RAOK: DAYS 79, 80, & 81 - 'Say Cheese'

Once again, I stink at blogging daily!

Friday, May 11

Inspirational Quote: "No act of kindness no matter how small is ever wasted."

Today while having coffee, I spotted a lone quarter on the coffee shop floor. I picked it up and put it in the tip jar. I figured that could count as my small act of kindness for today, but I also left loonie in one of the soda vending machines outside of Wal-Mart. I'll also tell you that today I bought the fixings to make Inspiration Jars for my Mom and Baba. I wanted to have them ready for Mother's Day gifts, but with my insane schedule over the next two days and the fact that Mom is coming to visit, I just won't have the time. I'll post the actual giving of the gifts as a RAOK when I finally get them all put together. I'll try to remember to post a photo of my creations as well.

Saturday, May 12
And, again, I forgot to open one of the inspirational quotes from my jar. Today, it may have had something to do with the fact that it was World Fair Trade Day and I had a big day ahead of me. I spent the day at Ten Thousand Villages (I do so love that store) promoting Fair Trade and WUSC. We had a great day of sales, considerably above what a normal day would bring in at the store. The drum circle was great and I raised a little bit of money for our Student Refugee Program. $400 in sales from the coupons came in which means our SRP will be getting a cheque for around $60! Every little bit counts!

Sunday, May 13

Inspirational Quote: "Every human mind feels pleasure in doing good to another."

I suppose I can't really count the Mother's Day stuff I did today, but I will tell you about it anyway. I wanted to do something different so Mom and I drove up to the International Peace Garden and spent the day with flowers, food, and fresh air. Entrance to the garden was free, Mom's were given a free petunia to plant in their own gardens, and the $13 buffet lunch was simply scrumptious. My RAOK did take place at the Peace Garden, I spotted a large family posing for a group photo and getting ready to alternate who would be taking the photo. I got up from my prime picnic table location and offered to take the photo for them so no one would be left out. 

Random Acts of Kindness (Days 61-69)

Finally, my last bulk-post! Day 70 (tomorrow) will mark the start of my commitment to not only do random acts of kindness daily, but also to blog about them daily! Excited, aren't you?!

DAY 61
Monday, April 23 - I signed up online to be a lifetime organ donor.
I've always filled out the organ donation card that accompanies my drivers license. This year, Transplant Manitoba initiated an online registry making it even simpler. Seriously, though, what do we need with our innards when we're dead and gone?!

DAY 62 
Tuesday, April 24 - I made a donation to my cousin's Jump Rope for Heart activity and took down outdated posters around campus.
My 8-9-10-year old cousin (shoot, I can't remember how old he is now) is participating in the Heart & Stroke Foundation's Jump Rope for Heart with his school. I used to take part in the activities put on by my elementary school and I'm always game for supporting a charitable cause especially when it's combined with the promotion of physical activity. I have a few, ok, maybe more than a few, pet peeves and one of them is outdated posters. For my sake and the people who inevitably end up taking them down, I took down every outdated poster I saw today and recycled it.

DAY 63 
Wednesday, April 25 - I posted an Administrative Professional's Day photo on facebook and tagged all of my fellow admin pros.
Today was, obviously, Administrative Professional's Day. Unfortunately, Administrative Professionals tend to be the only ones who actually know about the day meant to celebrate their efforts.

DAY 64
Thursday, April 26 - I rolled coins to deposit in our WUSC account.
When I say coins, I mean a massive amount of coins, mostly pennies, but some nickels, dimes, quarters, loonies, and twonies too. Disgusting money germ hands all in the name of charity!

DAY 65
Friday, April 27 - I attended a friend's thesis defence & wrote a poetic tribute for one of my professors. 
Johnson's creative writing poetry thesis was superb, even the part where everyone started talking about poop. As for the poetic tribute to my professor, Di Brandt is one of the most brilliant and passionate minds I have ever met. For the celebration of her retirement as the Canada Research Chair in Creative Writing and her nomination to Professor Emireta I compiled snippets from a number of poems I had written for her classes and put them together as a tribute to her.

