It was a simple idea, one that could have been started anywhere in the world. One that was started in Carlsbad, California.

According to Hope Elementary School Principal, Richard Tubbs, the Great Kindness Challenge is a program that was started by “a couple of parents who wanted to promote kindness!”

The project started out as a small program in 2008, spreading to only a few schools in the district. Since then, the amount of participants in the event has blossomed to over 70 different school districts throughout the country.

In a whole week dedicated to kindness, students are challenged to fulfill a checklist of generous acts that range from “smiling at 25 people” to “[slipping] a nice note in [a] friend’s backpack.”

The purpose of the event is to engage students in “activities and events…[and] prioritize any act of kindness.” Principal Tubbs said.

Sage Creek, being one of the participating schools, started off with “students donating cards, that ASB [will then] deliver to kids across the country,” ASB representative Brooklyn Deal said.

Deal is in charge of planning and coordinating various events during the week. On Tuesday, after receiving the kindness cards, Deal and ASB sent them out to children in hospitals all over the U.S.

For Thursday and Friday, the Bobcat community will be introduced to kindness grams where students can compose messages of kindness to their friends and teachers. Over the course of the next few days, students will also be able to write sticky notes with kind and inspirational words to be posted all over the athletic mall.

“Kindness is the number one thing that improves unity in a campus,” Deal said. She believes that acting kind to one another binds a school together, “because if everyone is nice to everyone, then there is no reason for any conflict.”

The campus anticipates great benefit from this week’s activities, as students of multiple grade levels have gathered to promote positive messages.

“If everyone is being kind to one another, then our school can become a better place,” sophomore Tait Taniguchi said.

Taniguchi believes that the campus will become more connected and have a more positive atmosphere. “I will connect with more people,” Taniguchi said. “I’ll make them feel better, that would make me feel better, and it would make everyone more happy.”

In the end, this kindness can loop around; a single act of kindness goes a long way. Principal Tubbs enthused about the week, encouraging everyone to not only spread kindness across campus, but to “spread the kindness into the community!”