Ottawa’s second annual Kindness Week successfully wrapped up yesterday, and plans are already underway to take it provincewide in 2010.
Ottawa Centre MPP Yasir Naqvi made a statement at the start of Kindness Week in Queen’s Park encouraging all the other members to celebrate kindness in their communities. While some MPPs seemed skeptical, many others approached Naqvi to learn more.
“What Kindness Week demonstrates is how easy, how simple it is to be kind,” he said. “It is a way to illustrate that we should be doing this every single day and it does not take a lot to be kind to our friends, neighbours, seniors or anyone in society.”
Naqvi said MPPs would need to bring forward an all-party motion or legislation that is supported by all parties, to have the week after Family Day recognized as Kindness Week in Ontario.
During the week, young people and others tour the city on the Kindness Bus visiting seniors, donating blood, working at a food bank, and giving hugs at the Rideau Centre and on the canal. People can also report acts of kindness on the website.
Rabbi Reuven Bulka, chair of the Kindness Week organizing committee, said it would be promoted through the website and the provincial network of the United Way, school boards and workplaces.
The strength of Kindness Week depends on what each city makes of it, but they have not gotten into the details of how it would work in Toronto or Sudbury.
