Many assisted living residents don’t receive visitors, mail, or cards on a consistent basis. To help bring smiles to these residents’ faces, WEACT, a South Junior High student organization focused on community service opportunities, has been creating ‘wishing you well’ cards for the past five years. This ‘Kindness Project’ was expanded this year to include Clearview and Lincoln Elementary Schools as well.

The goal of the Kindness Project is not only to bring smiles to residents’ faces and brighten their days during the winter season, but to help students understand the importance of kindness and connection. 

Numerous people worked together to inspire the students, including the student council advisors at Clearview and Lincoln Elementary Schools, Media Paraeducator Georgianna Kjono, and Media Specialist and WEACT Advisor Marlene Miller. 

Student councils at each school helped initiate and lead promotion of the project, and generated student interest and participation. The cards were created during weekly library visits and in classrooms under teacher guidance. 

Students used their own creativity to design and create each card. Along with bringing happiness to assisted living residents, the project helped students learn empathy, community responsibility, and the impact simple acts of kindness can bring. 

The initial goal of the project was to create enough cards to give to each resident at one assisted living facility. Students were excited to create their cards and many were inspired to make more. The project was so successful that over 500 cards were eventually created, enough for six assisted living facilities, which included St. Benedict’s, Country Manor, Good Shepherd, St. Scholastica, Edenbrook, and Nature’s Point.