World Kindness Movement Blog

Courtesy on the Roads

Enjoy the Ride is a Road Safety Council of Western Australia initiative, brought to you by the Office of Road Safety. Our aim is to show Western Australian drivers that there is an alternative to speeding — on the road and in life. And it’s a better way.

www.enjoytheride.wa.gov.au

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The BIG Hug

World Kindness Week culminates in “THE BIG HUG” on Bondi Beach on Sunday 13th November at 10am providing free breakfast on offer for participants, its promising to be well attended. Lifeguards from Bondi Rescue and students, parents and teachers staff from organisations and the international community will be literally on hand ensuring beach goers participate in a symbolic joining of hands and random hugs. We are encouraging everyone to perform simple Random Acts of Kindness appointing Goodwill Ambassadors from the Classroom, to the Boardroom and within our corridors of Government.

COOL TO BE KIND AWARDS

We are celebrating the goodwill of a community engaged in positive initiatives with the launch of the “2012 Cool To Be Kind Awards” at the Westin Sydney Hotel on the 5th of November 2011 for Neighbours, Schools, Community Groups, Business, Government and of course students. So Don’t Deliberate, Celebrate! Book a table for your organisation or just a group of your favourite people who you feel have helped make our world a little Kinder.

City signs reveal Acts of Kindness

Michael Landy, together with Kaldor Public Art Projects and 702 ABC Sydney, collected stories of ordinary acts of kindness that show the connections between residents of a large city, which may sometimes feel impersonal.

The results are shown on signs between Market Street and Circular Quay and between Macquarie and George Streets, and are on display as part of the Art and About Festival.

There is an explanation of the project, together with a map of where the art pieces are, at Martin Place near George Street.

Acts of Kindness wil be on display until Sunday 23 October.

Sydney’s kindness is an artform

SYDNEYSIDERS may have a reputation for being brash, busy and preoccupied, but sometimes they do go out of our way to help strangers.

Sharing birthday food with homeless men in the park, offering someone who’s coughing at the train station a tissue, and using Facebook to return an expensive smartphone to its owner are just a few stories Sydneysiders have submitted to a public art project launching this week for the City of Sydney’s Art and About festival.

UK artist Michael Landy will share 200 of these uplifting tales in a 13m Acts of Kindness installation at lower Martin Place and with jigsaw pieces scattered around the CBD.

Bimbadeen Heights Primary tries lessons in kindness

BIMBADEEN Heights Primary School has become the first school in Victoria to incorporate World Kindness Australia into their yearly curriculum.

The decision was sparked by Mooroolbark woman Lisa Currie’s quest for world kindness through her Ripple Kindness Project.

Concerned about the destructive path children can take in their teenage years, Ms Currie launched the program to teach them the importance of sharing kindness.

Inspired by the 2000 film Pay It Forward, Ms Currie developed free cards for adults and children that encourage the recipient to do three acts of kindness for another person.

The Weekly first spoke with Lisa Currie in June as she was piloting her Ripple Kindness program across primary schools.

“Since June I have extended on program by creating programs tailored to each year level,” she said last week.

Preps and grade 1 pupils will take part in a bucket-filling concept, grades 2 to 4 will use the kindness cards and grade 5 to 6 will use a more sophisticated method of bucket filling.

“Bucket filling refers to filling up somebody’s imaginary bucket with an act of kindness,” Ms Currie said.

Kind, the word that can change your life

And here’s the proof.

It’s no secret being kind to others can lift your spirits as well as theirs. But research shows it is one of the most powerful tools we have for achieving optimum health, happiness and wellbeing. It can boost the immune system, improve physical and emotional wellbeing and stimulate the brain. And not just in the person carrying out the act. The recipient and onlookers also benefit.

Author Dr Wayne Dyer says in his book The Power of Intention (Hay House): “Research has shown a simple act of kindness directed toward another improves the functioning of the immune system and stimulates the production of serotonin in both the recipient of the kindness and the person extending the kindness. Even more amazing is that persons observing the act of kindness have similar beneficial results.”

Acts of Kindness

Have you ever seen someone be kind or thoughtful to a stranger? Have you ever helped someone you didn’t know? Has someone done something kind for you?

702 ABC Sydney is helping Kaldor Public Art Projects to celebrate these simple acts of kindness through a new project with UK artist Michael Landy.

Acts of Kindness will become a public artwork reflecting on what kindness means in the busy and hectic Sydney city.

Michael Landy needs your stories to create his artwork and they can be anything from tales of heroism to simple shared experiences with strangers.

Compassion her strength

SERGEANT Rebecca McMillan is the first woman to win Penrith’s Police Officer of the Year Award.

“I feel very proud and honoured,” Sergeant McMillan said.

The award honours police officers who show courage, courtesy, kindness or dedication beyond the call of duty.

Sergeant McMillan, who is the Penrith command’s education and training officer, joined the police 15 years ago at age 21.

“I joined because I wanted to do the right thing by people,” she said.

“I’m not one of those who can stand by and watch bad things happen.”

She said empathy towards colleagues and the public was very important for police officers.

“In my case, my battle with cancer helped me feel that,” Sergeant McMillan said.

“I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2007 and had my thyroid and an eight-centimetre tumour removed.”

She is now clear of cancer but said her experience made her think of others in the same situation.

“I had a colleague whose husband died of cancer — they had four daughters,” Sergeant McMillan said.

“We made sure they were looked after.”

She also said she did what she could for another colleague whose wife had cancer.

Penrith police commander Ben Feszczuk said Sergeant McMillan was a worthy winner of the award.

“By her actions otherwise unheralded, Sergeant McMillan has demonstrated her outstanding kindness and compassion to others despite her own difficult circumstances,” Superintendent Feszczuk said.

Ann ‘Dizzy’ Carlyon: Queen’s award thoroughly deserved

“I’VE never stuck to one charity or project; I like doing random acts of kindness,” said Ann ‘Dizzy’ Carlyon, chiding herself for being a “bit of a loose cannon”.

But it means a long list of groups have benefited from her tireless charity work, a factor recognised in her Medal of the Order of Australia for “service to the community through a range of fund-raising roles”.

Mrs Carlyon’s large-scale community work started decades ago with an open day at the family thoroughbred stud farm in Merricks.

“I just knocked on the door of the SIDS [sudden infant death syndrome] foundation and said ‘I’d like to make some money for you’,” she recalled. “The racing fraternity is extremely generous and we raised more than $100,000 over three years.”

Open Family, a charity which assists homeless children, was next on her lucky list, which went on to include Peninsula Hospice, Hanover Welfare Services, the Brotherhood of St Laurence, Rosebud Community Garden and the Australian Open Garden Scheme.

A former board member of Thoroughbred Breeders Australia, Mrs Carlyon sat on the Racing Appeals Tribunal from 1988-2010 and organised two Asian Thoroughbred Breeders Conferences to promote the Australian industry. She received the Victorian Racing Women of the Year award in 1997.

Now 69, Mrs Carlyon and her husband Norman retired from racing and moved to Red Hill four years ago.

Her volunteer work has led her back to school. Although she has no connection to Hastings Primary School, Mrs Carlyon has a regular gig there, assisting at the breakfast program.

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