A to Z Challenge: B(e) Kind 366 - K is for Keepsake and Klinic

If you haven't been visiting my blog since the start of A-Z you'll have no clue what B(e) Kind 366 is. Since it's more likely than not that you haven't been with me from the start, I'll explain B(e) Kind 366 and the reasoning behind my posts. B(e) Kind 366 is a year long initiative that I created and have been planning for a few years now. Every day in 2016 I am performing an act of kindness (random or otherwise). I'm also taking on monthly challenges (like blogging A-Z) and raising funds for three organizations that are very dear to me. To visit my fundraising website click here: B(e) Kind 366.

In 2015 I blogged A-Z with lists of potential acts of kindness. If you're interested here's the K list from last year: Random Acts of Kindness beginning with "K."

So, today's act of kindness, brought to us by the letter K, is two-fold.

One act is really for myself. At least five years ago my sister bought me the perfect wallet. I loved it and I still love it. But it's fallen apart. I transferred all of my things over to a new wallet today, but I just can't stand to part with the messages that the old one was adorned with. For me and as a statement to the importance of my relationship with my sister, I took the wallet apart and I'm going to frame the material as a keepsake for myself.

I'm using "Klinic" for the second act because Klinic is the name of a community health organization that has one of the important crisis phone numbers that I put in my cell phone today as well as onto my course outline for my class this coming fall. Klinic has the only sexual assault crisis phone line in the province of Manitoba. In addition to Klinic's 24-hour sexual assault crisis line I added the province's Domestic Violence Crisis Line, Adult Crisis Line, Youth Crisis Line, City Police, and Campus Security to my cell phone and to my course outlines for this fall. When it comes time to hand out my outlines in the fall, I plan to ask my students to take out their phones and input the numbers right then and there. If having these numbers in my own phone and them having the numbers in their phones makes a difference for one person, it's definitely worth it!

And in case you're new to my blog - I have a giveaway that's super easy to enter on G post this year!

A to Z Challenge: B(e) Kind 366 - C is for Chocolate and Consent Culture on Campus

I'm doing an act of kindness (random or otherwise) every day in 2016. That's where B(e) Kind 366 comes from. Last year I blogged A-Z providing alphabetized lists of potential acts of kindness. Here's the C list: Random Acts of Kindness beginning with "C."


I'll start with the fun part of this post: Chocolate! For some unknown reason, Chocolate was not on last year's list. Candy was, but not chocolate. Anyway, I just got back from leaving these sweet treats for some unsuspecting students who were studying at the university campus. It just so happens that the brand name of this chocolate is Carnaby and if we want to have even more C fun, the french word for pig is cochon. So we have a Carnaby chocolate cochon on campus for today's act of kindness!


Now for the not-so-fun, but definitely more important, Consent Culture on campus. It's a fact that universities and colleges across North America have a serious issue when it comes to dealing with sexual assault on college and university campuses.

A group of students on the university campus have organized a We Believe Survivors website to allow survivors of sexual assault to anonymously submit their stories. Today, as a lead up to their event on Wednesday - Airing BU's Dirty Laundry - they released this anonymous contract that a survivor of sexual assault was required to sign on campus. The result has been complete and utter outrage at the total disregard for survivors' rights as shown by this gag order. As an entire society we need to move away from rape culture and replace it with consent culture. University and college campuses are a solid place to start!