Random Acts Of Kindness Day 2022: 17 Ways To Be Kind On Feb. 17

ACROSS AMERICA — Thursday, Feb. 17, is Random Acts of Kindness Day. “Make kindness the norm” — #MakeKindnessTheNorm on social media — is this year’s theme.

Below are 17 things you can do to show kindness on RAK Day.

Some are suggestions from the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, which established the observance in 1995; others are from Patch editors.

• April 1 Deadline: ‘Call For Kindness' Opens; Funds Teen Leadership Projects

Some acts of kindness may cost money, others only time.

1. Start a movement. Stand in front of your house and hoist a picket sign with messages like “be kind” and “you matter.” Don’t forget to add the #MakeKindnessTheNorm hashtag.

2. Compliment someone you don’t know. Do it with sincerity.

3. Shovel your neighbor’s snow or mow their lawn.

4. Write a letter, put a stamp on it and mail it to someone who isn’t expecting it.

5. Show kindness to a friend by giving them a gift card to a local tea or coffee shop and inviting them to take some time to relax.

6. Let someone go ahead of you in line at the grocery store, even if their cart is overflowing, and especially if they have young children who have limited patience for such places.

7. Pay for someone else’s meal in a restaurant if you’re dining in; if you’re waiting in a drive-thru lane, pay for the car behind you.

8. Tip your server or barista a little more than you normally would; use the #MakeKindnessTheNorm hashtag on the receipt.

9. Send a thank-you note to someone who made a difference in your life, even if it was years ago.

10. Leave packages of disposable diapers and wipes in a family restroom.

11. Fill a backpack you’re no longer using with gloves, hats, coats, blankets and other cold-weather items and give it to a homeless person, or at some location you know a homeless person might find it.

12. Get together with your friends and fill purses with feminine hygiene and other personal-care products, such as toothbrushes, hand sanitizer, lotions, lip balms — whatever you use every day, but would miss if you can't afford it, and leave them at the . Don't forget men: include the toothbrushes, hand sanitizer, lotions, lip balms and other everyday products, but also condoms and clean socks. Gift cards and bus or subway passes are good, too.

13. Support foster kids. One way to do that is to donate a new or gently used suitcase to a foster care agency to return a sense of worth to their lives; not all foster care groups participate, but there are other ways you can help.

14. Take a bouquet of flowers to a neighbor who lives alone, sit down with them and have a conversation.

15. Give to a charity, especially one that can leverage your money to increase its power. For example, a $1 donation to Feeding America pays for 10 meals.

16. Offer to fill someone’s gas tank for free or buy their groceries.

17. Smile at everyone — the stranger you meet on the street, the person who brings you your meal and even the driver who cut you off in traffic; you never know what kind of day the other person is having.

• What are some other ways to show kindness to others, not only on Random Acts of Kindness Day, but year-round? Tell us in the comments, please and thanks.

The Denver-based Random Acts of Kindness Foundation’s first RAK Day was in 1995. The small nonprofit’s initiative caught on, was celebrated in New Zealand by 2004 and has since been celebrated around the world as a way for people to show kindness to others in small, simple ways.

Random Acts of Kindness Day is observed on Feb. 17 every year, regardless of the day of the week.