This year the City of Greenbelt is celebrating Friday, February 17 as a day of Random Acts of Kindness. At Monday’s city council meeting Mayor Emmett Jordan presented a proclamation recognizing the day to Robert Goldberg-Strassler and Lien and Maya Gareri of the Random Unselfish Acts of Kindness (RUAK) group. The proclamation stated that, “the City of Greenbelt recognizes simple acts of kindness performed without prompting or reason and how these acts can positively impact the performer, the recipient and the onlooker of the good deed.”
At the meeting Goldberg-Strasser highlighted three of RUAK’s projects: Greenbelt Porch, Greenbelt Plogs and Pre-K Storytime at Franklin Park.
Greenbelt Porch
Greenbelt Porch is a program for which Girl Scouts Lien and Maya Gerari are two of the coordinators. It’s been running for three years and has collected 10 tons of food for the St. Hugh’s Food Pantry.
Greenbelt Ploggers
Greenbelt Plogs is a group of ploggers – folks who pick up trash as they walk – committed to cleaning up the streets. There are now at least 25 ploggers in Greenbelt, said Goldberg-Strassler. Thanks to a partnership with Public Works, the Ploggers have been provided with gloves, reflective vests and pick-up sticks. They also coordinate with Public Works to communicate which areas have been cleared to avoid redundancy.
Pre-K Storytime
Finally, Goldberg-Strassler shared that one of the newer initiatives of RUAK is a Pre-K storytime at Franklin Park, begun last October, which he hopes will encourage literacy and help prepare children for school. RUAK had previously worked with Greenbelt Elementary School and Greenbelt Middle School but “I figured I’m missing the age 0 to 5 population,” said Goldberg-Strassler, who wants to “encourage the young to love literacy a little bit sooner and prep them for elementary school.” Last week Friday’s storytime session had 23 children in attendance, he reported.
Friday, February 17
Jordan said Friday is a day for random unselfish acts of kindness. “I don’t really know what we’ll see,” he said, “but hopefully we’ll see Greenbelters and folks from all over doing all sorts of wonderful things,” he said. If someone is interested in Porch or Plogging or other RUAK programs, contact spreadruak@gmail.com.
“It’s powerful,” said Jordan as he thanked Goldberg-Strassler. “It’s an example of if one person, three people, 10 people all just take a little time and do one thing it can make a huge difference,” said Jordan.
