Ahh amore, love is in the air! To brighten your week and spread the warm fuzzies, we want to share our favorite Random Acts of Kindness (or RAKs) that have gone viral. RAKing has p
robably become the best trend we’ve seen yet. People helping people, and more often than not, not planning on going viral. As businesses focus on their Corporate Responsibility and using social media as the face and
personality to a company, it takes a lot to stand out in the crowd. Here are some individuals as well as companies that we feel understand the true meaning of acts of kindness. Happy RAK Week!
1. Target Store Tie Tutorial
In Raleigh, NC a young man went to Target in search of a clip on tie for an upcoming interview. They did not have any more clip on ties available, so Target employee Dennis Roberts gave the young man a quick tutorial on how to tie a standard tie. A Target shopper saw the incident and snapped a photo, then posted it to social media. The photo was shared thousands of times.
2. Car Seat Cop
A Michigan police officer pulled over a woman and found that her young daughter was in the backseat without a car seat. When asked, the mother told the officer that her car had been repossessed and she was not allowed to get her items (including the car seat) out of the car. Instead of issuing the mother a ticket for violation, the officer took the mother and her daughter to Walmart and purchased a $50 car seat out of his own pocket for her. A Walmart employee snapped a photo of the mother, child, and officer and posted it via social media where it spread like wild fire!
3. WestJet’s Christmas Miracle
In early August, the WestJet team sat down and started brainstorming what ‘giving’ to their customers would look like. Come December, 175 WestJet volunteers, three airports, and one Santa Clause made their Christmas campaign a reality for 250 guests. A description will not do this one justice, you will have to watch for yourself and have tissues ready (like the 40 million others that have viewed this video!).
4. Pizza Shop Post Its
Rosa’s Fresh Pizza in Philly is gaining national attention for giving back. Customers who visit Rosa’s can buy an extra slice for a homeless person for just a $1 and write a heartfelt message on a sticky note. So far, customers have bout about 8,400 slides of pizza for the homeless.
5. Starbucks: Pay It Forward
In our past blog, we have gone into detail about one of our favorite instances of goodwill (though somewhat controversial) – people paying it forward at Starbucks. It started at a Starbucks drive-thru in Florida that began an 11-hour chain of paying it forward. At 7am, a woman paid for her own iced coffee and asked to pay for the drink of the driver behind her, who then did the same for the following customer. The Starbucks employees then began a tally of the chain on the window for all customers to see. This act of kindness reached over 20,000 people via Facebook and 400+ Tweets.
