Costa Mesa High School student, Rebekah Robeck, has been working to bring a message of kindness into her community for some time now. Since receiving such positive feedback from her first kindness campaign, ‘Let’s Be Kind Day,’ back in eighth grade at Costa Mesa Middle School, Rebekah’s efforts have taken on a life of their own. Today, Let’s Be Kind is a thriving nonprofit, with a month-long celebration of kindness citywide, from Costa Mesa to Newport Beach!
When Rebekah was in middle school, her fellow students weren’t always nice to her. Upon realizing that she wasn’t the only one being treated this way, she became determined to educate her classmates on kindness and promote a new way of treating each other. It was then that ‘Let’s Be Kind Day’ began.
So you can imagine what an exciting moment it is now, for Rebekah to see what she started four years ago growing into what it is today. Not only is Let’s Be Kind a nonprofit in its fourth year, but its efforts are also being backed by city council members in Costa Mesa and Newport Beach who have designated April as ‘Let’s Be Kind’ month!
“It’s a dream. Before, I had never imagined ‘Let’s Be Kind’ would grow this big,” Rebekah told the Daily Pilot. Elaborating on her enthusiasm, she went on to say, “Having two cities back it up like that is just amazing and I’m excited that even more people outside of school…know about Let’s Be Kind…Kids tell their parents and parents tell their neighbors and their neighbors tell the community. It becomes a citywide thing and I’m really excited for people to experience it like that.”
In regards to supporting Rebekah’s movement, leaders in Costa Mesa and Newport are equally thrilled and looking forward to promoting a culture of kindness in their communities for years to come
Costa Mesa Mayor John Stephens stated in a recent interview, “I think that it’s wonderful that we are focusing on kindness, especially at a time in our community when there are difficulties that people are going through…We need kindness and empathy now more than ever during the pandemic, but we’ll always need it.”
Newport Beach Mayor Brad Avery elaborated on the cause, stating, “We live in a very compressed world and we’re all under a little stress for all the reasons we know, so being kind to one another is really important at this moment.”
As SoCal natives and fellow kindness connoisseurs, we couldn’t be more impressed with Rebekah and the impact she is creating! From an eight grade girl just wanting her classmates to be nice, to a Junior in High School running her own nonprofit and cultivating this kind of community support, we can only imagine what her future has in store for her!
So thank you, Rebekah, for your motivation and commitment to kindness. We appreciate you and we support you! And regardless of where we live, we’ll be participating in ‘Let’s Be Kind’ month and kindness beyond!
