April 16th Is National High Five Day

High five! Down low? Too slow. Today, April 16th is officially High Five Day. Oh, you didn't know it existed? Well it does.

When I see someone doing a high five, I'm reminded of how David Putty from Seinfeld, used to do it all the time and Elaine explained to him that the ritual was so "grease monkey".

It started in 2002 at the University of Virginia by a group of students who gathered to give out high fives...oh, and some lemonade too. Here's how you celebrate, it's not too difficult. Give and receive some high fives. Not too hard, huh?

Wait, there has to be more to it than that, right? Of course there is. How silly would it be to dedicate the third Thursday of April as National High Five Day, as just a day to run around giving high fives?

This year, NHFD has teamed up with Action for Healthy Kids, which is a charity that promotes fitness and fights childhood obesity.

Ok, I get it, it’s a charity thing. Yes it is. Here are some things High 5 days in the past have done.

In 2010, the founders of National High Five Day decided to try to direct all the good-will from National High Five Day towards doing real and tangible good. They incorporated National High Five Project and were granted tax-deductible status by the IRS.

In 2011, they used the holiday to raise money for a National High Five Day Scholarship, which was awarded to Brooke Adams -- the winner of the NH5D essay contest and a freshman at the Florida Institute of Technology.

2012 saw the Inaugural National High-5-A-Thon For Cancer Research. Based on the model of a fun run or a dance-a-thon, almost 200 participants from 42 states gave high-fives all day on National High Five Day and raised more than $16,000 for five cutting-edge cancer research centers.

In 2013, because of the tragic events at the Boston Marathon, National High Five Project partnered with Boston-area mental health and physical therapy service providers to raise money for free services for victims of the bombings.