Published: January 12, 2009 12:44 am      

ALBION: Students commit to 1,000 acts of kindness

Students in the sixth-grade class at Albion Middle School are trying hard to fill the community with peace and not violence.

Taking on a mission, members of Team 600 — a group of 85 students — will try a do 1,000 acts of kindness in the month of January. In order to complete this goal, students are calling upon their fellow Albion Central School District students and the community.

“We’ve done it before with 100 acts of kindness in the school,” said sixth-grade teacher Leslie Gates. “1,000 is quit a big endeavor but I think we’ll be able to do it.”

Deciding on 1,000 acts and involving the community came together after students read several newspapers. Searching for articles on kind behavior, it became clear to them that finding articles on hurtful behavior was a lot easier. Gates said that students were not sure why this was, whether because there is more hurtful behavior out there or people think it is more fun to read about hurtful behavior.

“We thought, wouldn’t it be great if the schools can perform acts of kindness,” said Sue Starkweather of the Albion Central School District.

Beginning this week, the students will start filling out the act of kindness form and as they come in, a mural will be created in the middle school, displaying the different acts. They will also keep track of their progress to 1,000.

To help with this, students are looking for support from community members. They would like people to fill out the form, that asks for a brief explanation of the act and how it made you feel and mail it to the school.

Students said that some of their acts of kindness will include baby-sitting for free, just to help out; sweeping the cafeteria floor; shoveling snow for a neighbor; volunteering at the local animal shelter; picking up garbage on the side of the road; helping the elderly and doing free activities for people that they normally would be paid for.

“Acts of kindness is done for no money,” Gates said. “We’re doing this to help out.”

This project is part of the Peace Rocks! program at the middle school. Starkweather said that this projects began several years ago and each year it takes on a different shape and form.

At the beginning of the school year, students created a contract that stated that they will not exhibit hurtful behavior towards others. They then signed the contract with hand prints in paint. They also designed T-shirts with a peace symbol on the front that they all wear once a month.

Other activities for Peace Rocks! included reading and discussing Aesop fables, where the students then created their own peace fables book. The created stories teach lessons that promote peace.

Students also learned of the camel bookmobile, a library in Kenya that visits people via camel. The students, after reading about the culture in Kenya, decided to create their own book about their lives and send it to the camel bookmobile.