What I Learned From Random Acts Of Kindness Week

Yesterday was the end of Random Acts of Kindness Week, which ran from May 11th-17th. For those of you just finding out about the event, RAOK week was a week dedicated to doing kind deeds/donating in order to make a more positive community. There were definitely some
things I could have done better, and there were some things that were absolutely amazing.

I learned to get out of my comfort zone. I saw a woman, who community members assume to be homeless and/or mentally ill outside the grocery store. I know she oftens sits on a bench at the bus stop for a good portion of the day and offered her a water so she wouldn't get dehydrated. She politely declined. Looking back, I am ashamed that I was scared to approach her, but am glad that i worked up the nerve to do so.

I learned that I have a lot of friends. My friend Frances helped me by taking cupcakes to law enforcement dispatch. My friend Heather helped me by designing not only the Do All The Good You Can logo, but by also designing the flyers that I posted.

Several businesses offered to contribute to RAOK week, with most of them following through. There were a few individual donors, including a very supportive professor of mine. Several organizations offered to help, but got too busy to help or only shared information once. I learned that I will need to follow up many times with various businesses and organizations.

This year, there was little reader engagement. Not many people shared what they were doing, which made me feel like the whole week was a failure. However, rather than giving up on the idea, I will take this as a learning experience.

Next year, I will probably message each friend directly and ask them to participate, rather than them ignoring my posts. I will also promote RAOK week more heavily and sooner.

I didn't share everything I did because I did not want to annoy everyone with status posts, when few people were even reading them. When I scheduled RAOK week, I also failed to realize that it was the same week as my finals. I didn't do as much as I had hoped for.

Overall, I am glad that I had the opportunity to help people. Even if I did not get as many people involved as I would have liked, what matters at the end of the week is that people were appreciated and that I made some people's days better. To God be the glory.

What are your suggestions for next time?