Kindness: the quality of being friendly, generous and considerate without expecting praise or reward.

Although being kind to one another is encouraged every day, Northwestern Oklahoma State University employees and students in Alva, Enid and Woodward, along with community members have joined forces with the United Way of Northwest Oklahoma in Enid to shine a bigger light on kindness through observing Kindness Day in Northwest Oklahoma on Friday, Nov. 12. The international observance of World Kindness Day is Nov. 13.

This special day was introduced in 1998 to promote kindness throughout the world. It is observed in many countries including Australia, Canada, India, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Singapore and the United Arab Emirates.

The United Way of Northwest Oklahoma has been observing this day to promote random acts of kindness in the area since 2015 and were looking to expand the reach further into northwest Oklahoma by including Northwestern.

“We are so excited to be partnering with Northwestern and so many other community groups in Alva, Woodward, Kingfisher, Enid and other communities throughout Northwest Oklahoma,” said Dan Schiedel, CEO and executive director of United Way of Northwest Oklahoma. “We are happy to be able to expand into other communities in our service area and cannot do it without sponsors and those who have boots on the ground.”

Several university employees and members of the Alva community have been meeting to discuss plans for the day and welcome everyone who would like to be involved.

Various groups from Northwestern planning random acts of kindness so far include Campus Cabinet food pantry, Forge, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, NWOSU Art Society, NWOSU Medical Sciences Club, Student Athlete Advisory Committee and Writer’s Roundtable.

Others planning projects or activities include the Girl Scouts in Waynoka, Kayla’s Kindness Project in Alva, free rock painting for kids at Graceful Arts Center, Alva State Bank, Northwest Technology Center, Alva High School Key Club/Dr. Halah Simon and Washington Elementary in Alva.

Any club, school class, group, business, etc., who would like to be involved in this project locally and wants to be added to the overall list that will be shared with the United Way of Northwest Oklahoma of those planning acts of kindness may contact Valarie Case, university relations specialist at Northwestern, at [email protected], or Angelia Case, academic projects assistant/media specialist at Northwestern, at [email protected].

Anyone who would like to take part but would rather do so through a monetary donation to help university club members fulfill their projects is welcome.

“We have various acts of kindness happening so far from thank you notes and goodie bags to kindness messages, paying for fountain drinks for unsuspecting individuals and more,” Valarie Case said. “Also, if you have an electronic billboard or sign and would like to display the Be Kind logo, just let me know.”

The overall hashtag on social media channels will be #BeKindNWOK.

Anyone who would like to be a monetary sponsor of the overall Kindness Day in Northwest Oklahoma event should contact Schiedel at 580-237-0821 or [email protected]. Yard signs and t-shirts to help fund acts of kindness are available for purchase at https://bit.ly/3n69wCj. Deadline to order these items is Oct. 22.

“We hope that everyone will join us in taking just a moment out of their busy schedule and share an act of kindness,” Schiedel said. “It's one way we can make our community and our world a better place to live.”