January

• Recycle your bottles and cans from New Year’s Eve and donate the money.
• Help your neighbor or a friend take down their holiday lights.
• Let someone go before you today, at a store or in your car.
• Drive a child home to help another parent.
• Recommend a business you frequent to others. In addition, you can post about it on FB, Twitter or a blog!
• Share your expertise to help teach another person something beneficial to their livelihood.
• Say a prayer of gratitude when you eat breakfast, lunch or dinner today.
• Provide cheer to someone who is ill.
• Drop by unexpectedly with flowers for a friend, neighbor or elder. It will brighten up this winter day.
• Take your “mitzvah dog” to a retirement center or nursing home.
• Scoop Your Poop.
• Don’t wait to be asked, offer something you can do to help a friend in need – see post January 12th.
• Take your neighbor’s garbage up from the curb.
• Invite someone to join you for a meal.
• Support a Girl Scout. Buy some cookies today.
• Behave with patience when you must wait.
• Gladly hold the elevator for someone running to get it.
• Offer to watch another child or drive them to school late so the parents can work.
• Check in with a friend whose recently lost a pet or a loved one to see how they are doing.
• Put away someone else’s weights or mat at the gym.
• Do you have a great recipe that everyone loves? Make copies and give it to anyone who asks for it.
• Use a recyclable bag with you on all your errands today.
• When you order your coffee this week and stay to drink it ask for a “for here” cup ie. not styrofoam.
• Give a Tisbest charity gift card in honor of a friend’s birthday.
• Donate a book to a Children’s Book Bank.
• Donate your used eyeglasses to the Lions Clubs Eyeglass Recycling Centers.
• Fill a thermos of hot chocolate and pass it out to unsuspecting recipients ie. anyone working outside.
• Light a candle to signify the end of Shabbat or at sundown acknowledge the passing of another day. Say a prayer of thanks.
• Comment today on someone’s blog to let them know their words have positively impacted you.
• Give someone the benefit of the doubt.
• Stop to give directions to a stranger today.

February       Happy Random Acts of Kindness Week – February 13-19, 2012

• Pick up some trash while you are out and about today.
• Send a funny card to a friend undergoing chemotherapy.
• Donate to your local Humane Society to end petlessness.
• Visit a friend who’s going through a rough time and needs some cheering up!
• Give someone a sincere compliment today.
• Help make someone’s job easier!
• If you have skills to help someone get a job like resume writing or appropriate connections offer them.
• Plant a tree.
• Help someone get to their car safely.
• If you have a ticket to a game, lecture or event that you can’t use, gift it to someone who can use it.
• Unplug from electronics and spend uninterrupted time with someone.
• Donate your used magazines to a doctor’s office or hospital waiting room.
• Treat a friend or stranger to coffee today publicly or anonymously!
• Bring chicken soup to someone who is sick.
• Help a friend do a mitzvah.
• Know a kid at college? Send ‘em a care package!
• If you are a listener, why not become a member? Support your local public broadcasting station.
• Return a lost item.
• Volunteer at a community fundraiser.
• Donate a dollar today to a charity.
• If you are a listener, why not become a member? Support your local public broadcasting station this week.
• When a friend shares a grievance they have with you. Listen, try not to be defensive and understand that they share this with you because they want to connect more deeply.
• Surprise someone by filling their tank with gas or having their car washed.
• Introduce two people who should connect, either personally or professionally.
•  Instead of giving something up during Lent take on daily acts of kindness or mitzvahs.
• Make a meal for a friend in need.
• Light a (yartzeit) candle or attend a service in memory of a loved one.
• Attend or participate in a funeral for someone who has little or no family.
• Acknowledge a friend who has just lost a pet.

March   National Mitzvah Days – March 16-18, 2012 

• Buy items to make your own Mishloach Manot (Purim gift basket) next week. See post for more information about Purim and Mishloach Manot custom.
• Ask for forgiveness when you have made a mistake or treated someone badly.
• Do something kind that honors your parents.
• Give Blood.
• Volunteer to help at a community event at your school or religious organization.
• Donate your partially used gift cards to Gift Card Giver.
• When you go somewhere leave it better than you found it.
• In honor of World Kidney Day, learn more about donating a kidney.
  http://kidneymitzvah.com/Donateakidney.html
• Shop local especially when they support an important mission you believe in.
• Visit someone who’s recently lost a loved one.
• Graciously offer to move seats so that two people can sit together in a theatre or elsewhere.
• Check in on an elderly friend or neighbor.
• Donate a bag of food to local food shelter.
• Celebrate a birthday by giving your time or your resources. See post.
• Invite someone you work with to carpool with you.
• Set an example for your children with your actions. Have a discussion with them when your example falls short.
• Collect the prayer books from your place of worship and return them to the book shelf.
• Start a recycling project at your office or place of worship.
• Apologize when you have misspoken to someone.
• Help someone who asks for your advice or suggestions.
• Donate diapers to a diaper bank near you.
• Collect pop tabs for a Ronald McDonald House.
• Give a shout out to a local business that gives you the kind of excellent customer service you want to promote.
• Give gratitude for the opportunities to enjoy the flowering trees, ocean and other natural wonders.
• Pick up litter at the beach or a park.
• Invite someone who might not have a place to go, to celebrate an upcoming holiday with your family.
• Send a contribution in memory of someone’s loved one passing.
• Make (a cake) or give (flowers) to someone today even if it’s not their birthday.
• Say a silent prayer of healing when you see an ambulance passing.
• Surprise someone with a treat this weekend.

