The Great Kindness Challenge week kicked off on Monday, January 27th, 2020. Organized by the global nonprofit ‘Kids for Peace,’ the campaign was created to promote unity and respect within the school environment. The Great Kindness Challenge was born of grassroots beginnings with the participation of three schools in Carlsbad California, which would soon grow to become a worldwide kindness movement!
Schools and families participating in The Great Kindness Challenge receive a kindness checklist from which they can choose daily acts of kindness. Students are also encouraged to work together towards creating their own kind ideas to add to the festivities. The challenge is inspired by the belief that “kindness is strength.” The hope is that with each kind act, students are given the opportunity to turn kindness into a habit. And, “as kindness becomes a habit, peace becomes possible.”
The Great Kindness Challenge 2019 Impact
This grassroots movement has seen great success, receiving widespread approval. Since its beginnings in 2011, participation has continued to increase, with each new year bringing in more kindness than the last. In 2019, The Great Kindness Challenge week recorded over 13 million students, from over 24 thousand schools, in 115 different countries taking part in the festivities. As a result, more than 650 million acts of kindness were reported!
This Year’s Kindness Challenge
With engagement reaching an all-time high, The Great Kindness Challenge is working hard to blow last year’s impact out of the water! And here at City of Kindness, we are so excited to follow along as students take global initiatives towards creating a kinder world! Schools have kept inspiration alive, updating their websites and posting on social media to share their kindness week calendars and scheduled events with the world.
So far, we’ve seen countless wonderfully kind plans among local CA schools, including:
- Solana Vista Elementary: plans to hold daily kindness gratitude circles in all classrooms and write kindness cards to show appreciation to friends, community members, and staff.
- Solana Highlands Elementary: plans to celebrate ‘sit with someone new day’ and ‘give and receive compliments day’ during which booths will be set up at lunchtime to offer icebreakers and encouragement.
- Carmel Creek Elementary: plans to engage students in kindness rock painting activities, as well as the creation of a ‘Kindness Matters’ wall decoration.
- Skyline Elementary: plans to hold bookmark making and heart-making activities during which students can create kind gifts for friends.
- Solana Pacific Elementary: plans to incorporate kindness rock painting activities as well as a trash pick-up activity into their kindness challenge week schedule.
- Solana Ranch Elementary: will be recording gratitude in kindness journals and encouraging the reading of kinder books.
- Solana Santa Fe Elementary: plans to write thank you letters to community members with students, and 6th-grade student-led kindness activities will be set up and promoted across school grounds.
These are just a few examples of the wonderful acts of kindness that will be witnessed among schools worldwide this week. We can’t wait to follow along and watch what else students come up with! And a big ‘Thank You’ to Kids for Peace and The Great Kindness Challenge, for all your efforts in supporting kindness throughout the new year!
