SIXTH GRADER SPREADS JOY THROUGH # KINDNESS PROJECT
ox Chapel Area FOX CHAPEL AREA SCHOOL NEWS
SIXTH GRADER SPREADS JOY THROUGH # KINDNESS PROJECT
An act of kindness can be like a ray of sunshine. Dorseyville Middle School sixth grader Simon Shiferaw wanted everyone in his school community to experience the joy that an act of random kindness can bring, so he developed his Genius Hour project to make that happen.
Through Simon’ s efforts, March 21 was designated as # kindness day at DMS. At the beginning of the day, teachers showed a video where Simon explained his plan and urged everyone in the school to perform kind acts for one another. Every student received a # kindness bracelet, and teachers and a few students wore # kindness T-shirts. The rest of the student body wore blue shirts in honor of Simon’ s # kindness day. Throughout the entire day( and the next several weeks), students and staff carried out their own random acts of kindness and a bulletin board near the school counseling office featured suggestions of kind acts. By the end of the day, # rak4simon( random acts of kindness for Simon) could be found on both Twitter and Facebook.
Seventh grader Gabby Uku said she loved that Simon was so willing to share his kindness project with
18 Fox Chapel Area the whole school in order to make it a better place.“ It just astounds me. Every day Simon comes to school with a smile on his face and he’ s one of the sweetest sixth graders that I ever met! He’ d do anything for anyone and he’ s sweet and kind to everybody,” Gabby said.
Simon even took his kindness project on the road to Hartwood Elementary School( his former school), where students enthusiastically received his message and carried out their own kindness initiative.
Dorseyville Middle School counselor Kristin Pollick expressed that she hopes Simon’ s project carries on.“ I am so proud of Simon! It grew faster than we ever expected,” she said.“ We hope everyone keeps passing it on and doing as many random acts of kindness so that Simon’ s idea keeps spreading.”
Gabby added,“ It was nice to see that Simon’ s project made an impact on the school.”
As a thank you to all of the DMS students, Simon awarded them with a popcorn treat at the end of March. Then, as a special thank you to Simon, Gabby made a special poster and had many classmates sign it.“ Simon made such an amazing impact on our school and this was the least I could do to show our appreciation,” she said.
Genius Hour, scheduled on most Fridays at DMS, is a program that enables students to develop and work on independent projects that they are interested in and feel passionate about. Many of the students work on fundraisers and service projects to benefit others.