ICS Cool to be Kind Week

It all started back in 2005 with a planned visit from the Extreme Kindness Crew. Brought in by Interior Community Services and a few community partners, the EKC gave speeches, handed out hugs and flooded the town with their special brand of kindness. They made such an impact on many people here in the city, that ICS has continued their special brand of spreading happiness and joy and every October since has held their It’s Cool to Be Kind Week.

It’s Cool to Be Kind Week runs from Oct. 6 to Oct. 11, for five days and is proclaimed by the mayor and council as a time when each of us can do random acts of kindness to make Kamloops an even more great place to live, work and play. Nothing better, random acts of kindness make you feel great and brighten the recipient’s day. More often then not, random acts of kindness are contagious and once you receive one it touches you in a way that you can’t help but pass it on.

“Join us in enriching the lives of the people we live alongside in Kamloops,” tells Karen Rosenke from ICS “Be a part of ‘Kamloops is Cool to be Kind’ week and show just how great our city is. There are some great ideas and information online on our blog — www.icscooltobekind.com. You can also read there about other random acts of kindness Kamloopsians have done or received.”

So if a perfect stranger brightens your day next week, it might not be an accident. Citizens across the city will be participating in It’s Cool to be Kind week. You can get involved as a business or as an individual, and it doesn’t matter if your gesture is big or small, just as long as its there. There are many opportunities during your day to do a Random Act of Kindness to a stranger or anonymously to a friend or family member and there are unlimited possibilities of different things you can do. The aim of the It’s Cool to be Kind Week is to create a ripple effect of kindness. Every time you are kind to someone, they will be more inclined to pass that kindness on.

“It’s easy to do,” continues Karen “Random acts of kindness can happen at work, at school, throughout the community — anywhere there are people interacting with other people. If you need further information, please do not hesitate to contact us. We look forward to hearing from you and working with you.”

Easy to do and fun to receive, a random act of kindness can be anything from giving the gift of a smile to writing a note of appreciation, planting a kindness tree, offering a helping hand, giving someone a lift, volunteering at an agency that needs help or holding a charity day. Ideas can be found all over the internet and the in the minds and ideas of friends and family.

In addition to logging into the Interior Community Services website at www.icscooltobekind.com and logging either acts given or received, ICS invites the community to put up signage in store fronts and areas reporting that they have entered a Kindness Zone. They themselves are decorating their office and hope this years Cool to be Kind week is a huge success. Let’s go Kamloops and remember it’s cool to be kind everyday!

Interior Community Services spearheaded the Cool to be Kind Week 2 years ago and they say Kindness is Contagious and is it ever.  It is so very interesting to listen in the grocery line or coffee shop and hear people say “It’s Cool To be Kind Week” isn’t that Cool”  or to hear young people and the school children embracing the Cool to be Kind Week.   So the message is being heard and that will make Kamloops & Barriere an even better place to live work & play.

We know that if we try and thank everyone that has embraced this event we would surely miss someone but we would like to give it a go and if we have missed anyone please accept our apologies. 

The City of Kamloops & Town of Barriere for proclaiming  October 6-11, 2008 as Kamloops & Barriere are Cool to be Kind Week

 the The Echo, Visual Signs & City of Kamloops for donating all the great signage that you see around town.

To Radio NL, The River, Kamloops This Week, The Echo and  TV7 for all of the wonderful promotion

To a truly amazing committee who donated time and energy in all the events that we have planned

A&W, Strauss Herb Company, McArthur Island Curling Club, Venture Kamloops, Smith Chev Olds, Surplus Herby’s, The Anavets for supporting our funspiel

Cooper’s Foods for their donation to our free luncheon and the community for donating warm winter clothing for people in need. 

The Kamloops Storm for hosting Pennies for Kindness.

We had the pleasure of attending the District of Barriere Council Meeting and they proclaimed October 6-11 as Barriere is Cool to be Kind Week.  Thanks go out to the North Thompson Volunteer Centre, Town Council, Barriere House, Barrie the Bear, the Princess and everyone who attended, it was a very touching proclamation.  Thanks

We hope that this kindness continues all through the year with the help of the promotion of the Kamloops & Barriere are Cool to be Kind Week and we thank everyone who has helped us continue  ……..enriching lives

