Today is Random Acts of Kindness Day in New Zealand. Some friends and I were talking about it at brunch on Sunday and brainstormed some little things we could do to surprise those around us (or complete strangers) with kindness. I liked the idea of paying for the next person's coffee at a café, or toll booths (if we had any locally). I thought I might whip up a batch of cupcakes and distribute them randomly. Friends also thought they might bake or bring flowers from their gardens to place onto a colleague's desk. (I work from home, so while I would have enjoyed flowers to celebrate the start of spring, it wouldn't really have been a surprise.) We agreed that it would be more fun to do something kind when there was no chance of being found out.
I baked a batch of triple chocolate muffins (white and dark chocolate chips with a chocolate melt in the middle) and made up some little care packages.
I attached a "You've been RAK'd" card (why the apostrophe instead of just an 'e'??) to the top of each package. I often share baking but have never given it away to complete strangers or people I barely know. I chose three groups of people whom I knew would rarely get to enjoy home baking (and also had large letterboxes) and went about making my secret deliveries. Hopefully they will each enjoy a little surprise when they get home from work and check their mail. I'd be thrilled if it brought a smile to their faces and, even better, inspired them to do something random and kind for someone else. :-)
Check it out!
http://www.rak.co.nz/
3 comments:
I like your idea of baking and giving your cupcakes to strangers and I hope you can. I did that here once and most people refused because in big cities in the States they are so frightened that something strange will be placed in the goods. Then I tried to give small change to the people at the grocery store in line in front of me, like 5 cents or such when they were looking for the change and they looked at me like I was nut and did not accept it. I also tried to pay for coffee at work, same thing, unless it was a close co-worker (I worked in a corporation of 12,000) they would also not accept it. Maybe if I lived in a small town it would be different, but in a metropolitan cities in the USA people are scared.
Oh, that sounds fun! I wonder if they have a RAK day in Canada? I'll have to check!
I love the idea of giving out baking. I like to do similar, but only really to people I know. Wow, looks like you had fun with that too!
Vagabonde is also from the States. I think here in the States, if you are trying to do a Random act of kindness, such as offering up those 3 pennies so the person in front of you can just get a quarter back, the person might actually think why on earth is this stranger trying to rush me through the line. A total random baked good. Yup won't eat it, I need to know who made the food. A cup of coffee from the person in front of me. I would be afraid they (especially is they were a he) would be lurking in the parking lot when I left the cafe, A true treat would be to pull up at the drive through window and have the person say... the car in front you said they paid for your coffee, they hope you have a great day! That would be random and kind. But would the worker pocket the cash or pay for the person behind me, and... would it matter?
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