DAY 66
Saturday, April 28 - I arrived at Di's party early to help out & read the poetic tribute for her. 
Without being asked, I came to the party a half hour early to see if the party planners needed any assistance setting up. I was placed on door duty to welcome the party guests and direct them upstairs to the proper room. It was my pleasure. After only a tiny bit of fretting over the content of my poetry, I sought out advice and presented loudly and proudly my, let's call it earthy, poetry.

DAY 67
Sunday, April 29 - I helped clean up after the party & took a new friend to Guys and Dolls. 
Because I was the only person who had key card access to the building, I received a call around noon asking if I would come and help with the clean up by letting everyone into the building. Of course, me being me, I couldn't just show up, unlock the door, and leave; I had to help with the entire clean up. That's just me; it's what I do. I planned to go to Guys and Dolls, the theatrical musical, not the movie, alone, but after getting an unexpected acceptance of the invitation to join me, I bought a ticket for a friend and had some company.

DAY 68
Monday, April 30 - I stayed late at work to allow a student to complete her exam.
My work day finishes at 4:30 p.m., but today, I stayed until 5:00 so that a student wasn't rushed to complete her final exam.

DAY 69
Tuesday, May 1 - I deposited money to the WUSC account, did final edits on World Fair Trade Day promotional materials and promoted Fair Trade and Healthy Brandon in Motion on facebook.
I might as well end my mulit-day blog posts with a bang! The coin I rolled on Day 64 finally got deposited today. On Day 51, I mentioned that I had planned World Fair Trade Day in conjunction with Ten Thousand Villages. I finally received an editable poster and coupon and so edited to my heart's content today. Fair Trade Canada is winding up to World Fair Trade Day by doing a fortnight of promotions. I registered our World Fair Trade Day event and shared the Take a Step for Fair Trade video to inspire others to do the same. For the month of May, Healthy Brandon in Motion is doing a series of give aways to promote physical activity. I'm planning on taking part in the initiatives or creating a healthy, in motion activity of my own every day this month. Today I went for a long power walk after the rain storm. The smell of the fresh air was divine.

And that is it, that's all for the l-o-n-g blog posts that no one is likely reading. One-a-day from now on!

Random Acts of Kindness (Days 51-60)

Ok, I am almost caught up. Today (April 26) is Day 64. I suppose it isn't all that random if it's planned, but I am planning to have one of my acts on Day 70 be to start pulling inspiration quotes from the gift Ang gave me on Day 50 and to start blogging about my Random Act, themed after said quote, everyday.

DAY 51

Friday, April 13 - I planned one volunteer event, executed another volunteer event, delivered an invitation from the university to the home of a colleague to ensure she received it on time & sent a best wishes message to someone I had a falling out with. 

World Fair Trade Day is May 12. I met with the manager of Ten Thousand Villages today to organise a collaborative event between the store and WUSC. We'll have entertainment and a small percentage of the day's sales will be given to WUSC. Today was also, Band-AIDS. WUSC raises funds for the Bike for AIDS (that's the AIDS part) initiative every year by holding a concert (that's the Band part). We held it on campus in SUDS and raised just under $300. I have to thank Shannon for helping organise the whole thing, Eddie from Hudsy for letting us crash his social and performing for us, as well as Misty Street and The Heavy Souls for performing for us. Natasha is the coordinator for the Psychology Nursery at BU and since she only works every Tuesday and Thursday she tends to get missed during important events. The senior administration at the university was holding an Employee Appreciation Breakfast on the 17th so I dropped off the invitation at her apartment so she'd be sure to get her chance to take advantage of the free breaky. As for the friend I had a falling out with, I'll spare the details because they are quite personal, but it was his final performance for his undergrad degree and I figured the least I could do was send a little token of kindness his way despite our differences.

DAY 52
Saturday, April 14 - I attended a high school play & sent a congratulatory email to the play's director.
Urinetown was performed by students from Neelin High School. $1 from every ticket purchase went towards Compassion Canada's efforts to build sanitary latrines in developing countries. The play was fantastic and like I've said before, it's important to me to give credit where credit is due so I emailed the director of the play and let her know how great I thought the play was. I also took the time to highlight some of the more spectacular performances by specific students. I received a very thankful response from her and a request to post the email on their public display board.

