Random Act of Kindness Day

Last Friday the Respect Campaign hosted Random Act of Kindness Day. Our volunteers facilitated a number of activities such as a plinko game that challenged passerbys to accept a randomly selected task, such as high-fiving a stranger, and continued to ask them to fill out a list of five acts of kindness starting with the plinko one, which could be submitted for the chance to win in a raffle.

We had people hold up messages on a whiteboard describing acts of kindness they had given or received, and had their photos taken for a slideshow.

We had a station teach people how to make paper flowers with notes with compliments, to be given to someone special. A flower was delivered to my desk in the student life office, with the message "Your Grizzly Adams beard is sexy".

We had RAK (Random Act of Kindness) on the Street, where people from our movement went around carrying signs with positive messages.

We had a Candy and Hot Chocolate Giveaway, and our partners gave popcorn and cotton candy.

I thought I would only be able to manage prep for the event, but my class was canceled, so I got to be around for five hours! Made up a bit for missing a week of work due to being in Block Placement and WALES. I manned the Respect Booth, explaining to anyone curious what the Respect Campaign is.

I am proud of how we did, we were bigger than last year!

The week before this, I facilitated a Respect Meet.  There was one on Monday and one on Wednesday, but I could only do the one on Monday since I had an exam for the first hour of the Wednesday one. I had to organize to leave a staff meeting at WALES to make the one on Monday, too.

During the Monday meeting, we had a discussion on Global Citizenship and what it means to us to help us prepare for Cultural Diversity Week. We went over the last meeting's Biweekly Respect Challenge, which was to do a Random Act of Kindness outside of the Respect Campaign. Mine was baking homemade bread for my coworkers. We then had a teambuilding activity where everyone chose an animal that represented them based on a list of animals and descriptions of their characteristics.

It led to some quite intimate discussion. I chose elephant, for my namesake in Mali. In Chisasibi, I was a fox. Objectively, looking at the list, I might be raven.

Elephant - Strong, powerful, and wise

Fox - Cunning, agile, quick-witted, diplomatic, wild; feminine in its magic of camouflage, shape-shifting and invisibility

Raven - Introspective, courageous, self-knowing, healing, protective, tricky, and magical

You can make elephant and fox fit, and I feel most like an elephant, but raven's description resonates with me most.

We also chose an animal to represent the Respect Campaign. During the meeting that I co-facilitated, we chose an animal with this descriptive:

"Cleansing, transformative, sensitive, medicinal, undiscernibly beautiful and powerful"

It's good, right? Try to guess the animal based on the description.

...

...

...

...Give up? It's the frog. How does that describe a frog? It's beyond me.

Our second group chose the dog, " Noble, faithful, loyal, trainable, protective, and guiding" A little easier to attach with what is traditionally associated with the animal.

After my exam on Wednesday, I dropped by the Respect Meet to see what the dynamic is like when I'm not facilitating. Did about an hour as a volunteer, which felt nostalgic. Watched my fellow Student Life Interns present my Engagement Plan. It was fun.