school.
Any individual, club, school class, group, church, civic organization, business, etc., that would like to be involved in this project locally or in the surrounding towns – however big or small — and wants to be added to the overall list of those planning acts of kindness that will be shared with the United Way of Northwest Oklahoma may contact Case at vcase@nwosu.edu.
“We welcome all those taking part in projects to post photos on their social media accounts throughout the day using the hashtag #BeKindNWOK,” Case said. “Taking photos of each activity from creation to delivery also is encouraged, and photos can be emailed to me for us to keep for documentation.
“If you are on the receiving end of an act of kindness, we also welcome you to post about it using the same hashtag and send photos of this as well. This is going to be a fantastic day in northwest Oklahoma.”
Groups can register their local project by clicking the form link available at www.www.nwosu.edu/day-of-kindness-nw-ok.
A print-quality logo for this event is available to anyone who needs one for their project or to display on digital signage to promote the Day of Kindness.
Monetary donations have decreased for the event this year, so if any organization or individual would like to be a monetary sponsor of the overall Kindness Day in Northwest Oklahoma to help purchase needed items by various non-profit organizations in northwest Oklahoma, please contact Dan Schiedel, CEO and executive director of United Way of Northwest Oklahoma in Enid, at (580) 237-0821 or dan@unitedwayenid.org or Alex Mantz with OG&E at mantzaj@oge.com.
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