Crafting A Kinder World

Michaels celebrates Random Acts of Kindness Day with $100,000 in giveaways

Random Acts of Kindness Day is Friday, Feb. 17, and to celebrate the spirit of the day and encourage others to participate, Michaels will give away more than $100,000 in gift cards at its 1,060+ stores and on its Facebook page.

Throughout the day, Michaels will randomly hand out thousands of gift cards in its stores and through Facebook to inspire people to in turn do something kind for others, such as donating their gift cards to a school, church or hospital, or using the cards to buy supplies to make a special homemade gift for someone.

“This is a fun way for us to say thanks to our loyal customers and an opportunity for them to pay it forward with a DIY gift,” said Michaels Chief Marketing Officer Paula Puleo. “We hope that our participation in Random Acts of Kindness Day will inspire our customers throughout the year.”

The unofficial holiday falls during Random Acts of Kindness Week®, Feb. 13-19, founded by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, an internationally recognized nonprofit organization based upon the powerful belief in kindness, and dedicated to providing resources and tools that encourage acts of kindness.

Customers who want to participate in the holiday with a hand-made gift can find suggested projects to share at Michaels.com/sharethelove.

In our continuing exploration of lesser known holidays, let’s take a look at Terry Fox Day, which is probably one you know if you’re Canadian.

Terry Fox was a Canadian athlete who had a leg amputated at age 18 because of cancer and then did a cross-country run to raise awareness and funding for cancer research. He was born July 28, 1958, and the first Monday in August is celebrated as Terry Fox Day in Manitoba.

Fox is considered a kind of folk hero in Canada despite the difficulties of traveling across Canada on foot (no one on his team spoke French, for example, the weather was often bad and cars would force him off the road) and the low number of donations at the beginning of his run. He ultimately had to end his run after 143 days and 3,339 miles, or 5,373 km, because his cancer had returned and spread to his lungs, but he raised $1.7 million, and a telethon a week after he ended his run raised $10.5 million.

Check out some Terry Fox quotes collected by My Little Desire. You can learn more in this video from CBC Kids, and listen to the Terry Fox song illustrated by a first grade class.

Twinkl has a bunch of Terry Fox related activities in both English and French, including an activity pack with a maze and word search, a coring challenge, a fact sheet and coloring page.

Most of the resources I could find were at Teachers Pay Teachers, but you can learn more about the activity pack for grades 1-3 that Mrs. Bremer’s Class has made, which tells his story and has kids write things they learned and discuss why they think he is a hero.

Creative Classroom Core has a few paid resources include writing activities, reading comprehension and a Terry Fox fact book.

That Fun Reading Teacher has a K-2 singalong with a differentiated reader and activity to teach kids about him.

You can also celebrate Terry Fox Day by talking about what makes a person a hero and who the kids in your home or classroom think of as heroes. And if you’re Canadian, there are Terry Fox runs in more than 650 communities in September, so you can make plans to participate or cheer on the runners to remember his legacy.

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