In wake of both a local shooting and mass shootings nationwide, a group of students have found a way for community members to bring good into the lives of others – and it requires no more than 10 minutes of your time.
The Chabad House – a student-led Jewish organization – on the University of Kansas campus in Lawrence has initiated a “Random Acts of Goodness and Kindness” campaign, referred to as “Good Cards.”
“There’s nothing Jewish, Christian or Muslim about it,” Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel, co-founder of the Chabad House, told the University Daily Kansan. “It’s just kindness.”
And it is really, really simple to participate.
Here is how it works:
▪ Volunteers scatter “Good Cards” around the community and campus. The card reads, “The ultimate credit card won’t burden you with debt - the more you use it, the more you get!”
▪ Those who find the card then follow three steps, which are outlined on the card – complete a “Random Act of Kindness” within 10 minutes of finding the card, pass the card to the person touched by your good deed and then share your story with the hashtag #KindnessInYourHands.
But people should not feel obligated to share their good deeds on social media.
“We don’t push that too much because we want a genuine act of kindness not an act that is motivated by the hashtag,” Tiechtel told the Kansan. “We want people to do it for the sake of kindness.”
The Chabad House posted on its Facebook page that students will be scattering 5,000 cards around Lawrence.
“Five thousand cards out there means 5,000 acts of kindness,” Tiechtel told the Lawrence Journal World. “That’s a lot of light.”
Those who wish to disperse their own stack of cards or who would like to donate to the kindness campaign can contact the Chabad House by phone at 785-832-8672, via email at office@jewishku.com or through the “Chabad at KU” Facebook page, the Journal World reports.
“If these cards can change one person’s life for the good and get someone to do one act of kindness it’s a success, but obviously the goal is on a much greater scale than that,” Joel Gutovitz, president of the Chabad House, told the Kansan. “We want to positively impact as many as possible, but any positive impact is a success.”
Kaitlyn Alanis: 316-269-6708, @kaitlynalanis