Contact

Email us at KindnessWeek@SPARKKindness.org

Please feel free to send us your questions and let us know how you celebrated Kindness Week!

We love receiving updates and pictures.Tag us at 

#KindnessConnectsUs

#SPARKKindnessNatick

#SPARKKindnessWeek

We invite you to celebrate Kindness Week!

Kindness Week is a community wide effort to shine a spotlight on the kindness that happens every day, and to inspire people to promote kindness through simple and powerful actions. Natick businesses, community organizations, town departments, local citizens, and families will all participate. Will you join us too?

More details about Kindness Week are included HERE.


There are many (impactful + easy) ways to celebrate with us!

Will you share your stories? What does kindness look like to you? Is it a simple, random act of generosity? Have you witnessed kindness in your community? Do you have a friend or colleague who has a story to share? Send your stories HERE, or email to kindnessweek@SPARKKindness.org 

November 12 Common Kindness Day and Kindness Week Kick off! Help us chalk the walks with inspirational (and multicultural/multilingual!) messages and symbols of love, inclusion, starting on Saturday, Nov. 12! Help SPARK Kindness "chalk the walk with kindness messages " from the Natick Common to all the Natick neighborhoods ... and beyond! Share your creations KindnessWeek@SPARKKindness.org or tag us online: #KindnessConnectsUs, #SPARKKindnessNatick, #SPARKKindnessWeek

November 13 from 9 a.m. to Noon - Big Leaf Rake (UPDATED DATE due to rain. Join us in person Sunday!) Please join neighbors and friends from Keep Natick Beautiful, Natick Rotary, Natick Housing Authority, and SPARK Kindness for an intergenerational Big Leaf Rake service project at Cedar Gardens in honor of Veterans Day and to Kick off SPARK Kindness Week! Sign up HERE.

November 20 from 1 - 3 pm. Community Connecting & Mindfulness Walk (in person) New date! Rescheduled due to the rain on Sunday, November 13. Join the SPARK Kindness team and neighbors for a walk along the rail trail. We will connect with each other, and in nature, for this special community walk. A map of this wonderful and growing network of trails can be found at HERE. Meeting location AMVETS (79 Superior Drive, Natick). Please note, this is not a public parking lot but we have special permission from our AMVETS friends to park here for our connection walk!

November 17 from 4:30-7:30  - Open Door Dinner (in person) Connect and Serve with Neighbors! Interested in either donating or serving? Please sign up HERE.

Dr. Traci Baxley - Social Justice Parenting - postponed - check back for a new date! Our SPARK team is sorry to announce that the event planned for 11/9 is postponed due to Hurricane Nicole. Our presenter was scheduled to join us from Florida and is no longer able to present due to the storm in the area. We will be in touch once we have a new date and will also share the event recording with you. Thank you for your patience as we secure a new date. We look forward to engaging with you around this important topic.

n

Display the Kindness Connects Us Seal! Kindness Connects Us is a message that not only centers us on how to be with each other, and in community, but affirms the community we are, and our shared value of kindness. Download your seal HERE.Since we know kindness isn't just about any one week, we hope that you feel free to keep the seal displayed throughout the year!


Bethany Shaw illustrator artist designer – Artist Statement: This design is inspired by Kindness Week and our vision to celebrate a connected community. The individual dots represent each authentic member of our community and when we put all the dots together we create a beautiful shape that does not exist without the representation of many. This logo recognizes that we are all unique members of a connected community, and when we as individuals overlap in between the two hearts, we influence and enhance each other to create something new and beautiful.


Kindness Connects Us is all over town! Download your own copy of our Kindness Connects Us coloring sheet HERE (available in English, Spanish and Portuguese). Write or draw in the hearts how you showed kindness, saw kindness or received kindness. Take a pic of your finished art to share with us @SPARKKIND and tag #KindnessConnectsUs, or bring your artwork back to our partners locations for the whole town to enjoy! 

s

Be a Kindness Detective all week & all year long! Look for our Kindness Connects Us seal at local businesses and community offices. How many can you find? Do you have a business or location for a Kindness Connects Us seal? Please let us know (email kindnessweek@SPARKKindness.org). We’re happy to send one to you and/or you can download a seal HERE. We know kindness isn’t just about one day or moment, rather something we practice all year long. The message centers us in our interactions with ourselves (because we know, kindness starts with being kind to yourself!) and in community – the places we live, work, learn and play.

Download your Kindness Detective. Detective sheets are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese HERE!

How it works:

See the good - Start simple: look for kindness around you!
Be the good - Commit random acts of kindness!
Receive the good - Give the gift of allowing someone to help you!
Write or draw about the Kindness you have found, and share your stories and pictures with us! Email kindnessweek@SPARKKindness.org! Or post your "detective work" on social media, and tag #KindnessConnectsUs #SPARKKindnesWeek

Thank you to our Community Partners for all the ways you SPARK Kindness during Kindness Week!

FLAG - Free Little Art Gallery – Share your own kindness inspired small art projects in Natick's FLAG, located outside the entrance to the Morse Institute Library. Help SPARK fill the FLAG during Kindness Week by making, and encouraging others to make, small works of art in any medium (drawing, clay, poetry, photography, beading, etc.), inspired by kindness, love, connection, community.  The FLAG - Make Art, Leave Art, Take Art -  brings joy and purpose to the maker and receiver! Check out the FLAG facebook page HERE to learn more!

Our friends at the Morse Institute Library have a Kindness themed table with books and resources. 


Neighbors in Need - – Help us collect items for the Little Free Food Pantry, located outside the Common Street Spiritual Center, Natick Common. Check HERE for a list of items most needed by our neighbors. 

FIDO of Natick & It Is RUFF Out There podcast will host a food drive to collect unopened & non-expired dog/cat food & treats on Saturday, Nov 12th from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. at Eddie’s Park (aka the Dog Park on Rt.135) in the parking lot. All food donations will be delivered to A Place to Turn.

 

Thank you Natick Police Department for collecting donations on Saturday, Nov 12 to benefit the Natick Service Council. The goal is the same as in the past: to stock the food pantry with donated non-perishables for the holiday and winter seasons. 

 

A SPARK Kindness GUIDE with resources to continue the kindness all year.

Random Acts of Kindness –  Share the ways you have connected through kindness -  as the giver, the receiver and the observer of kindness all around you. Email your photos, written story, or inspiration to kindnessweek@SPARKKidnenss.org and/ or tag us on social media #KindnessConnectsUs #SPARKKindnessNatick #SPARKKindnessWeek

Follow SPARK Kindness – Look out for SPARK newsletters and videos with inspirational messages and ideas about the 7 Pillars of Kindness every day during Kindness Week (and all year long!) - You can follow us on Facebook @SPARKKIND and SPARK Kindness + Positive News @ https://www.facebook.com/groups/sparkpositive and on Instagram @ https://www.instagram.com/sparkkindness/

Wearing and Sharing Kindness – Check out CauseTeam, and their unique SPARK Kindness inspired wearable art and more – great gifts for you, or someone in your life! 40% of each purchase made through the SPARK page supports our free and accessible programs and resources! https://www.causeteam.com/causepages/detail/spark-kindness

And practicing Mindfulness + Meditation: Here is one of our team's favorite FREE meditation apps, Insight Timer - https://insighttimer.com/. Also check out guided mindfulness recordings from Christine Guthery and Laura McCarthy of SPARK Kindness! And a special meditation offered by one of SPARK's recent Resilient Community speakers, Sebene Selassie!

  • Being Kinder To Yourself with Greater Good Science Center ...Put your hands over your heart and say, "May I be kind to myself. May I learn to accept myself as I am."