Kindness was spread through the halls of Durham College where students went out of their way to help their peers with homework.
It was all part of the first Random Act of Kindness Week (RAKW) to help encourage kindness on campus Feb. 1 – Feb. 5.
The event ran from Monday to Friday at the Oshawa and Whitby campus and turned out to be a great success, says Kirsti McNabey, Student Orientation and Transition Coordinator. The DC Crew plan to continue doing RAKW in future years she says.
Durham College has always showed their appreciation for students on campus and Feb 2nd is known as Student Appreciation day.
In the past DC Crew has handed out cookies and coupons for Student Appreciation day. After some planning to make the event fall on the first week of February, Durham College got to celebrate the first official week of RAKW.
Stations were set up at both campuses for students to share how they had experienced kindness during the week or how they plan to give it. It was encouraged that everyone pays it forward.
The DC Crew wanted to give the opportunity to people who weren’t on campus to still know there was a way to be involved with RAKW.
With the help of the marketing department1 the hash tag “#dokindness” was created on Twitter. Students shared experiences and ideas on how to continue spreading kindness on campus not just for the week, but through out the whole year.
McNabey says during RAKW she heard of people doing various acts of kindness: Holding doors for each other, international students were helped taught English by other students and professors went out of their way to help students with class work outside of class.
Aramark also pitched in, creating coupons for students. Kindness was spread when coupons for free coffee were being handed out as students waited in line at Tim Hortons.
“Hopefully not only people continue to be kind but also take in how nice our campus is,” says McNabey.
“Kindness is about doing something nice for someone else,” she continues, “even little things can make a huge difference.”
