San Marino High School Service Clubs Unite to Celebrate the Many Positives of Classmates, Community Through ‘Great Kindness Challenge Week’
It’s doubtful there are many high school campuses on the planet more warm and welcoming than the one located at 2701 Huntington Drive, but a group of students is pushing for the next level of hospitality.
So they started the ‘Great Kindness Challenge Week of 2016,’ five days devoted to encouraging the student body to compliment, hug and show respect for one another.
“There is so much negativity on social media, we felt it was necessary to make a conscious effort to promote positive interactions with one another,” said senior Audrey Lam, who chairs an on-campus organization called, appropriately, Random Acts of Kindness Club.
‘RAK,’ as it is known, partnered with Everybody for Everybody, which is chaired by SMHS senior and poet laureate Justine Ramos. Her group wrote tributes to the victims of the events of Sept. 11, 2001 and Veteran’s Day salutes that were read during the morning announcements.
“We want to help create more unity and respect on campus,” said Ramos.
Students had the opportunity to post tributes to friends and faculty members at #ExposingGreatPeople and a Facebook page entitled SMHS Great Kindness Challenge.
“The main goal of the week is to encourage and challenge students to do as many kind acts as possible and help students realize that creating a school-wide culture of kindness starts with just one simple act at a time,” said teacher Laura Ives, who invested time and financial resources to the project.
Senior Catherine Yang and junior Sydney Huang spearheaded the ASB’s oversight of the weeklong event, where students were challenged to participate in a Day of Compliments on Monday; Give a Friend a Hug on Tuesday; send kind notes with a Hershey’s kiss on Wednesday; Thank a SMHS staff member on Thursday and “treat yourself” on Friday.
There was a “Kindness Station” table in the quad each day with a poster, sidewalk chalk and clothespins to write kind messages during lunch periods.
