On Monday, Feb. 17, Baker University’s parMentors introduced “Random Acts of Kindness Day,” a day where students on campus can uplift one another and spread kindness. 

ParMentors is an organization on Baker’s campus that includes an elite group of students who go through an interview process to be accepted into the program.  

“A parMentor is a student on campus that the university knows they can use at different functions, like alumni functions… and represent the student body,” senior Chandler Rogers said. 

 Each member is paired with an alumnae mentor who will aid them throughout their time at Baker and after college. 

“… For me, I’m pursuing nutrition and dietetic, so I have a mentor that is a dietitian,” Senior and parMentor member Alyssa Monson said. “We email and they get invited for coffee with the parMentors, so we have that coming up.” 

As one of parMentors initiatives, they decided to bring kindness to Baker by hosting the Random Acts of Kindness Day. 

“It is a day where you intentionally go out of your way to show someone that you care and that they’re as important and more important than you at that moment,” Monson said. 

This was the first time the parMentors and Baker were encouraged to participate in the Random Acts of Kindness Day.

“We are gifted a book from a former Board of Trustee member, Susanne Teel, every November,” Director of parMentors Kelsey Nolte said. “The parMentors are asked to read that book before we come back for the spring semester and this year’s book was written by someone who gave a graduation speech.”  

The book encourages incorporating random acts of kindness into people’s lives and states that it is never too late to start being kind.

“Your kindness kind of ebbs and flows and that’s ok,” Nolte said. “As long as you know that you should be partaking in random acts of kindness frequently.” 

The members of parMentors read this book and began planning for Baker’s Random Day of Kindness. 

“We worked through the book and had a lot of key takeaways,” Rogers said. “People feel like they can’t be kind until all their work is done. That’s not the case, start being kind now.”

An email had been sent out to campus on Random Acts of Kindness Day motivating students to be kind. 

Monson said, “As a late Valentine’s Day present, I gave some of my sorority sisters a box of chocolates and then I called my friends I hadn’t talked to in a while.”

Not only that, but a surprise gift was given to some faculty members to show appreciation for their hard work. 

“We dropped donuts and coffee off to the security and maintenance people. They keep us all safe and keep the campus looking nice and beautiful and make people want to come here and enjoy being here,” Rogers said. 

It can be simple to integrate kindness into everyday life.  

“The simplest things; smiling at someone, telling someone hello, genuinely thanking someone for doing something for them,” Nolte said. “Giving people bits of encouragement throughout the day can kind of pick them up.” 

ParMentors is always looking for more members to spread kindness. Apply by Feb. 28th at 4 p.m. to start the membership process.