Sydney Ratzlaff, community engagement coordinator at CFSEA. (Photo Courtesy Ross Lavigne)

By Chris Brown

Random Acts of Kindness Week Nov. 14-20

Making kindness the norm in Medicine Hat

Nov 12, 2021 | 4:53 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The Community Foundation of Southeastern Alberta wants next week to be the starting point to making kindness the norm in Medicine Hat.

Nov. 14 to 20 is Random Acts of Kindness Week.

“We really hope this will boost morale and wellbeing within the city. And that people can participate as businesses or families or charities or individuals and just give back to their community,” said Sydney Ratzlaff, community engagement coordinator at CFSEA. “We’re hoping it will boost morale, spread some kindness and it won’t just be a one week, it will continue throughout the year.”

Ratzlaff says there is a lot of division in the city right now and people are still feeling the effects of the ongoing pandemic.

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People are encouraged to perform acts of kindness big and small during the week, which is a partnership between the CFSEA, the City of Medicine Hat and Family and Community Support Services.

Planned activities include Canadian Mental Health Association and The Post staff handing out self-care kits, Medicine Hat Police Service staff raking leaves and picking up garbage and the CFSEA will hand out goodie bags to middle school and high school teachers. The current planned activities are listed below.

Ratzlaff says even simple gestures can have a big impact.

“It doesn’t have to be big; it can be small little gestures,” she says. “Maybe it’s paying for someone’s coffee or maybe it’s letting someone in in traffic. It could be a really simple act of kindness but we’re hoping to encourage big and small.”

Ratzlaff wants people to share their kind acts on social media with the hashtag #MHRAK.

Current planned activities include:

• Be YOUth Centre is passing out Kindness Boxes to neighbors in the North Flats community.
• Canadian Mental Health and The Post staff will be providing goodies and self-care tips throughout downtown during the week and on Midnight Madness, self-care kits for various front-line businesses, and flowers/notes for Meals on Wheels participants.
• The Intercultural Connection is offering Intercultural Ambassador Training to volunteers on Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. Contact Yusuf at info@connectionvillage.org or 403-458-4928.
• Medicine Hat Public Library offering coffee cards, cookies, and sweet treats at various locations throughout the week.
• Redcliff Bakery is offering a ‘buy one, give one’ donut sale on Nov. 16 .
• Salvation Army is offering a special meal and care package to anyone struggling financially on Nov. 18 at 5 p.m. at 457 Third St. SE.
• Ronald McDonald House staff and volunteers will be handing our newspapers and coffee on Nov. 19 from 7:30-9 a.m. on First Avenue by City Hall.
• Medicine Hat Police Service staff will be picking up garbage and raking leaves during their off-duty hours on Nov. 15.
• Police Point Park is encouraging people to connect with a friend and take a walk in a park they don’t normally explore.
• The Southeast Watershed Alliance and Grasslands Naturalists are encouraging Kindness to Nature through their Adopt-a-Pond project. For more information contact Ian at the Nature Center at 403- 529-6225.
• Nurture Pregnancy Centre will give a gift to all healthcare workers in the maternity ward at the Medicine Hat Regional Hospital.
• Medicine Hat Women’s Shelter is offering various programs for clients such as making buttons with kind messages for clients to give out to others.