Dignity Health | hello Healthy | Winter 2018-2019

HelloHealthy | Winter 2018–2019 5 Join us next year! Dignity Health plans to make the March for Humankindness an annual event. Find out how kindness is good for you at dignityhealth.org/hello-humankindness . Healing through humanity Dr. Singh and his colleague, family medicine physician Sudhir Kakarla, MD, helped to come up with the idea for the march. They were inspired to create an event that would bring the community together and celebrate diversity with tolerance. Working in a hospital setting, both men know how important kindness can be to the healing process. “As a doctor, I know that a patient needs medicine to heal, but they also need kindness,” Dr. Singh says. “By showing them compassion and positivity, we can help their stress levels go down.” To make the world better The event included several speakers, including Blaine Hodge. Hodge was severely injured back in September while saving a woman he didn’t know from being attacked by a man with a machete. For Hodge, kindness is simple. “Humankindness to me is the little things that we as people do to make not only our community but the entire world a better place,” he says. “It’s the subtle yet warm smile you put on your face in spite of what you’re going through. It’s helping when no one’s asked you to because you know it’s going to make things easier.” A similar sentiment was echoed by many people who came out to show their support. “Humankindness is caring about each other and showing compassion for the people around you,” says Kelliane O’Neill, RN, a nurse manager at Mercy Hospital Southwest. “Being a nurse, we take care of people from all walks of life, and it’s so important that we show them how much we care.” “We need to do things without being asked or even expecting a thank-you,” says Tom Burch, a member of the East Bakersfield Rotary Club. “We are all human, and we are on this journey together.” The march around the CSUB campus was followed by a rally to kick off the first Roadrunners’ basketball game of the season.