Planting Seeds
Columbia
As an elementary school principal, Jen Wingert knows that a little kindness can change a kid’s life—and possibly a community’s future. “We had a student who was new, who did not want to be at a new school, and she made that known,” says Wingert, head of Grant Elementary. “If we’d just said, ‘Your attitude stinks,’ she’d just have put up one more wall.”
Instead, teachers, staff, and students “poured on” the kindness. They included the girl in activities and invited her to share her feelings. No one demanded she shape up. Instead, they listened, loved, and waited.
“Soon she started to crack a smile,”
says Wingert. “By the end of the year, she allowed herself to be loved.”
Spreading kindness is a citywide mission in Columbia, a city of 123,000 citizens about halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis. Driven in large part by a group called the Children’s Grove, the effort is built on the conviction that a little caring can help stop troubled kids from becoming unhappy or even dangerous adults.
Formed in response to America’s grim spate of school shootings, the Children’s Grove’s mission is to make Columbia the “Kindness Capital of Missouri.” Volunteers have teamed up with educators for all kinds of inspiring initiatives, including creating Kindness Libraries and planting Kindness Trees. During this year’s Kindness Week, they made a Kindness Chain featuring more than 4,000 paper links, each celebrating a single act of caring. The group also hosts workshops about mental health.
“A single act of kindness can change a life forever,” says Children’s Grove president Kim Dude-lammy.
“Children are the future,” adds artist Madeleine Lemieux, who is helping create a kindness mural. “If you can teach them to be better citizens, you’re making a better place for everyone.”