KY3 for Kids: 100 Acts of Kindness

Leading up to National Good Neighbor Day on September 28, 2021, KY3 and the University of Missouri Extension office are teaming up to provide 100 Acts of Kindness through KY3 for Kids. The message is to inspire our local children to make a positive impact on our community.

You can find a list of the 100 Acts of Kindness, as provided by David Burton, University of Missouri Extension County Engagement and Community Development Specialist.

Invite neighbor kids over with their parents for a game night.
Organize a children’s parade in your neighborhood.
Soup potluck for neighbors on your driveway (with bread and cookies)
Set up an outdoor picture-taking event for kids.
Grill hamburgers and/or hot dogs in the front yard and invite over neighbors.
Put chairs in the front yard, so neighbors can sit down, rest and drink something.
Bring out a fire pit in your front yard to roast marshmallows or make s’mores.
Offer a helping hand to rake a neighbor’s lawn or cleaning rain or street gutters are great ways to show your neighbors you care.
Send a text, an email, or a card to your neighbors thanking them for being great neighbors. They will be surprised that you took the time to write a thoughtful note.
Host neighbors for evening coffee and dessert.
Invite neighbors over to watch a game, eat your favorite snacks, and connect.
Give thank you cards to those in your neighborhood who contribute to potluck.
Invite your neighbors over for an open house.
Mail or leave at the door a surprise affirmation note to neighbors.
Use the element of surprise with an act of service that would bless your neighbors.
Get the neighbors involved in a free car wash at your house or a neighbor’s house.
Organize a neighborhood ping pong or croquet tournament.
Outdoor movie night: Project a movie onto a garage or outdoor screen.
Offer to bring in the mail or newspaper when a neighbor is on vacation.
If new neighbors have moved in, throw a welcome party. Ask everyone to bring an appetizer or a dessert. (Sunday from 4 – 6 pm is a good time.)
Help with unkempt lawns or the elderly in the neighborhood.
Take walks or bike rides with neighbors.
Host a pancake breakfast, in the front yard if possible, to let neighbors see what is going on. How about Pancakes on the porch!
A neighborhood scavenger hunt.
Organize a parade or special event to celebrate the veterans in your neighborhood.
“Sunday Sundae.” Neighbors gather for sundaes on Sunday.
Donuts on the driveway (with coffee of course).
Offer to walk your neighbor’s dog(s). They might welcome the break and you might have a chance to meet more neighbors.
Bring cut flowers to a shut-in in your neighborhood.
Start a neighborhood garden and bring the produce to your neighbors. You might want to put it in the front yard, so the neighbors watch the vegetables grow.
Start a neighborhood lending library. You might want to build a book-box on a pole for the neighborhood or in a public place in your apartment building.
Look for needs in the neighborhood and ask if you can lend a hand.
Put on neighborhood progressive dinner.
Go for a walk and bring a small trash bag to pick up trash along the sidewalk.
Use sidewalk chalk to write an inspiring message on the sidewalk in front of your home.
Ask an elderly neighbor or parent with young children if you can pick up items for them while you’re at the store.
If you play a musical instrument, give invitations to your neighbors to attend an outdoor concert on the curb at a given time.
Make yourself available by spending more time in the front yard.
Host a garage sale with special discounts for your neighbors
Offer to mow the lawn of a busy young family or older adult neighbor.
Make a double batch of the cookies you’re baking and bring some to a neighbor.
Know parents who could use a night out? Offer to babysit a neighbor’s child for free.
Organize a blitz neighborhood cleanup.
Make dinner for a neighbor who has just had a baby or surgery.
Sit on your front porch or in your front yard, and smile at anyone you see outside.
Say hello or wave each time you see your neighbors.
Bring in your neighbors’ garbage can or offer to wash their car.
Leave a bottle of bubbles, flowers or coloring book on neighbor’s doorstep.
Ask a neighbor if there’s a chore you can help them do.
Deliver a homemade card to your neighbor, or leave it in their door.
Set up a reverse lemonade stand with free drinks for neighbors.
