The Kindness Clubs at Alden Place and Millbrook Middle School are all about spreading love and respect around the hallways and they have big plans for the future. 

Alden

The club was the brainchild of Alden’s school psychologist Tonya Pulver who wants students to remember that giving back and thinking of others is important, something that teacher aide Charlene Hartley feels people have lost over the years.

“We’re all about bringing that back,” Hartley said. “The sooner they realize life is not all about them, they’ll be better off.”

Over 60 students show up every Thursday afternoon to work on projects that brighten spirits, including colorful Thanksgiving themed placemats for the senior housing complex next door to Alden. Pulver and a group of some club members delivered them on November 16 just in time for Thanksgiving. Hartley noticed students took pride in this particular project.

“They were very happy,” Hartley said of the seniors. “I laminated all the placemats for them and they all looked so pretty, colorful.”

In the future, Hartley would like to see students help children their age in orphanages, as well as show love for the troops, local firefighters and police officers.

“We want to do more and more,” Hartley said. “There’s so many options.”

MMS

The Kindness Club is co-advised by monitor Kelly Osborn and foreign language teacher Heather Douglass, who came up with the idea to create a club that would create situations for students to leave a positive impact on the learning community.

“Post-pandemic, creating spaces for students to feel socially-emotionally connected to school was very important to us,” Principal Steven Cabello said. “Kindness Club has been hard at work spreading kindness to our fellow Blazers and beyond.”

Some of the initiatives club members have taken on include creating an anti-bullying bulletin board, a coin drive with the RULER club for UNICEF and most recently the “Caught Being Kind” campaign. This entails posting and displaying cards throughout the building promoting kindness.

“Students, faculty and staff have the ability to recognize someone in the building when they are caught being kind,” Cabello said. “This has been an incredibly impactful club for the culture of our building and we believe it truly shows the positive spirit of our students, faculty and staff.”