Dear World-Changing Kids and Adults – We Need Your Help!
It is with a heavy heart that I write this … there has been another incident of hateful graffiti in our community. So now we need to make Kindness Cards, so many Kindness Cards, for two different recipients …
Rabbi Anna Maranta: One of our friends and neighbours here in Ottawa has been treated really meanly because of the religion she follows. Someone wrote some hateful messages on the front door of Rabbi Anna Maranta’s home.
Machzikei Hadas: Messages of hate were also spray-painted on the side of a Jewish Modern Orthodox synagogue in south Ottawa. Our friends who attend this synagogue are going to be feeling really scared and upset right now.
This is not acceptable. We need to send a message that we will not stand for this. We also need to show our friends that we care about them and support them.
We are asking you to make some Kindness Cards for our friends. Here are some step by step suggestions for this activity:
1. Material and Supplies
Kindness Cards can be made with any type of material – they are all beautiful and powerful. You can use construction paper, or plain white paper, or a fancy blank card and envelope. You can use crayons, pencil crayons or markers. You could add stickers and stamps. As long as you are creating the card with love and kindness, those feelings will shine through!
2. Picture for Cover of Kindness Card
You could draw any type of friendly, loving, joyful picture on your Kindness Card – you could draw a heart, a peace sign, a rainbow, a flower … or anything that makes you happy. You could also just write the world “LOVE” all over the card – I read a card once that had the world “LOVE” written 15 times on the cover and I can tell you that it makes you feel loved to read that word that many times!
3. Message for Inside of Kindness Card
For the message inside, you could write something like …
“We are all flowers from the same garden”, or
“We want you to know that we love and support you and are so happy that we are neighbours”, or
“We hope this card makes your day a bit brighter”
Let us know if you have any other great ideas for loving messages for the cards – the more ideas the better!
4. Delivery of Kindness Card
You could mail a Kindness Card to Rabbi Anna Maranta at:
64 Powell Avenue
Ottawa, ON
K1S 2A1
You could mail a Kindness Card to Machzikei Hadas at:
2310 Virginia Dr,
Ottawa, ON
K1H 6S2
If you live in the Alta Vista area, you could drop off your cards at my house and I will make sure to deliver them at the end of the week! Send me a message and I will send you my address if you don’t already have it.
If you live in a different neighbourhood of Ottawa – or are a business owner in a different neighbourhood – and you want to volunteer to collect some cards and deliver them, please let us know and we will share your address on our post! We would greatly appreciate the help!
5. Share a Photo of Your Kindness Card
If you wanted to send us a photo of your Kindness Card, or post a photo in the comments here, we would love to see it! This could help others find the inspiration for creating their card too!
For more information on these stories, you can click on these links:
http://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/swastika-slur-spraypainted-on-glebe-jewish-centre
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/swastika-machzikei-hadas-synagogue-1.3854868