Kendra Scott donates kindness kits to CCISD elementary schools
By PAMELA GRANT
Cove Leader-Press
Fairview/Miss Jewell Elementary students and teachers were in for a fun surprise when entrepreneur Kendra Scott donated kindness kits for all of the district’s elementary classes.
On Thursday morning, Scott’s representative and philanthropic marketing lead, Jacqueline Kuwitzy, attended a kindness class for all of Fairview/Miss Jewell Elementary Schools’ 4th graders to celebrate World Kindness Day and Kindness Week
“Mental health is a cause that’s near and dear to our hearts,” said Kuwitzy. “Today we’re here providing these wonderful kindness kits to all the classrooms that are elementary age through our partnership with On Our Sleeves.”
Kuwitzky said that it’s been a challenging few years for everyone, and it’s important to help out with mental health issues.
“I was so excited for the opportunity to showcase our school, to showcase our students…mostly to showcase our students,” said Amanda Brown, school counselor and Region 12 Counselor of the Year. “To have this donation for our campus is so wonderful.”
Brown said that the kit will help them to show the students the importance of kindness.
“Kindness is so important because you never know what somebody is going through in their day,” said Brown. “A single act of kindness, often called random acts of kindness, could change somebody’s day, and show them that they’re not alone. You have somebody with you. There is kindness and love in this world. And that can make such a good impact in the world.”
Thursday’s event invited all the Fairview/Miss Jewell 4th graders to participate in a variety of kindness activities. They did an activity called color the world with kindness wherein they took turn answering questions about kindness, how it feels when people are kind or unkind, ways to show kindness, and more. After that, they were asked to complete a kindness challenge which involved answering the question of how they plan to show kindness and writing it on a colored cut out strip of paper which will ultimately be used to make a kindness chain. Even students who were not present for Thursday’s event will be invited to participate and make their own kindness chain link.
At the start of the event, five talented 4th graders read aloud to everyone in attendance about what kindness is to them.
“You can show kindness by helping each other, respecting your teachers, and by being a buddy, not a bully,” said 4th grader Rodney Norman. “If you’re kind, the world will be a better place for everyone.”
“If I see someone that is sad, I try to cheer them up,” said 4th grader Aaliyah Brown. “Helping others makes me feel happy too!”
Rhonda Burnell, Director of Behavior Support Services, said the district holds Kindness Week every year. Burnell said they work to help families to talk together and support each other and the Kindness Kits donated on Thursday will give them even more resources to help students and families. The kits are developed by pediatric mental health experts with On Our Sleeves.
“With all the stressors our students are currently facing, this is one of the very basic human skills that we are needing to reteach. We are needing to model kindness,” said Burnell. “We do focus on mental health aspects of that as well. Teaching others to be kind and gracious towards each other is an essential human skill. It’s essential to get support for mental health development.
The On Our Sleeves program works to provide communities with free resources to help break mental health stigmas, particularly in children, and to help educate people about mental health issues. People who want to learn more or are interested in checking out some of their resources can do so at https://www.onoursleeves.org/