Every month, every week and every day is a celebration of some sort — an awareness week or a monthly observance for foods, health issues, anniversaries or holidays. You can find many of these collected in the annual Chase’s Calendar of Events, or online at Brownielocks.com.
March 13 happens to be Good Samaritan Involvement Day, which commemorates the 1964 murder on this date of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese in Queens, N.Y. For almost a half-hour, at least 38 of her neighbors witnessed her repeated stabbings, yet did nothing for fear of getting involved.
Ken Satterfield
|
Similarly, Oct. 13 is Good Samaritan Day (good samaritanday.org), commemorating 2-year-old Wang Yue, who was run over by two vehicles and rescued after seven minutes by Chen Xianmei, an elderly woman who moved the child and sought assistance.
These two days commemorate giving unselfish aid to those who need it, like the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37 — perhaps your closest friend, a neighbor or a complete stranger.
Here are a list of media-related actions you can do to be that good neighbor to someone else. Links are included to provide additional ideas.
• Make a commitment to learn first aid (redcross.org/take-a-class). Red Cross certification lasts for three years, while lifeguarding and CPR training lasts one year. There is also an online babysitter course for those 11 and older.
• Take refresher courses online (redcrossrefresher.com).
• Put together first aid and disaster kits and store them appropriately (ready.gov/build-a-kit). Review kits regularly to keep supplies fresh and appropriate to your needs.
• Mentor a student (bbbs.org or mentoring.org).
• Forgive someone (tinyurl.com/BTL-forgive).
• Pray for teachers, students, leaders and current events (operationintercession.org/PrayerGuide).
• Volunteer at church, locally or find a need through VolunteerMatch.org.
• Help build a home through Habitat for Humanity (habitat.org).
• Teach someone technology — using a computer, texting, getting online (digitalunite.com or seniornet.org).
• Visit a senior care facility (caring.com/articles/visiting-elderly).
• Help others at a shelter or pantry.
• Be neighborly by shoveling a sidewalk or scraping a windshield, doing yard work or household repairs, running an errand or just listening (bettertogether.org/150ways.htm).
• Be there for a hurting friend (tinyurl.com/MATI-hurting or tinyurl.com/MATI-problems).
• Organize a community day of action to share your witness through your church or church collaboration (tinyurl.com/MATI-collaboration).
• Track down an old friend: Success will bring you joy, and connecting will make their day.
• Send a personal note to someone who has influenced your life — or a complete stranger.
• Send an e-card to say “just thinking of you” (email.about.com/od/emailgreetingcards).
• Do a class study with Zondervan’s “Start> Becoming A Good Samaritan,” a six-lesson small group study featuring a DVD of a number of Christian leaders (juststart.org).
• Get ideas from the Network for Doing Good (goodnet.org).
Make plans for holidays of caring throughout the year, or make up your own! Some dates may vary by year:
• Random Acts of Kindness Day, Feb. 17 and Week, Feb. 9-15 (randomactsofkindness.org)
• Good Deeds Day, March 15 (gdd.goodnet.org)
• Pay It Forward Day, April 24 (payitforwardday.com)
• Loving Day, June 12 (lovingday.org)
• International Day of Friendship, July 30 (un.org/en/events/friendshipday)
• Just Because Day, Aug. 27 (tinyurl.com/MATI-JBD)
• Good Neighbor Day, Sept. 28 (tinyurl.com/MATI-neighbor)
• World Kindness Day, Nov. 13 (actsofkindness.org)
• #GivingTuesday, Dec. 2 (givingtuesday.org)
It’s great to want to make a difference in someone else’s life, but the key is making that first move. Understand that there is no perfect time to start and there is always some degree of risk, even if it is just your feelings (tinyurl.com/BTL-FirstStep). If you can’t make a great leap forward, why not make today the day you take one little step for someone else?
Ken Satterfield is advertising and marketing coordinator for Word&Way.