KISSIMMEE, Fla. – Students at Kissimmee Elementary School kicked off The Great Kindness Challenge, a weeklong event of random acts of kindness.
As part of the event, hundreds of schools across the world challenge students to be more thoughtful and spread joy. The Osceola County school joined the program as ambassadors after one of the math and science teachers went beyond her duties and signed up the school.
“When you do stuff for other people, they think you’re being kind, which is being nice,” fourth-grade student Ameera Kasmi said.
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Kasmi said it only takes one simple gesture to make someone feel extra special.
“Give flowers to people that feel, like, sick, cards, anything. Don’t be mean, don’t say rude stuff to people,” Kasmi said.
The Great Kindness Challenge began in 2012 as a movement by Kids for Peace, a global nonprofit organization founded by a high school student and a former elementary school teacher in California. The worldwide program now reaches more than 13 million students.
“Anybody that sees an act of kindness or feels how good that feels also is compelled by our natural instinct to go out and be kind as well, and it spreads and it’s contagious and it makes the world a better place,” Heather Rasmussen said.
The math and science teacher said she’s passionate about kindness and believes it’s a way to give back to students and the Central Florida community.
“With all that’s going on and social media and bullying and the different things that we deal with in the schools and -- I feel that kindness is one of the most important things that we can actually teach, even above our curriculum,” Rasmussen said.
As soon as she brought the idea to the school principal, she said he didn’t have to think twice about her initiative.
“My first impression was, ‘Let’s do it,’” Kissimmee elementary principal Nathan DeRight said. “Our kids are full of heart. Our kids come from various cultures and backgrounds and needs, and we do everything to support them but they bring a lot for us, too. They are kind and they are caring and they are comforting for us as individuals as well.”
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The event turns the school into a village of students, faculty and staff members committed to helping each other spread happiness as they look forward to a brighter future.
“I think the more screen time that we have, sometimes the less face time we have actually with people, and we have to kind of get back to the roots of where we are really showing our humanity to each other and really looking in each other’s eyes and seeing what people need,” Rasmussen said.
Students will receive a kindness checklist that includes gestures, like sharing a smile, making a new friend, telling a joke to make people laugh or offering to help a custodian and picking up trash around the school.