Kindness in our Wicomico County Schools, 2019-2020

James M. Bennett High School highlighted kindness throughout their Clippers Choose Love week, that took place 2/10 – 2/14/20, by having an event where students could get advice on academics and more, encouraging students to tell someone if they loved them, creating cards for freshman students, taking a positive message from their post-it wall and passing it on and signing a banner to pledge that they would do an act of kindness.

At Wicomico Middle School, Mrs. Torres’ students tied in Kindness activities to their theme of overcoming obstacles. The class started by discussing Cyber-bullying and how they can spread kindness to prevent this and other types of bullying. The students created a Kindness Station/Kindness Box and a Kindness Board.

Also, at Wicomico Middle School…their Social Worker, Mrs. Chaffee, worked with students to create kindness heart messages for EVERY student and staff member in the building. That’s over 1,000 kindness messages!!! WOW!

Salisbury Middle recently launched their 1st Kindness Club and is off and running…The students invited Mayor Jake Day to speak at one of their meetings about kindness. At the meeting they made kindness clips and presented their kindness puzzle. Some of the activities they’ve been doing this year are: a Holiday Kindness Cart for staff, that was filled with treats and hot beverages and they created a “Kindness gives us eagle wings” mural filled with every staff and student name where students can have their photo taken.

Pemberton Elementary officially started their 1st Kindness club! At their meeting held on 2/11/20, students made Kindness Notes with random encouraging messages for staff. The notes were placed in staff mailboxes by the club members. Notes contained encouraging messages such as “you are special”, “thank you”, and “you are appreciated”.

Pittsville Elementary & Middle School Kindness Club students delivered hearts with treats to every teacher and support staff on January 23, 2020. Way to go Pittsville Kindness club on being an example of kindness in our community and to you peers.

Pittsville Elementary and Middle School Kindness Club bagged 140 pairs of socks for Socks for Seniors to deliver to Anchorage Nursing Home on December 19th.

A few members of the Kindness Club from Pittsville Elementary and Middle School, along with Erica Jackson, of the Wicomico Board of Education who works with our students and families who stay at the shelters, delivered 37 Blessing Bags to the Christian Shelter on November 26th, 2019. The additional bags were taken to Halo by Ms. Jackson. The staff at both shelters were so happy to receive these blessings for their residents!

On, November 26th, 2019, Pittsville Elementary School 5th graders went on their “Making a Difference” field trip, visiting HALO, residents of Atria, and the Humane Society.

Some James M. Bennett students celebrated World Kindness Day by writing notes to staff members thanking them for the kindness they have given. Remember, one kind word can change someone’s day!

Beaver Run Elementary school created a kindness banner for students to stand in!

Glen Avenue Elementary School celebrated World Kindness Day on November 13th by creating a wall poster for students to take pictures in.

Choices Academy celebrated Unity Day by taking a stand for kindness, inclusion and acceptance!

Back in September, Wicomico High School’s Guidance Department had a kindness week geared toward easing social isolation and promoting kindness and inclusion. They also held a World Kindness dance in November 2019.

The Pittsville Elementary and Middle School Kindness club worked on their 2nd initiative…creating a card for each student to promote Unity day, October 23rd, as a day to stand for kindness, acceptance and inclusion! Pittsville Students wore orange to show their support for Unity, created footprints of change and signed a banner to promote kindness!

Wicomico High School participated in #startwithhello week. They had a week of different activities for students and staff to promote kindness. On their fourth day they did “no one eats alone.” Students made sure no one ate alone at lunch and staff had conversation cards on the tables they could discuss. Staff and administrators even came to participate! Amazing how little acts of kindness can help a student struggling with depression and anxiety!

Parkside High School‘s art classes created kindness boards for Kindness/Anti-Bullying Month. The boards will be on display at this years Dance For Kindness event taking place at the Riverwalk Ampitheater in Salisbury on November 10th, 2019.

Pittsville Elementary and Middle School‘s Kindness club created a”Be the ‘I’ in Kind” wall mural where students are able to take the pledge and show their commitment to showing kindness towards others.

Kindness is BLOOMING in SBY!

One of our amazing downtown businesses, Olde Towne Cafe, planted a seed of kindness in our community by offering a Buy one, give one sandwich promotion on January 31, 2020 for the Construction workers that are working so hard to complete the downtown plaza. As a result of planting that seed, many customers decided to pay it forward by purchasing a breakfast sandwich during the special promotion period. Kindness is truly blooming in SBY…customers helped pay it forward to 65 construction workers!! On average, there are 16 workers that work on the plaza daily. Altogether, the community covered almost an entire week of breakfast for the workers. Olde Towne Cafe was quoted as saying: “We’re privileged to be a part of a community who cares so much. We saw a lot of faithful faces and brand new faces! Thank you seriously so much! We look forward to blessing more people with you in the future!” Way to go Olde Towne Cafe for inspiring our community to be kindness in action.

Dance for Kindness 2019

In 2012, Life Vest Inside had an amazing idea to organize a World Wide event called Dance for Kindness in honor of World Kindness Day. According to Life Vest Inside, “The purpose of Dance for Kindness is to look beyond ourselves – beyond the boundaries of our country, beyond our culture, our race, our religion and realize that we are citizens of the world and that kindness is the common thread that unites us all.”

Last year’s event took place in over 120 cities, 50 countries with over 20,000 participants. This year marks our 4th Annual World Wide Dance for Kindness in the City of Salisbury, MD and will take place on Sunday, November 10th 2019 from 2-4pm at the Riverwalk Ampitheater! Grab a few friends and register to dance, TODAY: at www.danceforkindness.com

Some of the activities taking place at this years dance are: chalk painting, puzzle decorating, donation drive for Salisbury University’s Food for the flock pantry (bring a non-perishable food donation), Vittles food truck, yoga (bring your mat), Poem by Poet Laureate – Nancy Mitchell, Eye contact experiment, AMP Performance, watch the Heart & Sole Step team perform and more…

We hope to see you there! Whether you dance or just come out to support our community…you’ll have a great time! GO #kindSBY!

1st World Kindness USA City

Thanks to the efforts of Grace Foxwell Murdock, Wicomico grows Kindness and YOU, Salisbury is officially the very first World Kindness USA city! Check out this video to learn about the new website, and find out details about the upcoming Dance for Kindness 2019!

#kindSBY

Register for Dance for Kindness at: www.danceforkindness.com

Wicomico Goes Purple Night of Hope

Wicomico Goes Purple held an amazing “Night of hope” event on Friday, September 13, 2019 at the Pohanka Riverwalk Ampitheater. The event was filled with stories, testimonies, singing, dancing, prayer and lots of resources were provided to the community about substance abuse and opioid addiction. Wicomico Goes Purple is truly spreading kindness in education! #kindSBY

For more information go to: https://wicomicogoespurple.com

Growing more than veggies

In 2015, Martin Hutchison, Beacon of Light, Bethany Lutheran, Community of Joy and the Restoration project began the Camden Community Garden with the support of Green SBY. Their vision was to transform the community by creating a garden. Their hope was that the neighborhood would grow together while growing healthy veggies. Over the past 4 years, this one community garden has caused transformative growth. Not only has the Camden Community Garden fed a large number of people each and every day, it has helped neighbors create positive relationships with one another, provide books to children, feed children in the summer months and give them engaging activities to do, teach local students how to start and maintain a garden and it’s brought immense beauty to a once desolate piece of land. Truly this one garden is growing more than veggies and our city is blessed! What a blessing to live in a city with such kind-hearted people and churches! #kindSBY