Saturday, December 22, 2012

12/22/12: 26 Random Acts of Kindness Honoring the Angels of Sandy Hook Elementary

I have been inspired lately by the spirit of acts of kindness.  It started when my kindergarten daughter's teacher sent home a note saying that they had posted a Grinch at school and the kids were asked to write acts of kindness on hearts to bring in.  When the kids bring them in it makes the Grinch's heart grow bigger.  What a lovely lesson to teach children, especially around the holidays when kids mostly think about what they will be getting as gifts.  Then the tragedy happened at Sandy Hook Elementary.  Ann Curry from NBC News wrote about a movement  so that we could honor the 26 angels that were lost in the tragedy.  That inspired me even more.  
My first act of kindness was posting a beautiful song sung by our school's kindergartners "Let There Be Peace" that brought tears to my eyes just days after the horrible tragedy.  Since then it has been so wonderful watching the #26Acts Hash Tag on Twitter.  People all over are performing 26 random acts of kindness to represent each of the lives lost.
Here are some of mine:
Bought a present for a friend to give her daughter that she really wanted.
Paid at the Dunkin Donuts drive thru for the person behind me letting the cashier know what I was doing to hope it would start a string of cars doing the same.
Remember it doesn't have to be monetary.  I have gotten my kids helping with this by doing little things like helping with the laundry, cleaning their room, helping with groceries, and even Lauren giving her brother the last potato chip.  You don't have to do 26, anything you can do will make the world a better place.  So pay it forward.  The feeling you get of doing something nice is enough to make it worth it.
Are you in?
Visit 26 Acts of Kindness on Facebook and be inspired: https://www.facebook.com/26acts
Follow Hash Tag: #26Acts on Twitter 

1 comment:

kristi said...

A wonderful idea! I heard about this on the Today Show. That is great that your kids are involved too. It's amazing how something so wonderful and full of love ALWAYS comes from something so horribly tragic.