Princess Margaret celebrating kindness
Be kind. It was the simple message on the T-shirts given out Wednesday to Princess Margaret Secondary School students, hundreds of whom pulled them on before gathering for a group photo.
Handing out the free shirts, created with the help of sponsor Sherwood Trophies, was Grade 11 student Sarah Wood.
Wood spearheaded the kindness project after seeing a similar idea in an Alberta school.
“We celebrate the kindness day every month, but we want to promote kindness every day of the year,” Wood said.
“Anti-bullying day is really great, and has a great story behind it, but we need to be kind every day of the year, not just anti-bullying day.”
The campaign is a reframing of the popular Pink Shirt Day, when students sport pink in February as an anti-bullying message. Instead, the Princess Margaret “Be kind . . . just because” initiative will have students wear their new shirts once a month, plus promote thoughtful behaviour and positivity towards their fellow students, teachers and human beings the rest of the time.
Lunchtime activities are planned for the future, with the first act of kindness being the free shirts received by the students.
“We've been trying to find some good random acts of kindness once a month,” Wood said. “We want to really focus on some people who maybe don’t feel the love every day of the year — some underappreciated people in the school, maybe the custodians or assistant teachers or special-ed students — and make them feel as involved in the school as we can.”
Fellow Grade 11 student Vanessa Edis said the campaign keeps kindness on the minds of students.
“It’s a good reminder to be kind, and it lets kids take a step back and realize that. The school purchased all of these (T-shirts) for us, and that was really kind of them to do,” Edis said.