Kutztown Elementary students and staff performed more than 1,000 random acts of kindness and spread joy in the community during December.
“I’m really proud of our students,” said Principal Deb Barnes. “They were very focused on spreading joy to others and doing kind things for people in the community, their classmates, their families, so it really spread a lot of warm feelings throughout the community.”
Students were challenged to conduct 1,000 acts of kindness by Dec. 19. They achieved that goal a day early, and continued acting kindly after.
“Our students everyday have been logging their acts of kindness and putting them on a gift box,” said Barnes.
A colorful collection of gift boxes are posted on the walls in school cafeteria with descriptions of their acts of kindness. Acts ranged from helping parents do chores to baking cookies for elderly to donating their toys to underprivileged children, said Barnes.
“I hope they learned that the spirit of giving is very fulfilling and they have the capacity to spread joy to others and I hope that it will continue even beyond the month of December,” said Barnes.
Their reward is to watch a movie during school Dec. 22.
“The teachers wanted to have a movie afternoon right before the holiday, so I said we could use that as a celebration if the students spread kindness and joy throughout the month of December,” said Barnes.
Kindergarteners through second graders will watch “Happy Feet” and third graders through fifth graders will watch “Ice Age.”
Fifth grader Evan Blatt, 10, was particularly excited about getting to watch a movie during school.
“My favorite part of the project was to see if we could reach 1,000 and we got more than expected,” said Blatt, who helped his Dad when he was sick, getting him a blanket.
When asked how he felt about the school reaching their goal, he said, “Awesome, because I love movies.”
Kindergartener Hazel Habeck, 5, was also really excited to watch a movie at school. Just on one gift box she logged seven acts of kindness, including turning on the water for a classmate.
“I really like everyone to be happy and have a Happy New Year,” said Habeck.
Kindergartener Andrew Gilbert, 5, said he helped his brother by bringing his backpack downstairs. He felt happy to help his brother and his brother was happy for receiving the help.
Does this make Andrew want to do more acts of kindness? “Yes,” said Andrew.
“The project has been wonderful. I’m so proud of the kids… They were just so excited about it,” said kindergarten teacher Nikki Yergey.
“I hope that they learn that being kind is easy to do and they don’t need a challenge to continue it and that they can realize how it makes other people feel and how it makes them feel to give and be kind,” said Yergey.
Fourth grader Cathlene Moatz, 9, said, “I think it’s awesome” that KES reached the goal of 1,000 acts of kindness. When asked about the importance of acts of kindness, she said, “It shows that you really care.”
