No one has ever become poor by giving, so “Pay it Forward” this holiday season by performing random acts of kindness. Here are some simple ideas.
- Bake goodies and take them to the police station, fire station, emergency room.
- Pay a local teenager to mow someones yard, who is elderly, sick or their spouse is away.
- Knit or crochet a baby blanket and take it to the Nurses station, in the hospital, for the next baby that is born.
- Buy a bouquet of flowers or balloons at the florist and have it delivered to the hospital.
- Print up some inspiring signs and post them around town.
- Take a box of doughnuts to an elementary school’s office to be given to a classroom.
- Send a nice card to 2 people you picked from the phone book.
- Send your children to offer to wash cars for your neighbors for free, when they come home you pay them.
- Leave your change in the soda machine for the next person. It’s a nice surprise.
- Smile at a total stranger
- Tape a quarter to a pay phone with a note welcoming anyone who needs it to use it.
- Offer to babysit and give other adults in the neighborhood a couple precious hours of time alone/together.
- Send a ‘Thank you’ card or note ‘from a local citizen’ to the officers at your local police station.
- The next time you have someone beg for money offer to buy them a meal or a cup of soup instead…and sit with them .
- Instead of throwing them away your old magazines and occasionally drop them off in waiting rooms at hospitals.
- Leave a balloon/or poster or just a silly note on a friend’s door or locker when they are having a hard day…it works wonders!
- Plant a tree.
Acts of Kindness - Volunteer at a local shelter.
- Clean up your neighbor’s yard/garden for free.
- Read to a child.
- Call an old friend.
- Smile! Laugh! Be happy.
- Hug someone.
- Buy a latte or mocha or a meal for the car behind you in the drive through.
- Listen to a friend, a co-worker or best yet a total stranger with concern for what they are saying.
- Leave that parking space up front, for someone else.
- Leave quarters on the public laundry machine for the next person.
- Send your child a note in his lunch-box.
- Take an old video that you no longer want and give it to someone that might be interested in seeing it.
- Hold the door for someone.
- Pay for a small child’s candy at a convenient store.
- Do a chore that is normally your spouse’s job.
- Smile when you pick up the phone, the caller will hear it in your voice.
- Pay for someone’s gas.
- Pay for someone’s toll.
- Visit a sick or shut-in person.
- Shovel snow for a neighbor
- Give up your seat on the bus or subways.
- Bring neighbors’ trash cans from the curb to garage doors
- Donate needed items to the local homeless shelter
- Go to the library and pay overdue fees for 5 people and while there, put dollar bills in some of your favorite books.
- Leave treats out for trash collectors
- Leave treats in mailbox for mailman
- Donate toys for the needy
- Give a coat to homeless person
- Deliver towels/blankets to animal shelter
- Let someone go in line before you.
- Donate can food to a food bank
- Cook a meal for someone
- Help someone carry or unload groceries
