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Random Acts of Kindness, campaign image, music, memories, elderly person, tackling loneliness

Enviral x Marmalade Trust – Random Acts of Kindness campaign

By Bonnie Middleton

17 Feb 2022

5 Min


Making connections through memories

For Random Acts of Kindness Day 2023, we joined forces with the Marmalade Trust, a Bristol-based charity dedicated to raising awareness of loneliness and helping people make new friendships.

The aim of this campaign was to spread a simple act of kindness and we hope it inspires you to do the same – be the reason somebody smiles today.

The last few years have been isolating for many and only amplified feelings of loneliness. Although it can often be associated with older people, lockdown life and the transition for many to work from home has meant many more people are experiencing feelings of loneliness and realising how important human connection is. 

With this in mind, in our own way –  this February we are trying to support people experiencing loneliness and raising awareness of the feeling. We’ve teamed up with our great friends, and Bristol neighbours over at Marmalade Trust, for a Random Acts of Kindness Day campaign. We’re hoping the campaign will inspire people (globally) to take a small action to spread kindness in their community.

To spread kindness we’re using a great love of ours and something that keeps us inspired and stoked on a daily basis – music. Music is an amazing art form that can evoke memories, give us all the feels and truly spread joy.

So, how have we done it? We wanted to create something that lasted by giving a gift that keeps on giving. So our team sourced MP3 players (that in true Enviral style were all second-hand) and headphones. We pre-loaded these with some cracking compilation albums covering various genres of music from romance and rock and roll to the swooner classics. We then worked with Marmalade Trust to find a number of their members (people experiencing loneliness) who they thought would benefit the most and would feel real joy reminiscing about old times gone. With the music sparking some real memories, gifting the members these iPods meant they could go back and listen to them again and again.

We sanitised and packaged up the MP3 players, headphones and chargers, we popped in a handwritten note explaining their gift, along with some instructions on how to use and charge the players. With addresses in hand and with the help of the Marmalade Trust we went about hand-delivering these special gifts to members of our community.

We’ve created an easy-to-use toolkit that will allow you to follow our step-by-step guide so you can get involved and be the reason somebody smiles today.

Head to this PDF document to view the instructions online – we recommend you print this How To Use An iPod Shuffle manual out so that it can be handed over to the person receiving the device, this way they can confidently use their MP3 player. 

 

Watch our team in action below

It’s been an absolute pleasure working alongside the team at the Marmalade Trust, the work they do on a daily basis deserves endless recognition and support.

Here are five easy ways you can support the work they’re doing.
1. Donate
2. Fundraise
3. Volunteer
4. Become a corporate partner
5. Share this video

If you would like to understand more about loneliness check out the Marmalade Trust’s resources and also find other ways to connect with people who may be isolated and feeling lonely.