Eight Weeks of Kindness

Over eight weeks, 24 Radius Care homes took turns planning a random act of kindness. Each home had its own week. What stood out was not the scale, but the feel of it. You could hear it in the kitchen when baking started early, or in the lounge when someone asked, “Do you think they’ll like this?” You could see it in the way residents leaned in together over a craft table, or checked a list twice before heading out.

These weeks reminded us that care is not something one person gives and another receives. Residents were not waiting for kindness. They were making it. They baked for neighbours, knitted for new babies, visited schools, shared songs, and left small gifts where they knew they’d be found. Some acts were planned carefully, others happened on the spot. All of them came from the same place, a wish to be part of something outside the front door.

Elloughton Gardens residents thanked local kindergartens by making handmade cards and gifting children’s reading books to celebrate their special bond.

When residents are supported to give, something shifts. You notice shoulders sit a bit higher. Conversations get livelier. People start suggesting ideas of their own. A resident who is usually quiet might say, “What if we do it this way?” Staff and families step in alongside them, not to take over, but to back them. It becomes a shared effort, the kind that makes a home feel like a community in motion.

This campaign also changed how we see our homes. They are not just places where people are looked after. They are places where people still shape the world around them. A tray of scones dropped to a local group, a blanket handed over with a laugh, a wave at the school gate. These are simple moments, but they carry weight. They say, “We’re here, and we’ve got something to offer.”

What Lasts

Radius Millstream residents knitted and delivered baby hats, blankets, singlets, and other items to maternity wards in Ashburton and Christchurch.

What lasts after the eight weeks is that feeling of mutual care. Kindness moved in every direction, between residents, staff, whānau, and neighbours. It was practical and real. It showed that aging does not close a person off from giving. If anything, it can deepen it.

Random Acts of Kindness were small things done many times. And together, it nudged the story of care back where it belongs: with all of us, doing life alongside each other.

 

Hearts in Action Across Our Homes