Sweetest Day: Treat sweethearts & less fortunate with sweet treats to eat
Move over, Valentine’s Day, and go grab your sweetheart. If your sweet tooth is screaming for a sweet treat to eat, you're in luck. In case you haven’t heard the latest buzz, one of the sweetest days of the year is almost here and Americans are more than ready to celebrate. Sweetest Day is an annual event is celebrated each year on the third Saturday in October.
Legend has it that Sweetest Day began in 1922 when candy company employee Herbert Birch Kingston distributed gifts and sweet treats to those less fortunate. Kingston spread his message of good cheer by handing out small gifts and tasty treats to those suffering from illness and disease, the elderly and disabled, shut-ins and orphans. It wasn’t long before others joined the effort.
While the holiday originally began in the Midwest, it gradually spread across the United States. Since then, many people across the nation have taken part in the annual event by giving sweet treats to orphans, shut-ins, people suffering from illnesses and diseases as well as friends, family and loved ones.
Sweetest Day Ideas:
Many people in nursing homes are lonely. Why not stop by your local retirement center or nursing home and make a new friend?
Whip up a batch of homemade cookies and make a special delivery to someone who has lost their job.
Offer to drive an elderly neighbor to the store or rake or mow their yard.
If you know someone who is suffering from an illness, offer to drive him or her to the doctor’s office or hospital.
Fall is a lovely time of the year to get out of the house and enjoy the beautiful scenery. Offer to take a shut-in on a scenic drive.
Volunteer!
Laughter is good for the soul. Pick up a few flicks (the funnier the better), grab a bag or two of popcorn, and deliver them to someone who needs a good laugh.
Make a handmade card with one of the special sayings or quotes below.
Sweetest Day Quotes & Sayings
It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice. - Author Unknown
You can't live a perfect day without doing something for someone who will never be able to repay you. - John Wooden
Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see. - Mark Twain
The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. - Helen Keller
All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them. – Walt Disney
Every charitable act is a stepping stone toward heaven. – Henry Ward Beecher
It is terrible to be alone and it is terrible to be in love, but one is cheaper than the other. – Unknown
We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone. – Ronald Reagan
Change your thoughts and you change your world. – Norman Vincent Peale
Your present circumstances don’t determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. – Nido Qubein
I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. – Maya Angelou
We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. - Winston Churchill
Whatever you do, never stop dreaming. – Darren L. Johnson
To me, faith means not worrying. – John Dewey
Humor is laughing at what you haven’t got when you ought to have it. – Langston Hughes
Believe you can and you’re halfway there. – Theodore Roosevelt
I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel. – Maya Angelou
Dream as if you’ll live forever, live as if you’ll die today. – James Dean
If I had no sense of humor, I would long ago have committed suicide. – Mohandas Gandhi
Nobody can go back and start a new beginning but anyone can start today and make a new ending. - Maria Robinson
You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
How beautiful a day can be when kindness touches it! - George Elliston
If you haven't any charity in your heart, you have the worst kind of heart trouble. - Bob Hope
In about the same degree as you are helpful, you will be happy. - Karl Reiland
Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up. - Jesse Jackson
Whether it’s a decadent assortment of delicious chocolates, a slice of mom’s famous apple pie or a tried-and-true or brand new recipe, today is the perfect day to whip up a few sweet treats to eat and share them with an elderly neighbor, lonely widow or complete stranger in a nursing home. Just make sure to save a few for you!
Happy Sweetest Day!