Dawson-Bryant students celebrate performing good deeds

COAL GROVE  — Dawson-Bryant Elementary students are being taught that simple acts of kindness can go a long way.

This nine weeks, the school is taking part in a kindness challenge, in which, every day, a task is presented to students and they are asked to complete it before the end of the day.

“This can be giving someone they don’t know a high five or complimenting a teacher,” principal Angie Lafon said.

Assistant principal Monica Mahlmeister said the effort is inspired by the #RACK (Random acts of Cody kindness) movement, which takes its name from Cody Gollihue, of Ashland, who lost his life in a car crash last year.

“He was a Christian and very service-oriented,” Mahlmeister said. “This is a way of keeping his legacy alive.”

The school is also creating a “kindness chain,” made of paper links, each inscribed with a good deed a student has done.

Lafon said the goal is for the chain to stretch around the school. They’ve only had a few days to work on it so far, but it has grown to 20 feet or so.

“We have nine weeks,” she said. “I know we can make it.”

Two of the first students to have links in the chain were Abi Nichols and Isabelle Nutter, of the fifth grade. They said they had each brought cookies for Mahlmeister and Lafon, respectively.

Another with a link in the chain was Miles Roach, of the second grade.

“I helped someone to tie their shoes,” he said.

Lafon said the school wanted to do the kindness challenges, in order to take on the constant negativity in the world.

“This way, we can teach them to resist that,” she said.

Mahlmeister said it shows the students how easy it is to be kind to one another.

“It doesn’t cost any money at all,” she said.