2018/03/27 - Mayor's Column: Random Acts of Kindness
“An Open Door to O’Fallon”
A Weekly Note from Mayor Herb Roach
Many times, stress and time constraints in our personal and professional lives make it difficult to take a moment and stop to think about how to make a positive impact in someone else’s life. Making a difference doesn’t always require commitments of large amounts of time and money. An easy and quick way to make a difference is through “random acts of kindness.”
Random acts of kindness are good deeds that are usually easy to do, don’t take an enormous amount of time, are cheap or free, and most importantly, can make a very positive impact on someone else’s day.
In my search for ideas, I came across a website that lists 103 random acts of kindness (www.bradaronson.com/acts-of-kindness/) that can help you carry out kindness daily and become an everyday hero. Here are a few of my favorites:
- Find opportunities to give compliments. It costs nothing, takes no time, and could make someone’s entire day.
- If you know someone that is overwhelmed – perhaps by a new baby, family health issues, or something else – give them a call when you’re going out to the store. Ask if they would like you to pick something up.
- Say “thank you” to someone who makes a difference … Send a card to people who dedicate their lives to helping us – soldiers, police officers, fire fighters and teachers to name a few.
- If you are a business, leverage what you do every day to do good and perform acts of kindness.
Furthermore, I thought of a few more random acts that will help our community be a little better. As we move into spring, here are several that we can do:
- Keep your grass cut and yard maintained. Please be willing to help a neighbor with their yard, if they ask.
- When parking on streets, make sure you are not blocking a crosswalk, fire hydrant, or anyone’s driveway. Please help your guests and visitors be aware of this, as well.
- If you have a tree or bush that extends out towards a sidewalk or street, please trim them so that everyone may pass safely.
- When on a walk around the neighborhood, make sure that you are picking up after your pets.
- Once you begin cutting and trimming your grass, bushes, trees, etc., please make sure that the clippings are not blown on to the sidewalk or street and keep them from blocking storm drains.
- Please help us make sure stormwater inlets are free from obstructions. We may experience periods of heavy rainfall during this time of year, and it is important that the stormwater has an unobstructed path to drain.
In addition to the ideas above, I encourage you to find other acts of kindness. Seek out an opportunity to help every day. Hold open a door, aid or help someone trying to get a stroller down the steps. Every small interaction with someone is an opportunity to have a positive impact on both of your lives.
As residents of O’Fallon, you should always be able to reach out to your elected officials and ask questions about what is happening in O’Fallon. Having open communications is important to me and something I care very deeply about. Thank you for reading, and please remember, my door is always open!