DAY 53
Sunday, April 15 - I took my Mom out for a birthday dinner and surprised her with a candle when her dessert came out & wrote a letter of support for a professor's nomination for a teaching award. 
My Mom turned 54 today! I took her out for dinner and made sure that we ordered dessert. When her's came out, I quickly grabbed the candle and lighter I had stashed in my pocket and made her yummy treat just a little more special. As you can see, the look on her face was priceless. I love you, Mom. One of my favorite professors was being nominated for the BU Alumni Excellence in Teaching Award and I was asked to write a letter of support for the nomination. Of course I did it, with the utmost pleasure.

DAY 54
Monday, April 16 - I posted a song to a grieving friend's wall.
The nature of the loss and the person's identity is best kept discrete. What I will tell you though, is that Angels Among Us is a song that has gotten me through a lot of trying times in my life and I thought it was fitting to share.

DAY 55 
Tuesday, April 17 - I helped a friend register for classes & attended a creative writing reading to support my friends. 

'Tis the time of year to register for 2012-13 classes. It's not really the easiest thing to do, so I helped Abraham out. Now he's all set to get his learn on come September. The creative writing reading was really for my own good. Hearing Kirsty, Johnson, and Ryan (among other students) read their fantastic work made me miss writing so very much. These types of events always reiterate to me the abundance of raw talent we have at BU, my friends being some of the best of the bunch!

DAY 56
Wednesday, April 18 - I helped a friend put the finishing touches on a powerpoint presentation & mailed an application for name reservation for a not-for-profit.
Barbara was getting ready to do a presentation at the Senior Colloquium (another display of phenomenal student talent) and she needed help getting some videos onto her slides. Yours truly, to the rescue! Friends for Development is the name of the not-for-profit that Immaculate and I (mostly Immaculate) are working to get recognised so that we can start doing some official work. We've been trying to get it underway for some time know, but hopefully now the name will be officially approved and filed by the Manitoba government and we'll be set.

DAY 57 
Thursday, April 19 - I paid for the friend I mentioned on Day 40 to take the class, attended a potential board members meeting for The Marquis Project & chose WUSC's SRP student for 2012-13.
I'm pretty sure paying for Abraham's class made my day almost as much as it made his. I cannot express the kindness that Abraham embodies and I am happy to be able to help him. A big thanks also has to go to Tina for suggesting we do this. A few weeks ago I was asked if I was interested in sitting on the Board for The Marquis Project. Today was the meeting for potential new members. It looks like I'll be taking a position on the Board, I'm just not sure what that will be quite yet. One more project = exciting! Every year as part of WUSC we go through files of potential students in refugee camps that have qualified for WUSC sponsorship. As part of the selection committee, I read the files (try not to cry) and rank the candidates in terms of who I feel is best fitted to come to BU for a post-secondary education. I wish we could bring them all.

DAY 58
Friday, April 20 - Attended a friend's presentation at the Senior Colloquium & facilitated a session later on. 
Remember Barbara on Day 56? It was her presentation on the exploitation of women in advertising that I attended. There are few things more rewarding than presenting work you've poured your blood, sweat, and tears into. Having friends to support you, is just an added bonus. O, and, of course, Barbara rocked it! Later on, I was the facilitator for a session on cross-cultural education. I was honoured to be asked to facilitate and happier to do it.

DAY 59 
Saturday, April 21 - I held the door open for people at the theater & let a family go ahead of me in the concession line.
American Reunion was the movie and I realised that it was 9:30 p.m. and I still hadn't done a random act. I held the door open for a few people exiting the theater and then as I got to the concession line, allowed a family that arrived at the same time as me to go ahead.

DAY 60
Sunday, April 22 - I spent time with a friend I haven't spoken to in a really long time. 
Every time I saw Tegegn on campus I felt guilty for losing touch with him. We had a tentative 'date' set for today and I almost cancelled because I felt like I should be studying for my exam the following Wednesday. I'm glad I didn't cancel because we spent nearly four hours just talking about life and it was great!

Almost there folks! One more 10-at-a-time post and I'll finally be posting my random act on the actual day that I do it!