Palmyra-Macedon 8th grader wins trip to Super Bowl
PALMYRA, NY — Being kind is not all that hard, according to Daisy Jones.
“All it really takes is just smiling at somebody or asking them how their day was, which anybody can do,” said the 13year-old Palmyra-Macedon Middle School eighth grader.
Daisy should know; the video she wrote and produced on kindness has her and her mother Darcy Smith, who is principal at the school, heading off to Las Vegas on Saturday for the Super Bowl.
Just a month ago, Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen and Bills teammates seemingly had more of a chance of going to the game than Daisy and her mom. But in football, circumstances change and fast. Now, in addition to the big game Sunday pitting the Kansas City Chiefs against the San Francisco 49ers, they also will be able to take in a performance by pop star Kelly Clarkson as well as some sightseeing before leaving for home Monday.
Yes, there was jumping up and down and yelling when they found out the news.
“I kind of went crazy!” Daisy said, and her mother added that she was stunned, surprised and certainly proud of her for deciding that she wanted to do this and having the perseverance to work on the script and actually pull it together.
“I’m proud of her for setting her mind to doing something kind, carrying forth and getting it done,” Smith said.
Here’s how Daisy’s kindness led to a trip to the Super Bowl
Their road to the Super Bowl started at school.
Daisy, who is a competitive dancer, is a member of the National Junior Honor Society and involved in leadership programs at the Pal-Mac school.
She was looking for service hours related to the theme of being kind and spreading kindness, and the two came upon the Kickoff for Kindness national competition among middle and high school students.
The contest “matched what we wanted to work toward perfectly,” Smith said.
That night, Daisy said she started thinking about what she could do to make her video stand out. The next day, she wrote a script.
Daisy, her brother, Lucien Jones, and friend, Grace Penkaty, stayed late after school on a Friday and filmed it. They then waited for the result.
Daisy’s Kickoff for Kindness video was ‘from the heart’
Among the five finalists a selection committee narrowed entries to, Daisy’s video stood out, according to Stuart Muszynski, president and CEO of the Values-in-Action Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that provides social, emotional and character education programming in schools.
Kindland is an initiative of the organization that strives for individuals and communities to share acts of kindness that will inspire others to do the same. Kickoff for Kindness is a national school kindness video presentation that will be shared with schools that participate Feb. 8.
“We received many video submissions from around the country, some cinematically more refined, but Daisy’s video was so authentic and from the heart,” Muszynski said.
At the end of the video, Daisy gives her own personal take on the importance of kindness: In December she was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes.
Getting back into her routine was difficult, her mom said, but the kindness of people in the hospital, her friends and classmates helped her get through that time. Then it was her turn to be kind.
“Upon returning she felt deflated until the welcome and kindness from her classmates reversed her mood,” Muszynski said. “And then she decided that she had to share the importance of kindness with other students around the country.”
Daisy said she had no idea she would get this far.
“We just thought it would be a fun thing to do,” Daisy said. “You always hope you’re going to win but we never thought we were going to win.”
Rooting for Kansas City Chiefs because of Taylor Swift
Her family is a Buffalo Bills family, and she found out she was headed to the Super Bowl before the Bills lost to the Chiefs two Sundays ago.
“We were cheering pretty hard that the Bills would keep going, but obviously that wasn’t the case,” Smith said. “Not terribly disappointing; we are so excited to still be able to go.”
And Daisy is pulling for the Chiefs, picking them to win 27-14, although dad Thomas, who with Lucien is staying home to watch the game, reminds her of the Bills’ dismal playoff luck against the Chiefs in recent years.
No matter. She’s a fan of pop icon Taylor Swift, whose album “Midnights” won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year, and Swifties root for Kansas City and her beau, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
“I want the Chiefs to win because I like Taylor Swift,” Daisy said.
And like everyone, she has an opinion on their loving relationship. Unlike many, Daisy is kind about it.
“I think they’re cute together,” Daisy said.
Daisy also is quietly hoping for something big to happen at the game. Bigger than a Chiefs win, or a 49ers win, for that matter. Bigger than the spectacle of the Super Boal and bigger than the game itself. Why, yes, of course it involves Swift. A one-of-a-kind event, if you will, for Daisy.
“I think she’s hopeful for a sighting,” Smith said.