RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS
Background
In April 2007, Angela Hansen founded our group to help those in need throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Who we are
We just added our 1000th member in the summer of 2008 and among them, we probably have a few hundred that we consider active. We also have some members who are not in our geographic location but who are watching the website to generate ideas for similar groups they hope to start in their location. Our volunteers are from all walks of life in terms of ethnicity, age, profession, religion, and so on.
What we do
1) Ashford Hall is a senior citizen center in Irving where we visit residents, host bingo, and donate prizes. Usually, a group of volunteers with musical ability ("Dave's Darlings and Dudes") sings for the residents. We have also had a magician perform for them.
2) With Helping Hands, a service group devoted to helping kids, we have pitched in at the Family Place. At this local shelter for abused women and their children, we held parties for Halloween, Valentines Day, and Easter. We donate refreshments and have arts and crafts activities for the kids.
3) We raised $560 to support Jonathan's Place, an emergency shelter for abused, abandoned, and neglected children. It is also a Foster and Adoptive Family Program whose mission is to provide quality residential care and specialized services for at-risk kids while creating a home that is comfortable, loving, and nurturing.
4) For Christmas 2007, we joined the Love for Kids Board of Directors and approximately 700 volunteers to host the largest Children's Christmas Party in the state for disadvantaged children. LFK expected 3,500 kids between the ages of 6 to 12 and the Dallas and Fort Worth Margarita Societies collected hundreds of toys for disadvantaged children at their respective Margarita Balls. We had the fifth largest group of volunteers.
5)We raised $705 for the International Refugee Committee's Dallas Refugee Resettlement Program.
6)Our team raised $2360 for the SPCA in their annual "Strut Your Mutt" event, earning us fifth place.
7) We serve lunches and dinners to clients and residents at the Salvation Army in Dallas.
8) We have had "Happy Hour" fundraisers so that we could send phone calling cards to troops, provide Christmas gifts to all 240 residents at Ashford Hall, and more.
9) The Random Acts team raised $1205 for the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk in November. One RAK member, Erin, raised $805 of that amount!
10) Some members have pitched in with Habitat for Humanity and "Brush With Kindness," a local group concerned with helping people maintain their homes based on economic ability, age, or disability.
11) The Soupmobile has served 100,000 meals per year to the homeless in Dallas. We helped them prepare sandwiches, soup, and more. Now we hold "Sammy Parties," donating the ingredients and assembling a group to do the work. With 30 volunteers, we can prepare, bag, and store about 1000 sandwiches in an hour.
12) At Challenge Air in McKinney, RAK volunteers helpedas handicapped kids learned some basics about flying, took a ride with volunteer pilots, and were actually allowed to take the controls during flight.
13) We helped Mission Arlington stage the world's largest Easter egg hunt for kids.
Future
We have had a lot of success already: meetup.comeven named Lance as Organizer of the Week for the week of April 7, 2008. At the time, meetup.com had 43,309 groups, so they chose him from literally thousands of candidates. We hope to continue adding members and expanding our outreach throughout the metroplex.
FAQ:
What does it cost to join the Random Acts of Kindness group?
It's free. For some events, we request donations but that is all purely voluntary.
Are kids welcome?
Obviously, kids wouldn't fit in at a happy hour, but we have some kids already attending things like Ashford Hall and Salvation Army. Just ask if you're unsure.
Where are your events?
We've had events in McKinney, Fort Worth, Dallas, Addison, Arlington, Flower Mound, Irving, Grand Prairie, Plano, and we're always looking for more.
Money's kind of tight for me right now. I don't know how much I can contribute....
That's fine; many events require no money. You can make a big contribution by giving your time and effort.
LINKS (Ctrl + Click to follow link)
Lance Price, email:
Random Acts of Kindness meetup group:
Alzheimer's Memory Walk:
Ashford Hall:
Brush With Kindness, Fort Worth:
Challenge Air:
Dallas Area Habitat for Humanity:
Dallas Helping Hands for the Family Place:
Fort Worth Margarita Society:
International Rescue Committee (IRC)Dallas:
Jonathan's Place:
Love for Kids:
Mission Arlington:
Salvation Army, DFW:
SPCA International:
Special Olympics for Texas:
Soupmobile:
Union Gospel Mission:
Charity Navigator: (last edited 9 aug 08, dac)