Wouldn’t it be nice to do something kind for someone this week?
Simon Moynihan
Staff Writer

And what a great week to do something good!

Electric Ireland has just launched their Powering Kindness Week in which the energy company will give €100,000 to three charities based us nominating our good deeds.

It is Electric Ireland’s second year running the initiative and they are asking the Irish public to let them know about acts of kindness and good deeds received and done for others, and then nominate those deeds to one of their three sponsored charities - Childline, Special Olympics Ireland and Breakthrough Cancer Research.

The charity that receives the highest number of good deed nominations will receive €50,000, and the other two with receive €30,000 and €20,000 respectively.

If you want to get involved with Power Kindness, there are loads of ways. There’s a website:

www.poweringkindness.ie

… upon which you’ll find the Deed-Feed – which is just brilliant and chock full of little kindnesses and some pretty substantial good deeds – which of course you can add to…

then there’s facebook:

http://apps.facebook.com/poweringkindness

and you can nominate by text, twitter and Instagram. Just let Electric Ireland know which charity you want to nominate and let the world know about your good deed.

And good deeds are good for you - it’s official. Dr Maureen Gaffney, Professor of Psychology at UCD reckons kindness has a major impact on our happiness and our mood. And it’s a major part of the grammar of civil society too! Integral to what we call ‘quality of life’ in Ireland.

Dr Gaffney says: ‘When someone performs an act of kindness, it makes them feel good about themselves. Importantly it also gives them a sense of control, allowing them to feel that they can make a change to the lives of those around them. Both parties involved in the act of kindness benefit.’

And there you have it - feel good about yourself, make someone else happy, and nudge Electric Ireland into giving a shedload of money to your chosen chartity!