Friday, November 4, 2016

Today is Random Act of Kindness Day

The University of Waterloo is proud to participate in Random Act of Kindness Day (RAK Day) this Friday, November 4, 2016. Supporting The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation, the RAK Day campaign seeks to create a more empathetic and connected community.

Throughout the day, students, faculty, and staff dubbed the “Kindness Krew” will be spreading kindness with small, yet meaningful deeds for others across campus and throughout the region. Check out all the activities, and share your kindness stories using #UWaterlooRAK!

BASE students help make kindness a priority today

This article was originally published on the Renison English Language Institute's website.

Student volunteers from the Bridge to Academic Success in English (BASE) program will be spearheading initiatives across campus at UWaterloo to make kindness a priority on Friday, November 4.

National Random Act of Kindness Day^® marks the first Friday in November each year. Launched in Kitchener-Waterloo by The Kitchener and Waterloo Community Foundation, this year marks the second year where Renison engages English Language Learners in activities to build leadership experience while putting their language skills into action.

Close to 70 student volunteers from BASE will be facilitating activities in the Student Life Centre Great Hall, Davis Centre Library, and the Dana Porter Library. Twenty upper-year UWaterloo students are also volunteering as peer helpers to positively role model leadership skills and support in the execution of event activities. 

All activities have been brainstormed and developed by the student leaders with the goal to encourage others to perform kind acts and to promote the importance of kindness in our community. 

Activities in the Student Life Centre Great Hall include:

• Friendship Ball Pit: Answer icebreaker questions on the balls in our ball pit, and make a new friend!
• Write Your Name in Mandarin: A gift from our English Language Learners to you - find out how to write your name in Mandarin characters.
• Mascot Hugs Photo Station: Take your photo with King Warrior, and write what kindness means to you on our whiteboard.
• Free treats: Our friends in Food Services will be helping us offer up treats to students.

In addition to activities organized by BASE students, student leaders from the Renison Academic Student Council (RASC), Sustainable Campus Initiative, Random Act of Kindness Krew club, and International and Canadian Student Network (ICSN) will be hosting activity stations in SLC.

Activities in the Dana Porter Library include:

• Write Your Own Thank You Card: We'll provide you the supplies - thank your don, peer leader, TA, tutor, or peers. Write a card!
• Make an Origami Flower or Bookmark: Brighten someone's day. We'll give you the supplies and teach you how to make an origami flower or a monster bookmark!
• What Makes You Smile?: Share on our bulletin board what sort of things brighten your day! 

Activities in the Davis Centre Library include:

• Make Your Own Kindness Fortune Cookie: The supplies are here for you. Learn how to make a paper fortune cookie - and write a compliment inside!
• Mascot Hugs Photo Station: Renison's mascot, Reni Moose, will be on hand for free hugs and photos!
• Adult Colouring Pages: De-stress, relax, and colour a page! It's a perfect gift to pass along to a friend as an act of kindness.
• How Do You Spread Kindness?: Share on our bulletin board what sort of things brighten your day!

Join us on November 4 to make kindness a priority, UWaterloo!

To learn more about Random Act of Kindness Day^®, a national initiative, visit www.kwcf.ca/kindness. 

Women are the musicians, not the instruments, in Eurydice

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To bring back the dead, don’t look back. It’s the one condition the ruler of the Underworld gives to Orpheus, a gifted musician who braves Hell to find his wife, Eurydice. A simple enough demand, but all too soon, Orpheus looks back and must watch as his wife disappears forever, her only parting words a “farewell.”

Playwright Sarah Ruhl challenges this perplexing silence in Eurydice, a contemporary retelling of the classic Greek myth with a twist – the story is focused on Eurydice rather than Orpheus, and her exploration of love, empowerment, and the Underworld. Eurydice’s journey becomes a thought-provoking exploration of a young woman’s discovery of her essence, even as she is losing it.

The University of Waterloo Theatre & Performance production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice restores women to the centre of a classic myth.

Local director Matt White, the artistic director of Greenlight + Arts, says he is not interested in yet another male-centric exploration of the tale. “Eurydice is not about the man who turns back too soon and loses his wife for a second time – it’s about Eurydice and what she is willing to sacrifice in exchange for freedom.” He says. “She demands to be taken seriously as an equal; to become the Musician, rather than the instrument played.”

Performances are scheduled for November 16 to 19 at 8:00 p.m. in the Theatre of the Arts, with 12:00 p.m. matinees on November 16 and 17. General admission is $17, with students and seniors paying $13 ($5 with eyeGO).

Minister of Defence visits campus; other notes

The University of Waterloo branch of the Young Liberals of Canada will be hosting a Q&A session with the Honourable Harjit Singh Sajjan, Canada's Minister of National Defence, on Saturday, November 5.

The event takes place from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in QNC 2502.

Minister Sajjan is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Vancouver South and is Canada's first Sikh Minister of National Defence. He is a decorated war hero, playing an active role in Canada’s peacekeeping missions including a deployment in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and he served three times in Afghanistan. Back home, he served in the Vancouver Police Department for 11 years.

Students are invited to attend and ask a host of questions ranging from the roles of being a Member of Parliament or Cabinet Minister, or about the Minister's experiences in peacekeeping and combat operations.

Community flu clinics have been scheduled to take place in the Student Life Centre on Tuesday, November 8, Wednesday, November 9, and Thursday, November 10 from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in the Student Life Centre. Everyone is welcome, and there's no appointment necessary.

For more information about the flu shot and high risk eligibility, check out the Public Health Agency of Canada's website.