Helping Hearts, Blog of Anne Sanders

Did you celebrate Random Acts of Kindness Week last week? It’s a great time to try something kind that you’ve never done before and see how it feels.   In my other blog , I called it starting streams of kindness because I printed some kindness cards that ask people to pass on another kind act after receiving one. I must admit my week of random acts went slowly.   I wanted to buy someone’s meal who was behind me at the Burger King one day, but there was no one there.   I noticed the surliness of a waitress but didn’t think to leave her a big tip and a kindness card until it was too late.   In fact, it really wasn’t until this week that I began to give out my kindness cards.   The next waitress we had at a Mexican restaurant on Monday got a hefty tip and a card with a smile on it from me. Then I brought a security guard a coke and a chocolate chunk cookie for a snack one night.   I did do one act of kindness during the week in question, but it was...

I write about a lot of volunteering days and another one is coming up December 5—International Volunteer Day.   This one has been sponsored by the United Nations since 1985 and 2011 is the ten year anniversary of the year of the volunteer in 2001.   The UN General Assembly will be discussing volunteerism between now and December 5 and you can listen to and chime in on their discussions here .   There’s also a photo contest to show how volunteering can help countries meet peace and development goals. November 19 was also National Family Volunteering Day. But none of these volunteering days means a thing if they are not celebrated in the spirit of volunteerism, by doing something to help others. So, on the Wednesday before National Family Volunteering Day, my son and I went shopping.   We bought sunscreen, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap, razors, dental floss, candy canes, summer sausage logs and crackers for a group of 800 Army soldiers in Afghanistan. The unit ...