Lauren Estes-Velez, Hartselle Enquirer

Hartselle Junior High School has recently introduced a new club or group at their campus that doesn’t focus on anything except for helping and encouraging others.

HJHS counselor Rachel Groves said members of the Kindness Team simply sign up and have different assignments they are responsible for.

“Kindness Team members participate in different events throughout the year,” Groves said. “They’re responsible for filling up stocking stuffer bags for a Christmas event, they help with different school events, and we also have students separated into different groups to fill different needs.”

Per the kindness team worksheet, the team comprises nine different groups, many of which revolve around Random Acts of Kindness:

• Announcements/Bulletin/Posters: This group meets together to create posters and bulletin boards that feature and promote kindness.
• Big Project: RAK and Kindness Week. This group will meet for specific dates for special events in the school.
• Lunch Mix-It Up: This group will be going into lunch periods to sit with different people and offer tokens of kindness.
• Letters and RAK: This group will get together to write letters and offer random acts of kindness to individuals at school.
• New Student Welcome: This group will meet with new students to have conversations, encourage and answer questions.
• Vocal Encouragers: This group will have days when they focus on encouraging others through compliments and speaking.
• Community RAK: This group will participate in activities that work toward sending random acts of kindness into the community from HJHS.
• Kindness Project – School Wide: This group will participate in activities that encourage students to work together to give to nonprofit organizations or those who are in need.
• Create Your Own Kindness: This group will get to brainstorm kindness campaigns to have during the school year. This is a think-outside-the-box group that will work to promote kindness through different school activities.

In a current project, the Kindness Team and Pace Setters, another on-campus group, have been working with Clothe our Kids of North Alabama to collect scarfs, mittens, clothing, jackets and other items for the nonprofit, located in Priceville, to give to children in need.

“We’re trying to bring in as many items to donate as we can, and I believe the classes are having a competition with it as well,” Groves said. “The ending date is Dec. 1. We love events like this because not only are we giving to others, but it’s student-run event, and they are involved from start to finish.”

Clothe our Kids owner Brandi Breeden said they truly enjoy partnering with schools and churches for drives like this because students get to see their hard work, at work.

“Everything we receive goes right back into the schools,” Breeden said. “We appreciate anything that they can bring in. It will go to use, and we love it because it gets the students involved.”