Throughout the month of January, student council members of all grade levels participated in an acts of kindness activity. Due to the virtual platform the school district and with COVID-19 precautionary measures in place, it has become increasingly difficult for student council to participate in all the numerous activities they plan as they have years prior. 

 “The student council advisers have been coming up with creative ways to keep the student council members active throughout the school year  since we have not been able to complete the traditional activities that the club does each month,” teacher and student council adviser Stephanie MacAleer said. 

The student council is still able to host their monthly meetings via Google Meet where they discuss their plans for activities that will engage students. With all these challenges, the student council launched the idea of an activity that can be done virtually. 

“Last month, Mrs. Shope approached the advisers with the idea of making January our ‘Month of Kindness’, where the student council members would complete a different ‘Act of Kindness’ each week during the month of January.  The advisers also came up with a focus for each week’s acts, beginning with family, then community and lastly, classmates,” MacAleer said.

The way this operated was students were able to type their name and their act of kindness on a collaborative Google slide. 

“Being kind can be uplifting to both people involved and given the challenges we are facing in our society these days it’s important to be positive. I’m sure we will consider similar activities in years to come,” adviser Kimberly Shope said. “My hope is the students learned the value of kind acts and words and will continue to use these behaviors in their lives.”

In addition to the advisers, student council members also enjoyed this project.

“I think it is a great idea and a good way to get young people interested and involved in helping others and bringing more kindness into our lives, especially now,” sophomore student council member Rachel Lucas said. 

The main purpose of this was to teach that kindness and gratitude should be an everyday part of life and that it is not a difficult thing to do.