Starting Feb. 17, EWU’s Office of Community Engagement (OCE) will host its third annual Days of Kindness event.

The event was created in response to the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on Dec. 14, 2012. After the tragic death of 20 children and six adults, Ann Curry of NBC News, issued a challenge to all of America: to participate in 26 acts of kindness in honor of the victims.

That following February, OCE began their 26 Days of Kindness campaign. With 947 participants that first year, 3,181 random and planned acts of kindness were completed and reported to OCE by the participants. In addition to that, $1,826 was raised for local charities according to OCE.

After a successful first year, OCE issued itself a new challenge. It wanted its second Days of Kindness event to be done in less time, but with more participants as well as more acts of kindness committed. Starting on Feb. 14, 2014, and lasting only a week, 1,258 people reportedly participated in 7,001 acts of kindness.

This year, a new goal has been set. In the span of a week, the mission is to have 2,000 participants contributing to 10,000 acts of kindness.
“No act is too small,” said Gabby Ryan, Eagle Volunteers program coordinator for the Office of Community Engagement. “All acts of kindness, whether they be random or planned, are encouraged.”

Not only is every student welcome to participate in Days of Kindness, but any member from the community is as well. While planned acts of kindness will typically see larger results, random ones require less time and effort on the part of the participant.

“Most of the acts that are reported to us are random ones. These can be as easy as paying for the coffee of the person in line behind you or calling a customer service hotline just to say thank you,” said Ryan. “But there are plenty of clubs on campus who will organize planned acts of kindness for the event.”
One of these clubs is EWU’s Harry Potter Club. For Days of Kindness last year, the club planned a book drive and were able to donate several dozen books to the Cheney Library. This year they are planning to continue with that idea.

“Part of our mission [as a club] is literacy,” said Virginia Thomas, president of the Harry Potter Club. “We’re hoping to donate [to the Cheney Library] again because we really like the idea of keeping things local.”

Days of Kindness is scheduled to kickoff on Feb. 17 in the PUB with balloons featuring various challenges on them to promote kindness among strangers. The event will end on Feb. 24 with a Conversation Couch, where strangers will meet on a couch and spin a wheel for possible topics of conversation. This idea was taken from the popular YouTube channel SoulPancake, also known for their Kid President and 2 Strangers in A Ball Pit videos.

To report random or planned acts to Days of Kindness or to see what other events are scheduled during the week, visit the OrgSync page at tinyurl.com/DOK2015, or join the event on Facebook. The OrgSync page contains a link to ideas for random acts of kindness that can be sorted based on financial requirement or time commitment. Results from this year’s event will be collected and reported the following week after the completion of the event.