A fellow North Shore mom inspired me to make November a month of ThanksGIVING by performing a daily random act of kindness. Help me spread love, light and kindness one small gesture at a time. Perform a random act of kindness, share your act on Northshore Acupuncture’s 30 days of GIVING FB post, and get one entry into a raffle for a free acupuncture treatment with each post (limit one entry per person per day). One winner will be selected for November 1-10th posts; one for 11th-20th; and one for 21st-30th. Need inspiration? 

Here are some ideas:

1. Call or write a letter to someone thanking them for the impact they’ve had on your life.
2. Rake leaves for someone.
3. Take out the garbage for someone.
4. Volunteer at a homeless shelter.
5. Volunteer at an animal shelter.
6. Shop locally for holiday gifts.
7. Get your coffee or lunch at Curt’s Café instead of a chain restaurant or coffee shop.
8. Donate cat/dog food, cat litter, old towels/blankets to CARE.
9. Babysit for a friend.
10. Drive a veteran to a doctor’s appointment. You can volunteer through the Department of Veterans Affairs Transportation Network.
11. Volunteer at a local Stand Downs event for veterans(11/16 in Chicago). Stand Downs is typically a 1-3 day event providing supplies and services to homeless Veterans, such as food, shelter, clothing, and health screening.
12. Send letters of appreciation and/or care packages to troops, first responders and veterans through Operation Gratitude.
13. Go to a nursing home or senior center and see how you can help provide email, social media, cell phone or video call assistance.
14. Arrange to pick up coats, gloves, hats from neighbors and deliver to a coat drive.
15. Review a small business on Facebook, Google or Yelp.
16. Write a letter/send an email or talk to a manager to acknowledge someone for good service.
17. Call an old friend.
18. Pick up garbage along the roadside or in a park.
19. Volunteer at a Fill a Heart 4 Kids event.
20. Let someone go in front of you in line.
21. Give blood.
22. Spend time getting to know someone you don’t know very well.
23. Have a food drive in your neighborhood and donate canned goods to local food pantry.
24. Drop off extra disinfectant wipes and boxes of Kleenex at the teacher’s lounge.
25. Walk or ride your bike instead of driving somewhere.
26. Gift an inspirational book.
27. Leave quarters at the laundromat.
28. Write a positive comment on a blog or social media post you enjoyed.
29. Leave a generous tip.
30. Eat vegetarian for a day.
31. Give a friendly smile of support/encouragement to a parent whose kid is melting down – tell him/her “You’ve got this or we’ve all been there”. Offer help (not advice).
32. Leave hand warmers and a thank you note for your mail carrier.
33. Drop off snacks at the local fire department. (Or grocery store/ice cream shop gift cards to cover the next ice cream run.)
34. Attend a benefit for a local nonprofit – the dessert gala for the Floured Apron on 11/1, the Taste of the Town benefit for the Zacharias Center on 11/6, or the Tailgating event to benefit the Center for Independent Futures on 11/18, and/or the Champagne Grand Tasting on 11/30 (event cost to benefit Curt’s Café).
35. Spend a half day helping with laundry at Misericordia or with the holiday baking and shipping.
36. Let someone merge in front of you on the highway.
37. Smile and say hello to people you don’t know.
38. Register to be an organ donor. Sign up for the bone marrow registry.
39. VOTE!! Offer rides to help others get to the polls on 11/6.
40. Help with canvassing or phone banks for candidates whom you support. Here are links for Lauren Underwood , Sean Casten. Want to volunteer from home? Help make calls for Dr. Hiral Tipirneni. Any canvassing or phone bank work regardless of candidate counts towards the raffle, but if you want to canvas for their opponents, you’ll have to look it up yourself =)
41. Check in with someone who experienced a significant loss to see how they are doing. Typically people receive a lot of support in the first few weeks and then support subsides.
42. Call or text someone when you see/hear something that reminds you of them – a song on the radio, a place you used to go,
43. Return shopping carts for people at the grocery store.
44. Put your phone away while spending time with family and friends.
45. Not screaming at your kids for leaving an empty toilet roll or overflowing the garbage can instead of taking the garbage out.