BOUNTIFUL—Children at Bountiful Elementary School got a surprise visit from First Lady Abby Cox recently when she came to present the students with a Certified School of Kindness award, the first school in the Davis School District to receive one. 

“A parent of a first grader who is part of the One Kind Act A Day organization came to us and wanted to have the kids participate in it,” said Principal Kristen McDonough. “We thought the whole school should be involved in the effort.”

The first week in March the PTA put up huge donuts for each class in the lunchroom, she said. “The kids would get sprinkles from the teachers for any kind act they saw. It became kind of a competition.”

The next week kids took home a chart to record their kind acts or if they saw someone else’s, said McDonough. “We also took donations for the pantry.”

The third week was focused on an essay or poster and the organization judged those, she said. “It was sweet to read their stories of what kindness meant to them. The fourth week the HOPE squad had activities.”

McDonough said the school’s goal was 10,000 kind acts. “We got 11,431 kind acts so we exceeded our goal. We also gathered 286 pounds of donations for the pantry.”

At the assembly last week, the winning kids (essays and posters) got to read their essays and show their posters, she said. “The man running the organization got a certification of kindness and Abby Cox (and others) signed a plaque and presented it to us. The Vice President of the Utah State PTA celebrated that with us too.”

The kids became more conscientious, said McDonough. “They started holding doors, giving compliments and helping teachers without being asked.”

At the end of February the staff all got coins that said One Kind Act A Day, she said. “We practiced on each other to model it for the kids and see what it looks like and what it feels like to be kind.”

McDonough will be moving to Valley View Elementary next year. “I want to work on it there too,” she said.

It’s fun to be part of something bigger, said McDonough. “We hope to plant the seeds of being kind when they’re young so they can carry that into their adult life and see the benefits from that. It causes a ripple effect when you start it.”