Everyone needs be kind to each other, and sometimes people just need a little push to do nice things for others.

Oakland University makes sure to give students an opportunity to practice being kind to themselves and their community by putting on Kindness Week.

Every day during Kindness Week, which took place from Feb. 8 to Feb.12, there were activities put on by the Office of Student Involvement, Mission Kindness and Golden Key. Each activity involved either being kind to yourself or others around the OU community.

“Kindness week is a week to spread kindness, not just to each other but also to our community,” Brisilda Musaka, president of Golden Key and secretary of Mission Kindness said. “It’s a week we do a bunch of service projects.”

Golden Key, an international honors society at OU, is a student organization on campus that holds a dog toy making event where participants sew old t-shirts into dog toys. 

Mission Kindness is planning a huge mural, to symbolize small pieces coming together to make something big. Their final image will only be able to come together after everyone does their part in sharing kindness.

Monday started Kindness Week out, as students created kindness cards that were passed out around OU. There was also a presentation on the impact of being kind and how important it is. On Tuesday there was a Netflix watch party where participants watched “Set it Up” on Netflix while participating in kindness-affirming activities.

“While that was going on, people were able to make these kindness cards,” Emily Bernas, Graduate Assistant of Leadership and Service Programs said. “Or, just kind of take that time during the movie to watch it and destress and be kind to themselves.”

On Wednesday, OU had Dr. Emily Van Wasshenova from the School of Health Sciences discuss how to be kind to yourself through your diet. 

The official OU Day of Kindness was on Thursday, which also contained multiple service activities. Participants had the choice to either make an audiobook for elementary school students or make a blanket to donate to Project Linus. Project Linus gives blankets to children in need.

To make the audiobooks, OSI borrowed a bunch of books and scanned them into Powerpoint presentations, which were emailed out to students. Then, the students created zoom calls with themselves and recorded their book. 

The audiobooks were added to Google Drive. Teachers from Detroit Public Schools and Waterford Public Schools now have access to them. 

“[Recording audiobooks] kind of came from the first semester, it was really hard for students who were missing out on all of the in person learning,” Bernas said. 

Even with the pandemic going on, OU wanted to do their best to allow this tradition to continue on. Especially in this pandemic, it was important for OU organizations to be holding events that connect the community the best they can.

“You have to put in more effort to be a part of it, before you would just be walking by,” Sarah Bdeir, Vice President of Mission Kindness said. “But for this year you have to actually go to school just to participate, so it was like you had to go the extra mile.”