These Heartwarming Stories Illustrate What Random Acts of Kindness Day Is All About
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Random Acts of Kindness Day, or RAKD, was created in 1995 in Denver, Colorado. Celebrated every year on February 17, the day is all about practicing kindness and paying it forward when you can. The idea behind Random Acts of Kindness Day is more important than ever as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to impact people's lives, resulting in often overwhelming feelings of isolation and loneliness. In fact, a recent global study by Nextdoor, a network that connects nearby neighbors to build community, found that knowing just six neighbors can decrease feelings of loneliness, depression, social anxiety, and financial concerns.
The study, conducted by a team of leading loneliness experts from prestigious institutions, examined the impact of the Nextdoor KIND Challenge in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. Participants in the study carried out small acts of kindness in their communities over four weeks. These acts were divided into five categories (emotional, tangible, informational, companionship, and belonging support) and could be as simple as listening to a neighbor, chatting over the fence, or running an errand. Other acts included sharing potential job opportunities or contributing to a neighborhood cleanup. By the end of the study, 1 in 20 participants felt lonely as compared to 1 in 10 at the beginning of the study.
If you or a loved one is experiencing loneliness, visit Nextdoor's Loneliness Toolkit for more available services and support.
What is Nextdoor?
In their company bio, Nextdoor, Inc. states that "by bringing neighbors together, we can cultivate a kinder world where everyone has a neighborhood they can rely on." All around the world, neighbors are connected through Nextdoor. They give and get help and build connections with nearby community members whether that be with neighbors, locals businesses, nonprofits, or public agencies. Nextdoor exists in over 11 countries and is used by 1 in 3 U.S. households.
At the core of the company's mission and purpose is kindness. Nextdoor believes little acts of kindness can go a long way toward making communities and the world at larger a better place.
What is Random Acts of Kindness Day?
Random Acts of Kindness Day is on February 17, 2022 but Random Acts of Kindness week began on February 13 and ends on February 19. The official website lists simple gestures to carry out today, not dissimilar from the ones Nextdoor encourages. The aim of RAKD (and week) is simple: "Make kindness the norm." Their website has downloadable worksheets, coloring pages, posters, and games to help you spread kindness — not just on RAKD, but every other day of the year, too.
How to celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Day
Another way to partake in this wholesome holiday is to read and share other random acts of kindness. In the spirit of the national day, we're sharing eight heartwarming stories about kind neighbors from the team at Nextdoor.
After losing her best friend, a Texas woman created a neighborhood community of wine lovers and friends.
Disheartened and lonely after losing her best friend to a sudden heart attack, Cynthia posted on Nextdoor to see if anyone would be open to building a new friendship. She suggested starting a women’s wine group and over 200 ladies around Houston, TX responded with interest in joining. Cynthia invited her neighbors to meet up and the “Waterside Wine Women” group was born. They have now been meeting for nearly five years for happy hours, winery tours, weekend getaways, and more. The group even set up a friendship fund where the women chip in just $25 a year to put away in case any of the members fall on hard times, are battling an illness, or need a bit of extra support. Due to the incredible response, Cynthia now helps other women in Houston create their own friendship groups to form new connections.
Hundreds of neighbors sent cards to a 16-year-old with cerebral palsy battling Covid-19 complications in Clawson, MI.
Daniel is a 16-year-old with cerebral palsy and epilepsy who is in the hospital with severe COVID-19 complications due to a compromised immune system. His older sister, Caitlin, posted on Nextdoor to ask neighbors to keep Daniel in their thoughts, and see if anyone would be interested in writing him a get well card. In response, the family received hundreds of cards to decorate every wall in Daniel’s hospital room. The family is hopeful that the power of compassion, kindness, and love will help Daniel through his recovery.
Neighbors joined forces in Oakland, CA to bring alpacas Boogie and Woogie home.
