February is the month of love, compassion and kindness at CCHS. In order to spread this love and positivity around the campus and contribute to the anti-bullying campaign, Cooper City High School is encouraging each student to get involved in Kindness Week by participating in the Great Kindness Challenge. An initiative that was introduced and promoted by National Honors Society, the Kindness Challenge will be taking place at CCHS in order to promote a more unified and peaceful campus.
The Great Kindness Challenge is a bully prevention initiative meant to increase positivity and respect in schools. To participate in the challenge, students can download the Great Kindness Challenge app on their phones (available for both Apple and Android). The app will then provide a checklist of 50 acts of kindness to be completed on campus in one week. The goal is for as many students as possible to accept the challenge in order to spread a chain of kindness throughout CCHS.
The Great Kindness Challenge is a bully prevention initiative meant to increase positivity and respect in schools.
Some challenges include smiling at 25 people, complimenting five people or even just patting yourself on the back. Some tasks require a little more work, such as making a kind poster for the cafeteria, sitting with a group that you don’t usually sit with at lunch or making a gift for someone new. Some challenges also promote environmental activism, such as the tasks to recycle and pick up trash outside school. As each act is checked off the list, there is an option to share a photo of the act on your social media in order to inspire others. The final challenge is to create your own kind act. After all 50 acts are completed, the hope is that kindness will become a habit for each student.
The Great Kindness Challenge was created by Kids for Peace, a nonprofit which works to create a space for youth to foster a culture of community service, unity, kindness and environmental stewardship in society. It was founded in 2006 by a high school student and elementary school teacher. Beginning as just a small neighborhood movement, Kids for Peace is now a global organization.
Beginning as just a small neighborhood movement, Kids for Peace is now a global organization.
The challenge was created in 2011 when an elementary school in California asked Kids for Peace to help with its goal of a more positive and peaceful school environment. The challenge was designed and then piloted in 2012 at three schools in Carlsbad, California. The results were extremely successful so the challenge was slowly introduced to elementary, middle and high schools all over the world.
According to the Great Kindness Challenge app, 10,493,866 students participated in the challenge in 2017. 15,057 schools participated and over 500 million acts of kindness were performed across the globe.
As students at CCHS complete the challenge, our school becomes a happier and safer environment to learn and interact with others, one act of kindness at a time.
Photo courtesy of The Great Kindness Challenge
