February 16, 2024 – This week is Random Acts of Kindness Week, and schools all around the district have been taking on projects to make students, staff, and community members feel more loved as a way to celebrate.
Sponsored by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, Random Acts of Kindness Week is a national effort to promote mindfulness of the way people treat each other and how to make friends, families, neighbors, and more feel like the people in their lives are looking out for them. Throughout the week, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools students and staff members have been looking for ways to convey kindness through even the smallest of actions. For example, the student council at Ward Elementary School has been issuing daily challenges to do things like smile a certain number of times or say good morning to a certain number of people before classes start. They also reached out to the community outside the school by writing Valentine’s Day cards for a nearby assisted living facility.
“Our students are responsible for projects both in our school and in our community,” said Student Council Advisor and Fifth Grade Teacher Kristy Franklin. “They’re really getting into it. They believe that what they’re doing is special.”
Rural Hall Elementary School has had parent volunteers come in every day of the week to help greet car riders when they arrive at school and offer some encouraging words. Morgan Elementary School sent supportive cards and drawings up the road to the staff at the Novant Health Clemmons Medical Center. Clemmons Elementary School set a goal to collect over 2,000 boxes of cereal to help feed the hungry, and once they had all of their donations, they lined them up in the halls and knocked them down in a line of dominoes that stretched all the way out the front door. Big projects like these help students see that doing something good for others can be a fun and rewarding experience.
“It’s a good thing for them to be able to see,” said School Finance Manager Sandy Ivester from Clemmons Elementary. “It really shows off all of the good that they’ve been able to do. Encouraging them to help others is the important part.”
The great thing about a random act of kindness is that it often inspires another. The positivity that this week’s projects have created for people who weren’t necessarily expecting it can be foundational in setting the tone for an engaged and collaborative school culture. Even people without a direct connection to these schools are feeling better knowing that local students are going out of their way to practice kindness.
“We are very, very thankful,” said Sandra Jones from Guest Services at Clemmons Medical Center after Morgan Elementary dropped off their cards. “It makes it a lot easier to do our jobs when we know that these kids are thinking of us.”
Even once Random Acts of Kindness Week ends, students plan to keep putting the skills they’ve honed this week to good use. Hopefully, they’ll make their schools better places to learn and grow with a little bit of extra kindness.
“I like being nice to people,” said Fourth Grader Landon Young from Rural Hall Elementary School. “When people aren’t talking bad about each other, it makes school better.”