Chain of kind acts filling the halls at Dobbs and all district campuses

Fri, May 16 2008

— By Leslie Gibson
Herald-Banner Staff

With acts of kindness, Rockwall elementary students are making history.
They are the nation’s first elementary students in KC Clubs, which promote kindness and compassion at their campuses. It makes them feel good, students said, to be kind.
Rockwall elementary school counselors created the program over the summer, (See story below) after learning of the Rachel’s Challenge program designed for secondary students, in which Rockwall high schools participate.
The 175-plus students in district elementaries meet regularly at their schools to perform acts of kindness as a group, and remind each other how special an individual act of kindness is.
At Dobbs, the KC Club met recently to talk about what the club means.
“It feels good to know you are helping people in your community,” said Ana Fajaudo.
“I love being kind to others; it makes other people feel good and not be sad,” said Savannah Phillips. “My buddy Ana cheers me up.”
She and Ana and the other Dobbs students showed Valentine cards they had made for hospitalized children.
Kate Homs explained “We are making cards for people in the hospital; for kids with cancer and they don’t get to go to school and have the parties.”
On the home front, the club members help clean in the cafeteria, they said. Ty Hammond and Homs babysit teachers’ children after school.
Hammond and his mother, he said, started Tuba-Gram. For a birthday student, Hammond plays “Happy Birthday” on the tuba as classmates sing along.
“I’m very grateful for the things we do,” said Madison Owen, sixth grader, who just started at Dobbs in late January. “My dad was in the military and we moved a lot.”
“I’ve met lots of new friends in the club,” Madison added saying she has also taken new students “under her wing” before, and will do it again at Dobbs.
Kindness, they agreed is expressed in many ways.
“Doing the unexpected that helps others, not just playing ’cause you’ve done it millions of times,” Juila D’Alessio said.
Picking up a dropped pencil box for someone is an example of an act which, if noticed by the teacher or another student, gets written onto a strip of paper, which then becomes another link in the paper-ring kindness chain stretching down the hall and in the classrooms of the Dobbs campus.
“If someone is being mean to someone, you go over and stand up for them,” said Megan Kelly. When KC Club members hear gossip, they try to stop it.
First grader Graci Wilkins said, “If somebody says something mean to you, you should say something nice to them.”
D’Alessio, a fifth grader, said being in the KC is “like breathing in a breath of fresh air.”
“My mom used to say, “It only takes a little bit to make someone smile or be happy all day,” said Fajaudo.
These students recognize kindness away from school, too.
Phillips noted, “My family has this habitat thing and another act of kindness is my Aunt Sandy and all are out there, helping us build this home. These are strangers to us, helping us build a home,” she said, of the Habitat for Humanity home her family is receiving.
Dobbs KC Club members meet each Thursday, to “sort things out,” said Regan Wilkins, and “talk about things we’re going to do.” He added, “Kindness is the key to respect.”

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