April

• In honor of International Children’s Book Day, gather books your children have outgrown and donate them to a school, library or hospital.
• Give someone at work a genuine compliment today.
• If you have the skills, offer to help someone with their resume.
• Choose to remain calm in your thoughts and actions.
• Leave a parking meter receipt with additional time left on the meter for the next person.
• Happy Passover! Eat Matza on the first night of Passover.
• Make time to play a game with your child, even if it isn’t one YOU enjoy.
• Bring a little something extra when you are invited to someone’s house for a meal.
• Send a note of congratulations when you learn that someone has been promoted or secured a new job!
• In honor of One Day without Shoes, donate a pair of shoes.
• Contact an old friend to reconnect.
• Share your umbrella with a stranger. See post.
• Offer to watch a friend’s dog while they are on vacation.
• Collect soaps at a hotel to donate to a local shelter or the Global Soap Project.
• If you work with volunteers be sure to acknowledge them this week. If you aren’t yet a volunteer somewhere.
•  Join Donor Registry. Be the Match.
• Offer to provide a recommendation for someone looking for a job via a letter or LinkedIn.
• Take reusable silverware today for your lunch at work or school.
• In honor of Earth Day, pull weeds by hand rather than using a chemical weed killer.
• Donate your outgrown stuffed animals to a local organization like the Shadow Project ( or bring them abroad where they can be redistributed).
• In honor of World Book Day: Give a (book or books) away. See previous post.
• Does your children’s elementary school have an Imagination Station, where kids can use recyclable goods to create art projects? Collect and donate these kinds of items to your local school.
• Take all your change to a coin machine today and donate it to a favorite charity.
• Donate your hair to Locks of love.
• Learn about raising a guide dog puppy.
• Compliment a stranger.

May    World Give Day Friday, May 4, 2012

• Share your mid-afternoon snack with a friend or colleague.
• Offer a young mother some assistance when traveling alone, whether she accepts it or not she will be grateful for the offer.
• When someone offers to assist you today, graciously allow them to do so. See post.
• When you introduce someone to a group, give a positive, warm introduction.
• Give someone who’s cold a warm drink!
• When you are taking a walk in the morning, bring your neighbor’s paper to their front door.
• Got old sneakers? Recycle them to make new sports surfaces.
• Bring extra first aid supplies to use when necessary for other players on your children’s sports teams.
• Gather items to donate to this Saturday’s Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive sponsored by the US Postal Service.
• Today, is the last day of teacher appreciation week, show your appreciation in some way. It isn’t too late to volunteer before the end of the school year to help out. If you missed this during Teacher Appreciation week, it’s okay, teachers like to be acknowledged all year long .
• Acknowledge someone who’s lost their mother this year. The first Mother’s Day without your mom can often be difficult. Send a card, make a phone call to let them know you are thinking of them.
• Remember someone today on Mother’s Day who might otherwise not be remembered.
• Surprise someone today with an act of kindness.
• When you travel, smile and applaud the work of your TSA agent. This unexpected appreciation just might make their day.
• Recycle your batteries! Visit Earth911 for a donation location near you.
• Visit a new mom and offer to hold her baby while she has a few minutes to herself for an uninterrupted shower.
• Slide your club card for a stranger.
• Use your phone to do a mitzvah this weekend. See post.
• Volunteer to host a meeting at your house.
• Write a heartfelt and sincere thank you note to someone whose made a difference in your life the past few months/year.
• Donate your old cell phone to offer a lifeline to a battered woman.
• Welcome a new neighbor to your neighborhood this week or weekend.
• Offer a chair when you see someone looking to find a seat at a coffee shop.
• Stop and listen to the canvasser on street.
• Celebrate the holiday of Shavout. Enjoy a nice rest and dairy products.
• Gather items to recycle. Beaverton Recycling Day.
• Let someone know how they have inspired or influenced you.
• Graciously stop to let a pedestrian cross the street.