StuCo, Klein Cain’s student council, has made continuous efforts to see through in Kindness Week’s annual return to Klein Cain by using a variety of decorations and traditions. However, Kindness Week’s origins lie somewhere else, beginning to form over 4 decades ago.
The movement’s history started in San Francisco in 1982, [when] Berkeley Writer Anne Herbert published the first known account of ‘Practice Random Acts of Kindness and Acts of Senseless Beauty,” The Random Acts of Kindness Foundation said. “Inspired by the phrase, Conari Press released a book aptly titled Random Acts of Kindness, published in February 1993.”
Yet, these works of literature were only the beginning of the sensation’s effects. With the article and books, ‘Random Acts of Kindness Day’ was locally created around 30 years ago.
“Colleen Ring used the movement to help her students cope with [a local tragedy] by starting a program called ‘Kids for Kindness’ at Edmonton’s Mary Hanley Elementary,” St. Albert Gazette said. “After the kids’ positive response, the teacher asked for a week to be proclaimed The Random Acts of Kindness Week, and it was approved.”
Despite its first account occurring on the East Coast, the international observance quickly spread further West and soon began to reach across oceans. Along this journey, Klein Cain was affected and inspired.
“The very year Klein Cain opened, 2017, is when Cain’s student council first took part in Kindness Week,” StuCo Co-Sponsor Celia Spivey said. “Our goal was for people to feel loved and that they’re not just some random kid in our school.”
As Klein Cain puts together its eighth celebration for Kindness Week, the traditions the student body has created continue to appear. Student participation is highly encouraged for events such as the dress-up day themes and the heart wall.
“That’s one way that students recognize our care and attention, because [StuCo] spent time making over 4,000 hearts for every single person, so nobody’s getting left behind,” Spivey said. “Kindness for everyone, because everybody has a reason and a purpose to be here.”