Create a front yard water park for the neighbors with a sprinkler, slip-and-slide and even water guns or water balloons.
Read a good book about neighboring to get you inspired. Try Dave Runyon’s book, “The Art of Neighboring,”
Read a good book about neighboring to get you inspired. Try John McNight’s book, “The Abundant Community,”
Read a good book about neighboring to get you inspired. Try Melody Warnick’s book, “This is Where You Belong.”
Take the MU Extension neighbor quiz and download their free “Becoming an Engaged Neighbor” information packet under the “engaged neighbor” tap at extension.missouri.edu/greene
Make yourself available by spending more time in the front yard.
Write one handwritten note a month or a week and mail or deliver it to a neighbor. Try expressing gratitude to a neighbor for something they do.
Ask a neighbor for help or to borrow something.
Make a phone call to a neighbor to chat, perhaps ask for advice.
Attend neighborhood events (if someone hosts them) or attend neighborhood meetings (if any are held).
Do a favor for a neighbor or perhaps make a special delivery.
Create and distribute a neighborhood newsletter.
Start taking walks through your neighborhood and say hello to anyone you see.
Use your children or dogs as ambassadors of new connections.
Wait to close the garage door until after you have unloaded your vehicle. If you see a neighbor outside or a car driving past, raise a hand to say hello.
Keep your head up when you check your mail. Acknowledge anyone you see outside.
If you have children, bring playtime or snack-time outside to the front yard. Invite neighbor kids to join if the opportunity arises.
Introduce yourself to a neighbor that you have not officially met before.
Tell a friend what you love about their children.
Send a message to a friend, letting them know you appreciate them.
Do chores for a family member who could use some extra free time.
Buy a plant. Put it in a terracotta pot. Write positive words on the pot and give it to a neighbor.
Organize a Halloween costume parade and contest in your neighborhood.
Neighbors work together on a one stop station for handing out candy for kids, grilling hot dogs for adults, having warm drinks.
Hot chocolate, cider, or hot coffee giveaway on cooler evenings.
Take treats to elderly neighbors who would appreciate the attention.
See if those in your neighborhood have a place to go for Thanksgiving, and if they don’t invite them over for a Thanksgiving meal.
Invite your neighbors to help the less fortunate in our community by collecting food for a food pantry for Thanksgiving.
Put on a neighborhood tea.
Put together a goodie-bag for the neighbors and go from house to house giving them out singing holiday songs.
Start a toy drive in the neighborhood for less fortunate children.
Give mini-Poinsettias with notes to special neighbors.
Offer free holiday gift-wrapping for the neighborhood w/coffee and cookies.
Hold Vacation Bible School in your neighborhood or a local park.
Neighborhood summer newspaper or e-mail: Ask neighbors for submissions about goings on in the community or block and write them up periodically.
Find out who the Vets are in your neighborhood and think of something you could do for them that would show you appreciate their service.
Plan a weekend exploration with families on your street to discover new things about your neighborhood.
Monthly “block talk” gatherings or “driveway chats.” Keep the food simple and let different homes host.
Host an Easter sunrise service on your driveway.
Organize an Easter Egg Hunt in the neighborhood.
For fathers: organize a neighborhood basketball or whiffle ball game.
For kids: Leave May Day (May 1st) flower baskets, ring bell, and run away.
Quarterly gatherings with invited guests – like someone from the city or another group – to share with residents.
Organize a monthly neighborhood book club and discussion.
Download a neighbor chart from MU Extension (extension.missouri.edu/greene) and work to fill in all eight squares with the names of your neighbors and their contract information.
Enroll in MU Extension’s free monthly Neighboring 101 class and learn from other practitioners from across the nation.
Follow “Becoming an Engaged Neighbor” on Facebook.
Work with neighbors or sponsors to do a neighborhood clean-up event with provided dumpsters.
Create and host a neighborhood tool library in your garage or elsewhere so neighbors can check out needed but lesser used tools for project.

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