Leigh Kindness Challenge Spans Across Individuals, Schools, Communities
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By: Emily Loseke, a senior at Leigh High School
On October 14th, the Leigh sixth grade class recited the kindness oath, “I do so solemnly swear to faithfully and anonymously execute my missions thereby spreading kindness to everyone.” Since then, around 2,100 random acts of kindness have been completed through the Leigh Secret Kindness Agency, their kindness challenges, and their kindness programs for younger elementary students and community members.
The Secret Kindness Agency consists of 19 full-time agents who completed weekly kindness missions, now totally over 1,000. Kindness missions are random acts of kindness, such as saying “good morning” to two different people in the morning, writing a thank you note to teachers or parents, and many other kind acts. In addition, they challenge other school districts’ sixth grade classes and other Leigh classes in kindness competitions.
The first ever sixth grade challenge against other schools was in November. Leigh battled one other school and completed about 144 kind acts, including writing thank you letters to veterans. The final sixth grade challenge involved eight other school districts. 650 kind acts were completed. The kind acts were to tell two different people "good morning" every day, write a thank you letter to an adult at school, write a kind note to a classmate and an older and younger student, compliment at least 5 different people, and tell a friend why they're amazing.
In total, the Agency challenged ten other school districts and completed over 1,000 kind acts through these challenges. The ten other school districts were: Clarkson, Ainsworth, Howells-Dodge, Humphrey Public, Wisner-Pilger, Humphrey St. Francis, Shell Creek, Oakland Craig, Pender, and St. Edward
The first ever Leigh kindness challenge was in October and involved the third graders and seniors. 184 kind acts were completed. The grand finale was a school-wide kindness challenge, involving grades 3-12. There were over 466 kind acts completed, and the winning classes were the sixth graders and juniors with 100%. The kind acts were telling two different people “good morning,” write a thank you letter as a class to a teacher and another adult at school, write a kind encouraging note to three different student (one older, one in your class, and one older), compliment at least 5 different people, and write a kind note as a class at a public place.
The Kind Character program involved the kindergarten, first, and second grade classes in Leigh, and it was started on November 11th. This program taught students what kindness means in a fun and relevant way. It was active until Christmas break.
When asked about the impact of the Agency and its other programs, Secret Agent Ocean said, “I think it’s a great way to spread kindness around the school and community, and it’s also a great way for the younger kids to learn about kindness.”
The Kind Connection was active from February 5th to May 1st and promoted kindness within our community. This program helped community members pay kindness forward and reached over 50 people.
At the beginning of the school year, I created a survey to find the numerical value of kindness within my school. The results showed that 50% of the student body believes kindness is very important (the highest rating,) 61% tries to be kind and values kindness, and 48% feels their class is kind. A follow up survey at the end of the revealed the value of kindness has increased by 10% overall.
Here’s what the sixth graders had to say about the Agency:
Secret Agent John Deere Joe said, “I learned that just a little bit of kindness can change the way someone feels, acts, and thinks.”
Secret Agent Butterfly said, “I think you should do the Secret Kindness Agency next year because with more and more people learning and being kind the better because if they learn kindness, maybe there will be less bullying in school.”
Secret Agent Cow said, “Being kind to everyone is helping them be able to find the best about themselves and when you get the note from someone, you are able to find the best in yourself, and I really like that.”
Secret Agent Hope said, “I think you should do the Agency next year because other people can learn how to be kind and to make more people happy and spread even more kindness throughout the school and other places.”
This project will continue in the future, as it’s proven worthwhile and impactful. Thank you for all the support and helping make this project a success. Remember to “Stand Up and #BeKind.”