Anthony Guerrise, Investigative Reporter
The Great Kindness Challenge is a positive and proactive challenge revolving around small acts of kindness and good deeds that are spread throughout schools. It was primarily created to enlighten students and spread awareness about bullying, such as lessening and preventing it from happening. The Great Kindness Challenge lasts for one week annually and students are encouraged to complete as many challenges as they can off of a checklist that is provided on The Great Kindness Challenge official website. This year’s Great Kindness Challenge took place from January 22-26. and had over 10,000,000 students participating, nearly 20,000 schools, over 500,000,000 acts of kindness completed, and over 100 countries participating.
I spoke to Ms. Rosanna about this year’s Great Kindness Challenge. Ms. Rosanna heard about the Great Kindness Challenge through Ms. Bevin. It was something Unity had been involved in in the past. According to Ms. Rosanna, Ms. Bevin and Mrs. Hassan were big helpers for the event. Mr. Saint also helped by giving his approval and all of the teachers did their part to make the event more widespread throughout campus. Ms. Rosanna added, “It’s always important to take a moment to remember the good in all of the situations and people around you and whenever there is an opportunity to put peace and kindness in our minds, it can never be a bad thing.” She said that next year the challenge can be better if it is planned earlier, in order to make it stronger. She also thought it would be a good idea to get the middle schoolers more involved next year by getting them to create their own list(s) of good deeds that are then encouraged to be accomplished. Overall, she concluded, it was a great experience and she looks forward to making it even better next year.
I also talked to some students about their opinions on the Great Kindness Challenge and received some middle school feedback. Jacqueline Phillips, from 6th grade, said that teaching people to be kind is the right thing to do. Ryan Baiano, from 7th grade, quoted, “Even though some people might not be taking it seriously, it is still spreading some source of kindness.” I also received some elementary feedback by talking to Cole Jankowitz and Aiden Velez, from 5th grade. Their class wrote down things that they were thankful for on sticky notes and made a huge sign out of all of them. Cole and Aiden did some good acts of kindness too. Cole smiled at a lot of people, made them laugh, and said good morning to many. Aiden sat at a new table at lunch, smiled at many students, and made some laugh. I asked them why they think this event is so important and Aiden expressed, “I think it’s important to remind people to try and be kind.” Cole added, “I think it’s important because people can learn to get along with each other better.”
Being kind is very important. Think about how your life would be without kindness. It doesn’t take long to smile at someone or cheer someone up. Just remember: A little bit of kindness goes a long way!