Barriere Elementary has a very busy grade 7 Spirit Committee that has planned all sorts of activities for their peers over the next week to promote Kindness. Today at our Monday Morning assembly we preformed some skits to demonstrate how we could show kindness to each other on the playground and during school. The Spirit Committee handed out bright pink “Gotchas” to let Kind students know that their Kindness was appreciated. Tomorrow we are looking forward to recognizing being Kind to the Environment. The Spirit Committee has organized a Trash Bash that will be held during lunch and is looking to hand out Gotchas to students who are turning off lights, making sure to recycle and making smart choices that concern our environment. On Wednesday they are promoting being Kind to Others and Themselves by supporting a “Backwards Day.” Students will be wearing clothes inside out and backwards and respecting each other even though they may look a little funny. During lunch the Spirit Committee is setting up “Backwards Games” for the students to participate in and show Kindness to each other. Again Gotchas will be given out to students showing fair play and kindness to others. On Thursday the focus is on being Kind to Animals. Students are encouraged to bring a donation to the SPCA and in return they will be given the opportunity to demonstrate how they can be kind to animals by taking one of the Grade 7 Spirit Committee Leaders (who will be pets during recess) for a walk, feed them, care for them and who knows, maybe even show them a trick or two. Students who demonstrate their kindness to animals will be given celebratory Gotchas again. Friday is going to be a celebration of Kindness. During lunch the Spirit Committee has planned fun day like games and activities such as face painting to celebrate the week and to share stories about random acts of kindness. At the end of the day the entire school is going to have an assembly to share our stories, congratulate students that have gone the extra mile to be kind and discuss what we can do on a regular basis to “Pay if Forward” and keep the KINDNESS train rolling. It is going to be an amazing week

A big thank you to Tim Rogers and Best Western for supporting the Let’s Talk About Addictions Conference in Kamloops on November 20th by offering a reduced room rate for presenters.

Submitted by Thompson Nicola Cariboo United Way

Kamloops North Rotary Club supports Cool to Be Kind week with a focus on youth leadership and community development project. We are giving ribbons to John Todd, Arthur Hatton, Bert Edwards, A E Perry, David Thompson, George Hilliard, Kay Bingham, Parkcrest, Arthur Stevenson, Westmount, Rayleigh and Heffley Creek Elementary Schools. We encourage each school to find creative ways to use the ribbons printed with this message “You make a difference”. Kamloops North also gives each school a cheque for $50.00 to support school leadership projects. We are asking each school to enter a blog post to describe their projects.

Classes at Kay Bingham Elementary are participating in “Cool to be Kind” week by creating projects, such as a Friendship Box, Thank You cards, Kindness Acrostics, Kindness Rainbows and Smile Files. Other classes have the option of collecting pennies for the SPCA, sketching acts of kindness and providing ways to appreciated the staff. These are just some of the ideas Kay Bingham students will be participating in during the week. At the end of the week, students will have the opportunity to fill up banners set up in the hallways with kind sayings and other acts of kindness. To finish up the week, all the classes will display their projects in their class and students will rotate through the rooms to view the “Cool to be Kind” projects.

Each year, since the inception of the Cool to be Kind Week, my class has taken on the project of brightening the spirits of our community. We receive donations of flowers from different stores – this year from Art Knapps – and attach hand-written notes of kindness to them. Then we set out in the afternoon to deliver these to all the houses we can get to. We have been greeted with curious smiles and even offers to buy the flowers. Many are shocked that we are giving them away. Sometimes, we receive a note or gift back. Last year, we started a website : http://heffleykindness.bravehost.com that we will be adding to the notes in the hopes that folks will log and and mention an act of kindness. It is on this site that we track acts of kindness, and have received many ideas for acts as we read what each person has done for the other.

Each year, my class also uses our juice box money at the end of the year to donate to an individual or group in the community. They enjoy knowing that their recycling efforts extend beyond the classroom and the environment.

We hope that other classes might see this and take on a project of their own to help in the community. HAVE A GREAT WEEK EVERYONE!!

You may be wondering why you should bother to make your act of kindness random? In theory should you n ot always be kind to friends, relatives and co-workers? In the spirit of the spirit of things, It’s Cool to be Kind Week aims to promote the spread of kindness through the community. Sometimes the impact of even the smallest thing can be felt 1000x more when it is handed over for no reason.

Commiting a random act of kindness is a demonstration of the generosity of your spirit. Kindness is an expression of love. It is an abundance concept. It is the thinking that you are full of love for your fellow human kind that you’ve got more to give, even to strangers or people that you don’t really know.

“A random act of kindness is a purportedly selfless act performed by a person or persons wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual or in some cases even an animal. There will generally be no reason other than to make people smile, or be happier. Either spontaneous or planned in advance, random acts of kindness are encouraged by various communities.”

-wikipedia

Although not in Kamloops, Kelowna is coming together for something special. Most of us are familiar with the reality show Extreme Makeover Home Edition…Now there’s an edition in Kelowna – minus the cameras.

Paul Benson and Project Family Room is brought in the excatavator and then Bob and Crystal Mandrick and their 9 kids saw their old house torn down, and the start of construction on a new one.
The house is being built at no cost to the family and they’re hoping to move them in this December. Until recently the house housed four of their own children and 5 of their adopted ones. All nine lived in 1,000-square-feet of living space, excluding the small basement, and, according to one of the kids, the house itself could be a cardboard box and they’d all still want to live there thanks to his parents.

You can read a news story about it here

And see their website here.