By Khalida Sarwari
If you’ve been thinking of doing a random act of kindness sometime soon, why not make it Feb. 17? You could visit somebody in the hospital, give somebody a hug or write a letter to a friend.
Those are some of the suggestions that were offered by Louise Webb, a Saratoga resident who serves as a spokesperson for the city’s sister city board, at a Feb. 3 city council meeting where Mayor Manny Cappello declared Feb. 17 as “Random Acts of Kindness Day.”
“I hope the city–well, they do a lot of work I know that, but maybe that week they can do a little extra,” said Webb. “The idea is for everybody to go the extra mile, and there’s a lot of things you [can] do; just be aware.”
It wasn’t the first time the city made such a proclamation. Back in 1995, Webb, who was a reporter for the Saratoga News at the time, wrote an article for the paper on random acts of kindness and subsequently received a proclamation from the council declaring Feb. 17, 1995, as “Random Acts of Kindness Day.” Twenty-one years later, Webb returned to the council with a request to mark this Feb. 17 as another random acts of kindness day.
“We know that they happen on a regular basis in our city, but we don’t take the time sometimes to recognize them, to acknowledge them and to thank people for these,” said Cappello.
The mayor shared examples of residents who have committed kind acts ahead of the designated day. There’s the story of Helen Jarrett, who delivered a plate of cookies to an elderly neighbor who was consistently putting up art in his garage windows and helping beautify the neighborhood. That neighbor returned the gesture with his own kind act through a yard sign depicting the message: “Thank you, Helen.”
Cappello brought resident Bernard Gutnick on stage to recognize him for his kind act of buying a cup of coffee for a military service member at the San Jose Airport. Gutnick encouraged his fellow Saratogans to utilize social media websites like Nextdoor to pay it forward after sharing a story about how in return for giving away free car parts to his neighbors, he asked them to donate to the Silicon Valley chapter of the American Red Cross.
“I would encourage all of you, if you ever do post something for free, just ask the person–they all will–just make a donation in any amount you want,” Gutnick said. “I hope all of you can do something similar in the future.”
Two years ago, Saratoga took part in a national social media pay-it-forward initiative known as #FeedtheDeed where participants filmed themselves performing random acts of kindness that they then posted on Facebook and nominated other friends to do the same. This campaign amassed more than 10,000 stories of people acting compassionately toward their fellow community members.
“When I did it for the Saratoga News, people read it and some even wrote to different states and got a lot of people in different states involved,” Webb said. “It’s amazing how this spreads.”
For anyone coming up short on ideas for acts of kindness, they can turn to the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation which has a website (randomactsofkindness.org) that inspires a culture of kindness in schools, homes and communities through stories shared by the public and lessons for educators to incorporate in the classroom.
Link: Saratoga City Council declares Feb. 17 as ‘Random Acts of Kindness Day’
