At the end of the first marking period, math teacher Natalie Trimmer surprised her students by announcing that she was going to hold a competition for the kindest person. She began holding the contest five years ago and has continued since. 

For the competition, Trimmer asked her students to vote for whom they felt was the kindest person. She hopes to see a bigger range of students being voted for as the year progresses. One of her ways to achieve this is by changing seating charts so everyone has a chance to make a good impression on their peers.

She started holding these competitions because she believes that it’s important to celebrate more than just grades. Although she does think grades are an important factor in success, she also believes that things like showing kindness matters just as much. 

“I was just thinking about how being successful in the future is more than just having the highest grade and that I want kids to be well rounded,” Trimmer said. “I want them to understand the importance of being nice and that people are paying attention to you for being nice.”

Many students have expressed how the competition has positively affected them. Some say they want to strive to be better so they can be voted for when the second the marking period comes to a close. 

“I think it’s pushed me a little more to be even more kind to everybody else around me,” freshman Lia Sankey said. “I think that if they have a reason then they’ll try to be more kind and move forward with it.”

On Nov. 2 Trimmer announced the winners of each class. She also announced  the students who had grades with a 95 percent or above and students with perfect attendance. 

“Overall I’m happy about winning. You don’t know what everybody’s going through. Everybody has a different life and problems whether it’s at school or home. It just pays off to be nice to people…you don’t ever want to be mean to people because again you don’t know what they’re going through,” freshmen Seth Goheen said.