Students spread awareness on World Kindness Day
Compassion in Action club members juniors Zain Syed, Kate Bushnell and Toan Vu stand in the PAC loby with sponsor Lesley Thalhuber during A lunch on Nov. 13. Students in the club walked through the halls passing out small items, such as gum, hot chocolate or gloves, to peers and teachers.
November 13, 2018
Today, Nov. 13, is World Kindness Day, a day where random acts of kindness are encouraged and celebrated throughout communities across the world. In the spirit of the day, a small group of students gathered together in the Performing Arts Center lobby for a few slices of pizza, and planned to spread nice gestures around the school. The event was organized by the Compassion in Action Club (CIA) club, which Lesley Thalhuber, the outreach counselor at RBHS, sponsors. The CIA made many pamphlets for the occasion, each with a different “kindness mission” to be completed inside, such as giving gloves or hot chocolate to a stranger.
“Students will grab a kindness mission, and they will go do something kind during their lunch shift,” Thalhuber said. “In each kindness packet there is a little small token of appreciation for the person that showed up to spread kindness.”
Even students not in CIA participated, such as Jessica Payne, who was inspired by the valuable intentions of the holiday.
“We talk about things we can do, like random acts of kindness, and how people have affected us with kindness recently,” Bailey said. “We also just have discussions about how we have been recently.”
Kindness is extremely important to the core moral fabric of the club. Thalhuber and the students who are involved in the club seek to make a healthier school environment. Thalhuber said the next CIA meeting is Wednesday, Nov. 28.
“It is super important for the climate in our school to improve. I am the outreach counselor and work a lot with kids who are super stressed, anxious, depressed, that kind of thing,” Thalhuber said. “I know that kindness is one of those things that helps relationships, mental health, life satisfaction. It’s just really important to me. We know that kindness is contagious, and witnesses to kind events are more likely to go and do something kind themselves.”
How did you celebrate national kindness day? Let us know in the comments below.
Lupita A • Dec 13, 2018 at 12:52 pm
This is so cool! I really like what the club did to organize that event. The smallest things can go a long way!
Maddie • Dec 13, 2018 at 12:25 pm
Wow, I’m so glad that kids are getting involved and are being encouraged to be kind. That’s a very valuable lesson that some people don’t even learn throughout their lives.
Alma Jarbou • Dec 11, 2018 at 12:38 pm
I hadn’t known that there was a club centered on helping other students and staff. This was really cool to read about!
Elliot B • Dec 3, 2018 at 11:01 pm
With all the bad things going on in the world today, and the toxic environments at many schools, it’s good to see students here fighting against that.
Ross • Dec 3, 2018 at 12:06 pm
It’s really cool to read that there is a CIA club at RB. I was unaware that there was a group of students centered on helping people.
Anjali • Nov 19, 2018 at 10:05 am
It’s really special to see how a school in a small town can really impact its students. Thanks for writing about this! This is a club I might be interested in joining!
Sarah • Nov 14, 2018 at 11:58 am
It’s great how students are encouraged to spread kindness throughout our community! Small acts of kindness can be very impactful.