Manchester Middle School Celebrates Great Kindness Challenge

Manchester Voices, the Kiwanis Builders Club, and the Manchester Community School District worked together to bring the nation-wide Great Kindness Challenge to Manchester Middle School the week of February 6 through February 10, 2015! The Great Kindness Challenge lasted a week, during which millions of acts of kindness were performed on campuses nationwide.

Manchester Middle School students worked as teams in their advisory classes to compete in a door decorating contest and to complete a 50-item checklist of kindness activities. Each student in the advisory class that completed the most items received a stylus and 1 homework pass. Additionally, students were encouraged to complete many of the items on the checklist on their own. For every 3 items they completed, students were given a raffle ticket by their advisory teacher. At the end of the challenge, Manchester Voices Organizer Lindsay Hannah drew three names from the raffle tin.

The three raffle winners were Rhea Waycaster, Jon Miller and Nick Gauss. Rhea won a clothing item from the Dutch Den, Jon won a Homework Pass and Nick won a “First in Line” Pass. Ms. Wolf’s advisory class won the door decorating contest. Mrs. Barnard’s advisory class and Mrs. Vacketta’s advisory class both received honorable mention. Mr. Whalen’s advisory class completed the most acts of kindness.

In addition to the contests and raffle, Manchester Voices and Kiwanis Builders Club set up “kindness stations” during lunch with different themes. On Wednesday they set up a Wall of Appreciation,
on Thursday they set up a thank you notes station, on Friday they created a “Thank You Paper Chai”n to School Staff and on Monday they set up a Kindness Checklist Item Support station. The middle school also held a “Dress Like a Hippie” Spirit Day on Friday

The Great Kindness Challenge School Edition was created by Kids for Peace to provide schools a tool for creating a positive school environment. In 2014, 554,486 students participated and performed over 27 million acts of kindness nationwide. The Great Kindness Challenge is generously sponsored by Dignity Health, ViaSat, SDGE, NRG, The Code Crew, ExaMobile and Kinvolved. Kids for Peace is a global 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides a platform for young people to actively engage in socially conscious leadership, community service, arts, environmental stewardship and global friendship. For more information on Kids for Peace or The Great Kindness Challenge please contact Jill McManigal at 760-730-3320.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.