How Weldon Elementary Raised $3,100 During Kindness Week

This article was written by Letty Lewis, Senior Guidance Instructional Specialist and P2 Coordinator at Weldon Elementary in the Clovis Unified School District in California. Letty taught for 16 years before moving into an administrative role, where she is now in her fourth year supporting students, staff, and families.

This January, students at Weldon Elementary participated in the Great Kindness Challenge, a nationwide program focused on promoting kindness and community service. Throughout Kindness Week, students completed acts of kindness using a checklist provided by their teachers and reflected on ways they could make a difference both at school and at home.

Providing a checklist gave students something concrete to work from. They had specific things to try each day, and they could look back and see what they had actually done. That made kindness a set of actions rather than a word on a poster, and it gave students at every grade level a way in. Kindness showed up in many ways during the week thanks to the checklist.

Collecting Change for Blood Cancer United

As part of the challenge, students also took part in a Change for Change fundraising campaign to benefit Blood Cancer United, the organization formerly known as The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. With support from families and the community, students collected spare change to help fund research and support for those affected by blood cancer. Blood Cancer United serves people with more than 100 types of blood cancer, and school campaigns like ours are one of the ways that work gets funded.

The class that raised the most money earned a pizza party, and all students were recognized for their efforts in making Kindness Week a success. The students were motivated to do their best and bring in whatever coins they could. Many arrived in the morning on the blacktop proudly showing off their Ziploc bags filled with change. It was impressive to see their hard work, and we knew that families in our community were emptying their pockets, looking for loose change to participate and help.

By the end of the fundraiser, we raised a total of $ 3,100.

Making a Difference the Warrior Way

Our motto is:

Making a difference every day, the Warrior Way

Our students embraced the challenge of making a difference for those affected by cancer. We strive to teach our students to demonstrate strong character at school and to understand how they can help our community and our world. This change drive was a good opportunity to do exactly that. For most of our students, blood cancer is not something in their everyday lives. A Ziploc bag is. Our fundraising efforts gave students a way to connect one thing with the other and to see that a coin they brought from home was going somewhere real.

Pajama Day and a Schoolwide Viewing of Wonder

Kindness Week concluded on Friday with Pajama Day and a schoolwide viewing of the movie Wonder, which reinforced the week’s message with the quote:

When given the choice between being right and being kind, choose kind.

Just that one quote really summarizes what the whole week had been about. Being right and being kind are not always the same choice, and Wonder puts that in front of students through a character close to their own age. On top of the moving and the satisfaction of helping raise money for people in need, students also received a red Choose Kind P2 T-shirt to commemorate the week.

What the Week Left Behind

Kindness is one of the 24 character strengths our students study through The Positivity Project (P2). Most weeks, students practice a strength through lessons and conversation. A week like this one gives them a chance to put it into real action, in a way they can reflect on later.

Students will be wearing The Choose Kind shirts long after the week ends. They will also always know they raised $3,100 for people they will never meet, and they know they did it themselves, through kindness.