BE nice to people. Do something nice for people. Feature writer Frank Elson is a firm believer of Random Acts of Kindness...

HAVE you ever arrived back at your parked car, knowing that you have gone over time and expecting a ticket, and found that someone has "fed" the parking meter?

Or have you entered a telephone box, unsure if you have enough change for the 'phone and found a 20 pence piece taped to the handset?

If so you have come into contact with a Random Act of Kindness.

An anonymous note through your letter box complimenting you on your well-kept garden; a note or card at your place of work thanking you for good service; a motorist letting you out of a side road -- all are Random Acts of Kindness that are spreading every day.

Like so many "strange" ideas RAOK originated in the USA, or possibly a bit further north.

For believers, although we are not organised in any shape or form, there are three main claims to have started the movement.

A journalist who was fed up writing those words "random act of violence"; a college professor who set a project for his students of carrying out one random act of kindness a day for a week; or a mother and daughter from Canada who were fed up with reading bad news.

When I first came across the idea in America five years ago it was called "gratuitous kindness" -- doesn't have the same ring to it does it? -- and it was well-established even then.

I pulled into a toll booth and was fishing for some change when the booth operator's mechanical voice boomed out: "Your toll was paid by the car in front, sir, have a nice day."

The American friend with me at the time explained what it was all about.

It was simply an act of kindness on the part of that motorist carried out in the hope that I might do the same for someone else.

I have tried to carry out at least one Random Act of Kindness a day ever since.

You would be amazed how easy it is.

Today RAOK is all over the world and last Christmas a group from America was to be found on the streets of Liverpool handing out mince pies to total strangers.

In Britain there have been various attempts to turn RAOK into a movement, with memberships and T-shirts, like that American group, but in the main we ignore that sort of thing.

Instead we smile at people in shops, before allowing them to go into the queue before us, we hold doors open (actually, that used to be simple good manners when I was younger) or we leave our change in the coffee machine for the next person who uses it.

While preparing this article I tried to find someone from the Bolton area who is involved in RAOK.

I couldn't, but then, perhaps the man who waved me out of a side street onto Halliwell Road yesterday is a supporter.

But one of the points of Random Acts of Kindness is that there is no need for an organisation -- you just go out and do them!

There is one problem here, however. Any reward is supposed to come from doing the act itself, in fact some adherents believe that acts need to be anonymous for that reason.

So, in fact I could be breaking the "code" by writing about RAOKs that I have committed. Then again, this is just one of the ways of spreading the word.

I do know that I have given up being surprised, when talking about RAOK, to hear someone say: "Oh, I do that."

Like the idea of carrying out a Random Act of Kindness?

You can do any of the acts mentioned above (except, perhaps the toll booth!) and anything else you can think of, but, in addition, try these out for size:

Bake some cakes or biscuits, or buy them if you're like me in the kitchen, and take them to your local police station, fire station, ambulance station or hospital with a note saying how much you appreciate the work that they do.

Write a thank-you note to a person from your past who made a difference in your life -- an old teacher for instance.

Pay a local youngster to cut the lawn of someone who is elderly or infirm

Buy a bouquet and have it delivered to the charge nurse at your nearest casualty department -- ask them to give it to the patient who they think deserves it most.

Take a box of pencils or exercise books to your local primary school. The head teacher will be delighted.

Send a thank you card to anyone who you think deserves it and probably doesn't ever get one. The lad behind the counter in the newsagents for instance.

At Christmas, go through your children's toys with them. Pick out toys they no longer play with and, together, take them to a children's hospital or charity.

Write notes, something nice and cheerful, perhaps with a few jokes in there and put them in odd places where they will be found by strangers -- behind car wipers, in library books, or maybe in staff pigeonholes at work.

H Since writing this piece a RAOK organisation has surfaced in Bolton. Contact Angie Hulme or John Greenwood on 07976 073968 for more details.