Building Community One Random Act of Kindness at a Time

For the past month, the Community Foundation has been promoting Nov. 12 as Random Acts of Kindness Day. I see a random act of kindness as a wonderful way to touch the life of another person. In turn that act cultivates community by promoting interaction between our residents, making our region a better place for all.

A few people have asked about the necessity of having to legislate kindness. My reply has been that we are not telling people to be kind; rather we are celebrating the many acts of kindness that happen every day, especially in the Windsor – Essex County area. We believe that sharing the many stories builds a strong sense of community needed for sustainability.

Since we have been promoting Random Acts of Kindness Day, different people have told us about previous experiences with similar programs. Cindy Rivait talked about bringing the program to Windsor in the late 1990s. Mayor Francis spoke about a “random acts of kindness” program sponsored by the Windsor Roseland Rotary Club. Janet Kelly shared information about the Windsor Family Credit Union’s Random Acts of Kindness involvement by employees at their branches for several years.

The Community Foundation appreciates that we are building the next level for a tradition that has been in place here for at least a decade. We are excited about how the program has been received this year. We are very appreciative of the generosity of our sponsors and we look forward to their continued involvement as we continue to build community one Random Act of Kindness at a time. For more information about our sponsors, visit our website at www.wecf.ca/kindness.html.

Sincerely,

Glenn

Glenn Stresman is the Executive Director of the WindsorEssex Community Foundation and has over 20 years experience in both writing and evaluating grant applications.

Additional Random Act of Kindness websites to visit:

• Kitchener Waterloo Community Foundation’s Random Act of Kindness Page.
• The Random Act of Kindness Foundation
• Stories of Kindness on Facebook