An alternative Valentine’s Day: random acts of kindness!

This Valentine’s Day, spread your love with random acts of kindness (RAK for short)! So often, we get caught up in our own lives and forget that on this day we need to recognize our love of others and of the world, rather than just our personal want for love.

Lately, I’ve been doing some random acts of kindness, and I plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day and the long weekend by doing tons of RAK! I invite you to join in and help make our community amazingly awesome 🙂 In fact, February 17th is “Random Acts of Kindness Day”, so I really encourage you to embrace the opportunity! Here are some ideas:

• Tape quarters to the vending machine! And don’t forget to leave a little note with a positive message 🙂
• Create happiness posters and tape them around your school, including in the washroom/locker room.

• Bring a treat for your teacher! Try something quirky and meaningful like:
• Write positive messages like these on sticky notes and put them inside your favourite books in the library! You could even stick a coin with the note for an even grander surprise 🙂

• Write some inspirational quotes on colourful paper, tape to a pack of smarties or small chocolate bar, and give out to anyone who you think needs some help smiling 🙂

• In today’s technological world, us teenagers spend a lot of time on social media and blogs. Why not put this to use with RAK and leave some positive, happy, inspirational comments on people’s blogs/statuses/etc.!?!?!
• You’ve probably seen posters before that have those little rip off things at the bottom, usually phone numbers with an advertisement. Do this the RAK way:
• Hold the door open in a busy place for at least 5 minutes.
• Since it’s a long weekend (for most of us at least), make use of your days at home and do something a bit bigger, like taking  treats to the nearest fire department or police station! Another idea would be to make little baggies of hershey kisses, or any chocolate really, and leave them for people who help you throughout the day: store clerks, librarians, mailmen/women, servers, people at the bank, etc.
• The opportunities are endless! Comment with your ideas and check out places like Pinterest and Tumblr for even more ideas 🙂

S’more image from: http://womenlivingwell.org/2011/05/inexpensive-teacher-appreciation-gift/

“Take what you need” image from: http://aubrey-jo.blogspot.ca/2011/12/take-hope.html

Well! A million-gazillion smiley faces 🙂 later, I hope you’re inspired to go and make a difference by adding joy and love to other people’s lives!

How will you celebrate Valentine’s Day? What are your RAK ideas???