Tobias lives on a small urban farm in Oakland, CA with two alpacas named Boogie and Woogie. One Saturday morning, chaos ensued when they escaped. Tobias raced around the neighborhood searching for the duo until a video was posted to Nextdoor of the two running down a main road. The post went viral with over 3,500 reactions and neighbors came together to corral the two escape artists and safely bring them back to the farm.
A former cook and "unofficial grandma" bakes date-nut bread for a neighbor with a craving in New York.
When Nicole’s neighbor posted on Nextdoor that he was experiencing a “doomed craving” for date-nut bread but couldn’t find it anywhere, it sparked a thread of over 100 comments from neighbors on the hunt to help him find a loaf. Nicole used to cook for a living and especially enjoys the magic of homemade treats, so she was inspired to bake some of the rare bread herself and take orders on Nextdoor. She often shares her delicious creations with neighbors in her building or members of the local community garden, and takes pride in being her neighborhood’s “unofficial grandma that doles out homemade goodies.”
Los Angeles teacher collects enough winter clothing from neighbors to cover 400 low-income students.
Stephanie teaches kindergarten in a low income area of Los Angeles where families of students struggle to afford back to school supplies and other necessities. A few years ago, she noticed her students shivering in class and turned to Nextdoor to ask neighbors to donate warm clothing and other supplies for the children. She was overwhelmed when neighbors fulfilled wish after wish by providing the students with gloves, blankets, hats, jackets, umbrellas, mittens, and even school supplies. At first, Stephanie only expected to collect donations for her kindergarten class but she quickly received enough clothing to cover 400 students in all grades from head to toe! “It’s been beautiful,” she shared, “it’s all to see the look on the kids’ faces when they get something they’ve needed and it’s all been thanks to Nextdoor.”
Volunteers help clear an Ontario woman's walkway during a winter superstorm.
In early January, Ontario experienced the biggest snowfall in over a decade and Maria became worried as snow piled up on her driveway. She had spent the last 22 years caring for her disabled mother now in hospice care and the snow blocked access to the lift her mother relies on to exit the home. Looking for help, Maria turned to her neighbors on Nextdoor and made a post on Nextdoor asking if neighbors could help shovel their walkway. Within minutes, she had nearby neighbors come to her driveway ready to shovel snow and volunteers continued to help throughout the coming days, clearing the seemingly never-ending snow and creating a safe path from the lift to the sidewalk and beyond. Maria was brought to tears with gratitude and now has a renewed appreciation for her neighborhood.
U.K. "Neighbor of the Year" gets community projects off the ground to support local businesses.
Kerry was announced as a 2021 U.K. Neighbor of the Year following her incredible work lifting community projects off the ground. She became part of a local project with the mission to create more space in the community to reduce traffic and allow local cafes and pubs to operate more safely. At one point, Kerry led over 200 volunteers and through Nextdoor she organized a series of events to gather families to support the initiative. Kerry shared, “You’ll never know what fabulous people live just up the road from you who are also super keen to work on the same thing that you are unless you reach out.’’
Stranded on a snowy highway in Virginia, a truck driver handed out supplies and let strangers borrow his phone to call their loved ones.
Recent snowstorms left Bernadette and her husband, along with thousands of others, stuck on a highway in Virginia for hours. Thankfully, they were stuck next to a kind truck driver named Mohammed who handed out cases of water, offered some food, gave gas to those who ran out, and even let strangers borrow his phone to call their loved ones. Bernadette wanted to express her gratitude, but she didn’t have Mohammed’s contact info so she posted her story on Nextdoor with a smiling photo of the truck driver and received nearly 12,000 reactions. After a bit of help from her neighbors, Bernadette was able to track down Mohammed’s phone number to thank him personally and show him the overwhelming amount of love on the Nextdoor post.
Celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Day by performing a simple, small act to help out someone in your neighborhood or community today. Try to continue the practice throughout the week or month, and beyond. It's amazing how great an impact even one person can make.
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