OC Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts commit to month of kindness as part of One Billion Acts of Kindness initiative

kindness heart scouts patchThe Girl Scouts of Orange County and the Boy Scouts of America’s Orange County Council are joining forces with OCDE in the month of November — and beyond — to make progress toward one billion acts of kindness.

Aligning with the One Billion Acts of Kindness initiative and its goal to make kindness a lifelong habit, the scouts’ collective campaign, “A Scout is Kind,” will be asking its members and volunteers to commit at least one act of kindness per day in November.

“By participating, Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts across Orange County will continue to grow their capacity to be kind and inspire others to follow their lead,” said Girl Scouts of Orange County’s Vice President of Mission Operations Vikki Shepp. “They will be giving their peers and family members an example to follow and working together to reach our county’s goal of one billion.”

She went on to note that the scouts’ hope, much like that of OCDE, is to establish a kindness trend that will last the entire school year and will proactively and positively impact the lives of the kids.

According to Shepp, if all 50,000 members log just one good deed each of the 30 days in November, they can add 1.5 million acts to the initiative’s grand total.

“Anything we do for 30 days, one hopes, may just become a lifelong habit,” said John Hovanesian, chairman of the board for Boy Scouts of America’s Orange County Council. “What better way could there be to teach our kids about the sixth point of the Boy Scouts Scout Law? The law reads a scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.”

The Orange County Service Unit leaders — representatives at geographical groupings of the troops — shared the official One Billion Acts of Kindness initiative website with their troops, provided a few examples of ways to be kind and gave instructions on ways to log their good deeds. They also introduced a special kindness tear-off flyer that scouts can use in their communities.

Both organizations will have a special commemorative campaign participation patch available in late November at their council shops located throughout Orange County and online through their respective websites.

“We are all truly excited to have the opportunity to contribute to the One Billion Acts of Kindness initiative,” said Shepp.