In February 2015, 11 Middle schools in the Washoe County School District hosted a MASSIVE Kindness challenge. The goal was to create a Kindness campaign lead by the youth of community that would not only impact their city, but the community as well.

During the month of January, I met with every schools newly formed, “Kindness Crew”. This was the team that we set in place that would organize the 15 Days campaign within their school, generate a ‘buzz’ prior to the assembly and also tweek the program in a way that would best inspire their peers.

WHAT WAS THE CHALLENGE?

Each school was given two challenges: To create a Kindness Explosion within their school & to collect shoes for needy children & families around the world. Each school was given a list of daily Kindness challenges to carry out within their school. In addition, they also received “UNselfie” cards to complete and upload to their social media sites.

WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?

The entire community embraced the challenge. Students held their very own ‘Press Conference’, media outlets provided updates on each schools challenge and the entire community gathered up their gently used to donate to the campaign. In all, middle school students documented over 45,000 acts of Kindness and collected 17,000 pairs of shoes! 

This goes to show that middle school students are much more than teenagers that play their music too loud, stay up late and hashtag everything. Yes, they may do that, but they can also make a massive difference in the world. When students work together in solidarity, amazing things can happen.

Great job to the students in Washoe County. I am truly proud of you!!!

-BW