World Caring Day Date in the current year: June 7, 2024

CaringBridge started as a personal website launched on June 7, 1997 by software engineer Sona Mehring for a couple of her college friends whose daughter Brighid was born prematurely. Thanks to the site, friends and family were able to receive online updates about the baby’s health since social media weren’t a thing back then. Sadly, baby Brighid died in surgery at just nine day old.

After Brigid’s death, Sona decided to keep the website going so that other people could use to share their health updates. By December 1997, it had 50 personal pages, and fours year later, there were 3,800 of them. In 2002, CaringBridge was officially registered as a nonprofit organization. Sona retired in 2017, two decades after the launch of the website, but CaringBridge is still going strong.

Although the website’s design has significantly changed since 1997, its purpose has remained the same. CaringBridge is a platform where people can create personalized websites to share their health updates with whomever they want to share and receive help and support.

The launch anniversary of the CaringBridge website has been celebrated as World Caring Day since 2022. The main goal of the holiday is to highlight all the ways we can connect with other people and show them that we care about them, to encourage people to share their inspirational stories of care and hope, to recognize those who are not afraid to show that they care and are willing to go an extra mile to support those who need it, and to celebrate caregivers who take care of their seriously ill, disabled, or elderly family members, improving their quality of life.

The best way to celebrate World Caring Day is to show people around you that your truly care. Spend time with your family and friends, ask someone how they are doing not just as an act of politeness but because your really want to know, reach out online to reconnect with an old friend or family member you haven’t heard from in a long time, etc.

And, of course, you shouldn’t stop caring once World Caring Day is over. Ideally, every day should be World Caring Day. Caring about others is a continuous process, and every act of caring, however small and insignificant it might seem, is important. Share your support, understanding, kindness and compassion with others, and they will do the same for you.