By LISA CAPOBIANCO
STAFF WRITER
Last year, the Greene-Hills School community completed 10,050 acts of kindness, which more than doubled from the year before.
“It’s amazing to see that kids are really taking it to heart. They’re caring for each other,” said Sharon Campolo, a special education teacher at Greene-Hills School. “It’s really changing the way they interacting with other people.”
Campolo created Acts of Kindness Month in 2012 after the Sandy Hook shooting. Since the initiative’s inception, the number of kind acts have grown at Greene-Hills—as well as the different ways students choose to give back at school, at home and in the community at large.
From donating food and animal supplies to the Connecticut Humane Society and collecting candy and used books for a toy drive to making cards for a local nursing home to writing positive messages on post-it notes, students completed a variety of kind acts last year. They also made snowflake ornaments for the community, and made paper chains to keep count of their kind acts.
For Campolo, who attended Sandy Hook Elementary School, seeing Acts of Kindness grow into what it is today has helped turn a tragic event into a positive one.
“This is one small way that I can show the families of those children, my fellow community members that their lives did matter, and they continue to matter,” said Campolo.
Greene-Hills School kicked off its 4th Annual Acts of Kindness month last Thursday during an assembly, where Mayor Ken Cockayne, along with Miss Connecticut Alyssa Taglia and WFSB’s Mark Zinni served as guest speakers.
“If you like people being kind to you, be kind to others,” Cockayne told students. “Just think how good you make someone else feel when you’re kind to them.”
Zinni told students how Acts of Kindness coincides with #bekindon3, a campaign that WFSB began after the recent contested presidential election.
“One little thing can make a huge difference for so many people—whether you’re out in the hallway and someone dropped something and you pick it up, or you’re at lunch and you say to someone who is sitting by themselves, ‘come sit with us,’” said Zinni, encouraging students to treat others the way they want to be treated. “Those little acts of kindness go so far.”
For Taglia, kindness was something that her parents instilled in her since childhood.
“Kindness wasn’t option. It wasn’t a choice. It was a lifestyle,” said Taglia, who will return to Greene-Hills to help students make cards for a local nursing home.
During the assembly, students also heard a special video message from Democratic U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT).
“You’d be surprised with what a small act of kindness does,” Murphy told students in his video message. “It tends to multiply.”
Throughout the month, students will take part in a variety of activities that promote kindness. This year Greene-Hills students will focus on filling individual buckets with compliments, which they will share in an effort to fill each other’s buckets. Campolo said this activity is based a book titled, “Have You Filled a Bucket Today,” which uses the concept of an invisible bucket to show youth how easy it is to express kindness and appreciation by “filling buckets.”
Campolo said she hopes students continue understanding the importance of being kind to one another.
“They are powerful. What they do and what they say matters. They can make change,” said Campolo.
The school also will continue its conversation about kindness with the community on Twitter through #GHSActsofKindness, and instead making paper chains this year, students will donate a penny for every act of kindness made, and all of the proceeds will support St. Vincent DePaul Mission of Bristol.
“This is that time of year when Greene-Hills School shows what we’re made of, and do all sorts of acts of kindness throughout the month and also throughout the year,” said Greene-Hills School Principal Scott Gaudet while addressing students at the assembly.
Students at Greene-Hills School celebrate Acts of Kindness month with a song. Last week Greene-Hills kicked off its Fourth Annual Acts of Kindness month with a school-wide assembly.