Endless Acts of Kindness

In addition to celebrating Black history in February, this month is also known for celebrating kindness. As such, National Kindness Month is dedicated to the spreading and promotion of kindness. At ACIT, plenty of activities have been orchestrated to celebrate National Kindness Month and to get the school community involved.
“Kindness is the easiest thing to spread,” says Ms. Pickett, guidance counselor and organizer of ACIT’s Kindness Month events. “These activities make us remember how important [and] rewarding it is to put a smile on someone else’s face.”
During the first week of February, “secret agents” were selected from different grade levels to complete random acts of kindness. These activities encouraged students to go out of their way to speak to people they wouldn’t typically associate with.
“I did things like hold the door for strangers, help teachers clean up their classrooms, and ask some new people about their day,” says one secret agent.
For the second week of February, there was a new activity where students and staff wrote kind messages on coffee sleeves donated by WaWa. Food bags were also donated by Dunkin Donuts. After being decorated with the messages, these coffee sleeves and food bags were returned to the stores to be used by strangers. Some of the coffee sleeves were also kept to be used in the Cafe on Main.
“I wrote short messages like ‘You are loved’ and ‘Have a wonderful day,’” says Sarah Nicholas, a junior who participated in these activities.
Hashtags like “#ACITcaresalatte” and “#ACITshowskindness” were also written on some of the sleeves so that the messages could be shared on social media as well.
In the third week, student-volunteers were challenged with a list of twelve random acts of kindness to complete by the week’s end in exchange for a prize. Some of these challenges included helping someone with their homework, holding the door open for someone, giving someone a compliment, and writing a thank you note.
“Performing these acts of kindness made me feel good,” says sophomore Erin Rybka. “I was able to use this as an opportunity to get out there and help others.”
For the final activity of the month, Ms. Pickett set up a spot in the cafeteria where students could fill out “kindness grams” for teachers and staff members. Kindness grams are a way for students to show their gratitude toward ACIT’s staff with a kind message for those they appreciate.
“There are so many more possibilities, you just have to be creative and think about what would make you smile!” says Ms. Pickett.
Often, being kind costs you nothing. The intrinsic reward that follows is priceless, and the opportunities for such kindness span well beyond the month of February.