NORTH SALT LAKE—For the whole school year, students at Foxboro Elementary have been going out of their way to be kind and helpful to those around them. Monday, Utah’s First Lady Abby Cox came to an assembly at the school to recognize them as a Certified School of Kindness, part of the One Kind Act a Day organization. Foxboro is one of only a few schools in the Davis School District with the distinction.

To become a Certified School of Kindness the school has to make a pledge and accept the challenge to create a culture of kindness, empathy and inclusiveness. Throughout the year, Foxboro has had a variety of activities to promote kindness and respect among students. Today’s event is the culmination of all of those efforts.

“I know kindness has been at the center of what we do and who we are at Foxboro for many, many years, even before I got here,” said Principal Shelly Truelson. “This year we wanted to make it deliberate. Deliberate means on purpose. We wanted not just to be nice every day, we wanted to show kindness each and every day. So the things we did were our kindness challenges.”

Truelson asked the children to raise their hands if they had participated in a kindness challenge this year. “Everyone’s hand should be up. Yup, we did it each week. You had a kindness challenge and you got to do kind acts for others, sometimes at school, sometimes at home and sometimes even in the community.”

As students completed each challenge their classroom got an icon. “How many of you have an icon?” she said. “Yep, everyone. You guys are so awesome. So we were able to do 36 challenges this year. That is so many kind acts. Then on top of it, we also did some service projects. Each time we gathered as a community, at the end of the evening we completed some service projects. Because of your hard work and dedication we are being honored today because of the kindness that we show here at Foxboro.”

“What are some of the kind acts that you’ve done?” said Cox. “If somebody will raise their hand and tell me, what are the kind acts that somebody did for you?”

“They wanted to be my friend,” said one child. 

“I love that,” Cox said. “Now can somebody tell me what you did? What kind act did you do for somebody else?”

“So one time my friend fell and I helped them get up and I helped them go to the nurse’s office,” said one boy.

“I want you to think about how it felt when you did something nice,” Cox said. “That’s number one, then when somebody did something nice for you, think about how it felt. Did you all feel happy when somebody does something nice for you? What happens to your heart when you do something nice for somebody else?”

Cox said being kind actually helps the brain. “Did you know that your brain actually grows and becomes stronger when you do nice things for people? That’s pretty cool. So not only are you doing nice things, you're doing kind acts and people are benefiting and they’re feeling good. You’re feeling good because you’re doing that.”

If everyone is playing on the playground with their buddies what kind of shape feels inclusive? she said.

“A horseshoe,” one girl guessed. 

“She’s exactly right,” said Cox. “Why a horseshoe? Because it’s open to other people. I work with a lot of people that have different abilities, that maybe don’t think the way I do. Maybe they look differently than I do. But you know what? Being inclusive and kind is going to make you the best person you can possibly be and I promise you’ll be smarter and you’ll be more successful in your life because of your kindness.”