CynthiaWVirginia
Posts: 1915
Joined: 2/28/2010
From: West Virginia, USA
Status: offline
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quote:
Any ideas please?
Find wigs in thrift stores and shampoo them, shake them out, let them air dry, then donate them to your local oncologist's office. Knit fluffy hats or ones with "eyelash" yarn, brushing them out first so that they are uber fluffy.
Ask a church if they have organised volunteers to help members who have recently had surgery or have been ill or just had a baby...it might be nice to drop off a frozen casserole or two for someone who is temporarily disabled by illness or surgery. Same goes for offering to do some random acts of...house cleaning or mowing a lawn or washing their dog.
My cousin used to take in children, so that they didn't go into foster care just because their only parent had to go in for surgery and there was nobody to watch them for maybe a week.
In my area there is an organization, Mary's Cradle, that collects donations of diapers and new baby stuff for low income people who need it. I met a woman who did craft stuff and donated it to Mary's Cradle...knowing that this organization would sell them to buy diapers, etc.
Nursing homes. I pick one per year and choose to do my tithe that way. Contact the activities director and ask her what they need...often they need DVDs (nothing too violent, depressing, and some won't take anything rated R. I get mine mostly at pawn shops and garage sales and second hand stores for only $2-3 each), sox (they will be specific about what style they need), puzzles, large print playing cards, large print bibles in plain English (not King James version), sweat pants and sweat shirts, sweaters, tee shirts, nail polish, emery boards (someone usually volunteers for pedicures and they can use some extra supplies), poster paints and glitter and foam cutouts and pony beads (I get most of these at the Dollar Tree) for arts and crafts, lap style blankets for folks in wheel chairs, etc. We had a MRSA outbreak in our area several years back and the nursing home I was donating to at the time (the one my friend Carin had gone to while she was dying from lymphoma) stopped taking stuffed animals. Before donating, just ask the activities director. ;) If seeing these people in person adds to your depression, then just...don't. Go see the activities director when she's in her office instead.
If you have any nice coupons that you don't plan to use, leave several in the supermarket where the item is. For example, leave a frozen tv dinner coupon on top of one of the appropriate tv dinners. It will be a lovely surprise.
As for parking meters, if you see one that has gone red and there's a car parked there an no owner nearby, put a quarter into the meter.
One that I do...is look for when someone is having a hard time entering the street I'm driving on. I stop and signal for them to enter the road ahead of me. We can get traffic a mile long sometimes and nobody will give them a break.
Did anyone ever run up to all those gumball/toy machines as a kid and stick their fingers into each machines' slot, hoping that someone had left a toy there? I used to, lol. Sometimes it's fun to put in a quarter and spin the dial around, and then walk off with the bouncy ball or whatever just sitting in there, waiting for questing little fingers. For the same reason, sometimes I empty the change out of my pockets and drop the coins in parking lots or on sidewalks. I remember the joy, as a kid, of finding a random penny, nickle, dime or quarter.
To help the homeless, sox and a styrofoam cup of hot homemade soup along with a homemade sandwich. The guys often go without sox or else wear them so long without being able to wash them that they get...ah...nasty stuff happening to their feet. Cotton is best, not synthetic.
I sew. When I lived in California I found an alcoholic recovery place that would let homeless people in during the daytime on week days, allowing them to snooze on comfy chairs and allowed access to a shower. There was also a donated clothes room...and the place needed someone to measure waist bands of pants to sort the sizes out. If pants had split seams (they were clean, btw), I could use my machine to do repair work.
If you have a house with a yard...maybe a patch in the back yard can be used to grow veggies to donate, or else loaned out to a family so that they can grow veggies.
Go to the dollar stores and buy vegetable seeds. Sometimes they are 10 for a dollar, more often they are 3 or 4 packets for a dollar. Myself, I love specialty seeds from catalogs, like...red sunflowers and safari mix marigolds. Maybe leaving a bunch of cups with potting soil and seedlings growing in them, nested in a box top at some park with a "free sunflowers" sign on it would brighten someone's day.
Sidewalk chalk can be found at the Dollar Tree for only a dollar. It can be found in other stores as well. Why not leave some on a playground, out of the package (there are something like ten or a dozen, leaving two or three pieces would be nice).
Sometimes it's as easy as cleaning up a messy sink in a public bathroom. Just bring sanitizing wipes in a zipper bag along with a Subway type glove. Most places won't clean up the sink until the cleaning crew comes at night. In the meantime, fellow shoppers can lean over a sink and get the front of their blouse soaked by a puddle of water.
Disinfecting the diaper changing station in a bathroom. If you can prevent one baby from getting sick from the germs another kid left behind... All it takes is a disinfectant wipe in a zipper bag brought a long in your purse or jacket pocket.
Sometimes I buy a box or two of candy bars (without nuts, and nothing hard to chew) at Sams Club and donate them to a nursing home. It's something like $13 to $15 per box and has around 36 candy bars each. The staff will hand them out. Oh, cans of soda pop are also welcomed.
Several people I've known have fallen upon hard times and...their food stamps would not buy pet food. When donating food to food banks, consider donating a small bag of brand name kitten chow, cat food, or dog food. One box feeds a cat for a week. (A friend of mine's house burned down last month, and among the things I am giving her...is a dog leash, cat nip, and a small gift card to help her buy dog and cat kibble.)
Give a harassed looking woman with one or more small children your place in line at the grocery store, then get to the end of the line yourself if you cannot just trade places with her.
It helps when I don't expect thanks of any sort; the receiver shouldn't have to pay a pound of flesh for an ounce of kindness. Mom used to want to be Lady Bountiful at Christmas time to poor kids, expecting to be thanked and hugged for giving used things she had bought at the Salvation Army. She was pissed if every blessed kid wasn't GRATEFUL enough, and would wind herself up for this big event and always came out of it feeling snarky and unappreciated. I, um, told her that no kid should have to beg/grovel for their Christmas present. That's the point of it being a gift...it's given for the sake of the giving, no strings attached. Anyway, she worked as a foster grandparent for kids in some after school program, and I suggested us leaving a lot of toys and stuffed animals on this long table at one of their parties and just letting the kids have the option of taking one that they wanted. (The kids didn't know who brought them, and the sign said to take only one. Before the party was over, we held up each leftover toy and asked the room of kids and parents who would adopt that toy. It was nice, stress free.)
Ack, I almost forgot. The nursing homes kept asking us for CDs of Christian music for their Sundays. (Remember that I live in the bible belt and be kind, okay?) If you live in an area that is predominantly another religion, their activities director might suggest something else.
Sorry for being so long winded, especially since I haven't read more than the first post. Am going to do so sometime tonight though.
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RE: Random Acts of Kindess - 
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) and then before Xmas, we show up with boxes of groceries.
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