ORILLIA (November 2, 2009) – If you’re like the majority of us in this community, you’re busy. A typical day has you working eight to 10 hours, running yourself or your kids to hockey, piano, dance lessons or whatever else you’ve gotten yourself involved in, plus you’ve got to find the time to pick up the groceries you’ve been putting off getting for the last two weeks and now you only have a can of creamed corn left in your cupboard. You’re moving so fast that you don’t have much time to acknowledge when someone lets you in on the highway much less what’s going on in the community around you. Wouldn’t it be nice to slow down for once and say “hey, thanks!”?

Random Act of Kindness Day is a day to celebrate those little niceties and encourage others to pay those “acts of kindness” forward.

“We live in an amazing community where so much kindness happens every day. Let’s take a moment to not only recognize when someone does something nice for us, but to also do something nice in return,” says Wendy Timpano, Executive Director of the Community Foundation of Orillia & Area.

Friday, November 13 will be the inaugural Random Act of Kindness Day in our area.  Before that date, cards will be circulated throughout the community.  The cards will encourage the cardholder to perform a simple act of kindness for someone – a neighbour, a friend, a co-worker, or someone they don’t even know – and hand the card over to that person – encouraging him/her to do the same.

There are many different types of action that people can use as their kind act – buy someone a coffee, congratulate someone on a job well done, act as a sounding board for another, even something as simple as holding open a door for someone with their hands full – each act provides us with an opportunity to connect with a member of our community.

Rick Rimkey, President of R & F Construction Inc. – Disaster Kleenup is the lead sponsor of this year’s Random Act of Kindness Day and says “Random Act of Kindness Day is directly in line with what we believe in here at our company”.

Random acts of kindness are a great way to touch the life of another person and make our community and our world a better place.

Random Act of Kindness cards will be available at the Community Foundation of Orillia & Area, located in the Dundee Wealth office, 27 Coldwater St. E. For more information, please call 705-259-1163.

“Carry out an act of kindness, with no expectation of reward or punishment. Safe in the knowledge that one day, someone somewhere might do the same for you.” Princess Diana