In this chaotic and sometimes mean world, students at Broadway Elementary in Grand Junction decided to do something different. They took a little kindness and made it go a long, long way.
The school just wrapped up its annual fundraising campaign to renovate a playground. But the true goal wasn’t money. It was learning about the power of kindness and how it flourishes.
Through a campaign called Raise Craze, students thanked donors through random acts of kindness. Then they saw each act lead to another, and another — until two weeks later, they’d carried out more than 2,000 acts of kindness.
“Raise Craze has created an incredible ripple effect that extends far beyond our Broadway community,” said Britni Westbrook, principal of Broadway Elementary. She said she’s seen students shift from being focused on themselves to looking at the broader community.
The kindness chain
Fifth grader Brantlee got his first sense of that ripple after watching a video at school about a “kindness chain.”
“One little boy was nice to a little girl, then the little girl was nice to the teacher and the teacher was nice to the whole class and the class went home and was nice to their families and it just recurred from that little boy being nice to the girl,” he said. “A little bit of kindness can go a long way.”
The students decided to see how far they could stretch that kindness chain — literally by reaching out to family and friends in other states for small donations tied to acts of kindness.
“I figured that this is a good opportunity to spread kindness kind of throughout our whole entire country a little bit,” he said. “I was very surprised when we got Alaska first.”
The small Grand Junction school ended up with donations from all 50 states – a lesson in how connected people can be.
Westbrook said it’s important to focus on positivity in a world where so many things are not in young people’s control — and help them to focus on things they can control.
“It's acts of kindness and spreading positivity and recognizing that the things that we do right now will impact those around us,” she said. “That's something within our control and that's what we can focus on, that’s what we can bring home to our families.”
Closer to home
In Grand Junction, kids poured their energy into helping others.
Some students put together “sunshine” baskets for patients at the St. Mary’s Cancer Center filled with small yellow items — candies, cups, blankets, notepads — meant to brighten a patient’s day.
“They sent pictures of them receiving all the stuff and they were really happy,” said fifth-grader Kinsley.
Another class made baskets for a nearby retirement home.
“One of my grandmas is there, and she told us that it really made her day and she was just really happy to know someone was there and actually cared,” said fifth-grader Charlie.
Students and families joined the Grand Valley River Cleanup, wrote thank-you notes to first responders and sorted food at the community food bank.
“You help sort the food out and they give the food to people who don’t have enough food,” said Frankie, a first-grader.
Sometimes, the kids discovered kindness by accident.
Camila, a second-grader, remembered picking up trash “when no one was watching.”
She was at a party and didn’t know anyone.
“I just started picking up trash because I was bored,” she said. “It made me feel happy that I did it.”
“I felt loved”
For first-grader Stella, kindness began in her grandmother’s kitchen.
“I made these really cool cakes for Mr. Robert and Mr. Anthony, they clean up the school. My gran made the cakes….I decorated them. They loved it!”
I asked how she felt inside when she saw the smile on their face when they got the cake.
“I felt really loved,” she said, smiling.
Even siblings learned how to show affection.
“My brother,” said Charlie, “he had this bright idea that he was going to give me a hug every hour of the day. Every time I would walk around the corner, I would walk up the stairs, he would jump out, give me a hug and run away, just run away!”
Finding belonging through kindness
Starting a new school during the kindness campaign was a warm welcome for second-graders Thea and Camila. Thea’s previous school in Grand Junction — Scenic Elementary — was a tight knit community and its closure was hard. Thea jumped right into the kindness campaign – painting rocks for people, decorating her mailbox, and saying hello to a new friend.
“It was somebody behind me and I never saw them before and she’s in my class…. so I said ‘Hi’.
Second-grader Camila, who moved all the way from Miami, said it’s made her “feel welcome in all kinds of ways.”
“Being kind makes other people feel like they belong anywhere,” she said.
She encourages other schools to try similar projects, even on a small scale, from logging acts of kindness and celebrating them in front of the school to writing sticky-note “shout-outs” for classmates caught being kind.
The ripple keeps growing
Each act of kindness was marked, all 2,000 of them, with a pinwheel, poked into the school’s front lawn.
“It’s nice to even help out even when no one tells you,” said Frankie.
In the future, the kids are thinking about what acts of kindness might look like next. Frankie said she could help someone carry groceries. Brantlee, who loves fishing near his family’s cabin, said he wants to keep collecting discarded fishing line and hooks to protect small fish.
“It can make our community a better place.”
