The Owners' Manual - Issue 7

Here are just a few of the ways to give back and be that person who leaves an indelible mark in celebration of our 30 years.

Keep unopened kids’ meal toys in your purse to give to kids you encounter (with their parent’s permission). Pay for someone’s meal at a restaurant. Make extra meals to share with a sick or busy neighbor. Share the bounty of your vegetable garden with co- workers and friends. Offer to keep a friend’s kids so she and her husband can have some time alone. Make hats for kids with cancer. Make cards for nursing home residents…and deliver them with your kids. Pick up trash at the park. Thank a soldier. Donate DVD’s or video games to hospitals and/or soldiers. Make care bags for the homeless – toiletry items, bottled water, food store gift cards, non-perishable/ ready-to-eat foods. Buy car wash coupons and give them away. Make care packages for soldiers. Clean house for a friend or family member while she’s on vacation. Leave extra coupons on the store shelf next to the item they’re good for. Pack a bag for someone undergoing chemo – include snacks, bottled water, magazines, word-find games, a mechanical pencil, and a good book. Tape envelopes with quarters to vending machines. Take homemade cookies or cupcakes to the police or fire station. Save change throughout the year and donate to a local organization

Pay for the order of the person behind you in the drive-thru line. Send friends and relatives notes or letters of encouragement. Give blood. Visit the Humane Society to play with the dogs or cats Leave love notes for your spouse or kids in places like a briefcase or clothing drawer. Bring water, coffee, or lemonade to outdoor workers. Put your neighbor’s trashcans away for them after pick- up. Buy a soda or candy bar for the cashier when you’re checking out. Give a restaurant or coffee gift card to someone (bank cashier, postal worker, homeless person, or random stranger). Send a silly card to brighten someone’s day. Call or email someone you haven’t talked to in awhile, just to ask how they are. Send your spouse or partner a text just to tell him/her something that you appreciate about him. Hide a kind note in a library book. Take the middle seat on a flight. Help someone at the grocery store reach that high shelf. Clean up graffiti. Donate your used books to a school, library or even office. Cut someone’s grass. Bake cookies for someone. (friend, neighbor, elderly friend, co-worker, postman etc.) Leave coins on a parking meter or the machines at a laundry mat.

Pay the toll for the car behind you. Help someone load their groceries. Pack a date-night box (movie rental card, popcorn, soft drinks, movie candy) and leave it on someone’s doorstep. Ring the bell and run! Get a group together to make a meal for your local Ronald McDonald House. Purchase a store gift card or a gas card and send it to a friend in need. >> For inspiration visit https://www. randomactsofkindness.org/kindness-ideas Have some ideas of your own, feel free to share with the Giving Back Committee and we will add them to the list! Offer to return someone’s shopping cart to the store. Let someone go ahead of you in the checkout line. Take flowers to a nurses’ station – for the nurses. Let someone pull out or turn in front of you in traffic, if it’s safe to do so.