Princess Diana Gets Her Own Commemorative Day: National Kindness Day

This year on August 31 will mark the twentieth anniversary of the death of the “People’s Princess,” Princess Diana. The organization known as The Diana Award, has finally received the support to name a day after her. Hello Magazine reports that Princess Diana’s National Kindness Day occurred on March 31, 2017, but its energy will carry through until its goal is reached.

The day is appropriately named after Princess Diana’s most beloved trait, kindness, with March 31 being known as National Kindness Day.

Princess Diana is known for her beauty and grace, and royal watchers worldwide still grieve her loss. But they can celebrate her loss by joining forces with The Diana Award, and honoring her legacy by embodying her legacy, kindness. Princess Diana worked tirelessly her entire life, whether that was in the war-torn fields of Bosnia, or holding hands in the hospital with AIDS patients.

Visiting the land-mine torn areas of Bosnia to meet with children wounded by landmines was a particular effort of Princess Diana’s.

However, her list of kindnesses is almost infinite. As such, The Diana Award launched National Kindness Day on March 31 of this year and will continue to honor National Kindness Day for years to come. The charity is one whose “mission is to inspire and recognize social action in young people.”

The website for The Diana Award says they are proudly supported by HRH Prince William, HRH Prince Harry, and the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton.

The goal of National Kindness Day is just that, to honor Princess Diana by engaging in random acts of kindness. During Princess Diana’s life, she was privileged to meet many great people, from Hillary Clinton to Mother Teresa, in her pursuit of making the world a better place through kindness. The Diana Award states on their website the following.

“The Diana Award is a charity legacy to Diana, Princess of Wales’ belief that young people have the power to change the world. Our mission is to foster, develop, and inspire positive change in the lives of young people.”

The Diana Award does this every day in three ways, with their three-fold mission of encourage, empower, and engage. They have a store where they sell products such as #StandUpToBullying wristbands, and memorabilia empowering youth.

In launching National Kindness Day, The Diana Award underwent extensive research, reports Hello Magazine. They found that the Brits are very kind, with almost three in five Brits saying they have received a random act of kindness this year. The Diana Award wants to see this number go up, and have launched a challenge on their website in honor of Princess Diana’s National Kindness Day.

The goal of the organization is to reach 20,000 random acts of kindness. At the time of press, the website for National Kindness Day has logged 349 random acts of kindness. Anyone from anywhere in the world can log when they have received a random act of kindness on the website, and honor the memory of Princess Diana when they do so.

Those that aren’t sure what a random act of kindness is can find examples on the website. Those include things like receiving a compliment from a stranger or being given directions when one is lost. The study shows women are more likely than men to receive a random act of kindness, and millennials are also more likely to receive a random act of kindness than any other generation.

Chief Executive Officer of The Diana Award, Tessy Ojo, had the following to say of the day launched in Princess Diana’s memory.

“It’s heartening to see that as a nation we’re kind and caring – but these new statistics also highlight there’s much more we can do to make us even kinder. That’s why we’re kick-starting a campaign of kindness on National Kindness Day in memory of Princess Diana.”

In addition to promoting random acts of kindness on Princess Diana’s National Kindness Day, The Diana Award seeks to bring awareness to bullying. They also wish to promote mentoring for youth to empower them to change the world, just like Princess Diana did. Anyone in the world can log their random act of kindness and honor Princes Diana at the same time.

[Feature Image by Ian Waldie/AP Images]