The RAC Winners for 2020 for the best photo and story
1st Place: Pitt River Middle School, Port Coquitlam, School District #43
In early January, my grade 6/7 class started brainstorming ideas for what to do for RAC week 2020. They came up with many ideas and then voted on 5 things that they wanted to do to spread kindness that week. On Monday they wrote gratitude letters to previous coaches or teachers at their elementary schools. In their letters, they expressed how thankful they were for the positive impact these people had on their lives. Letters were sent to several schools in the district, 3 outside the district, and one was even sent to a teacher in Russia! On Tuesday the students organized a staff appreciation with treats, coffee, and posters. On Wednesday they got gifts for everybody on the Parent Advisory Committee to thank them for their support and contributions. On Thursday the students made personalized cards for every class in the school. These cards, along with cookies, were given to all 19 divisions! By pooling their money, on Friday they were able to spread some kindness in the community. They bought two $100.00 gift cards and dropped them off at 2 Starbucks locations in Port Coquitlam along with kindness cards they had made with quotes. They treated over 60 customers to free drinks. Other than the gratitude letters, all of these acts of caring were done anonymously! While reflecting on the experience the following week, they wrote things like; “It makes me happy to make others happy.” “I can’t wait to do more nice things for other people.” “It makes me feel really special when I am the reason someone is smiling.” “Now I’m always looking for little ways to make a difference for others.”
2nd Place: Fernie Secondary School, Fernie, School District #5; Citadel Middle School, Port Coquitlam, School District #43
Fernie Secondary School
Ms. Murphy’s two grade 8 and 9 leadership classes at Fernie secondary in Fernie, BC were excited to participate in RAC week on February 9-15, 2020. We didn’t have much time to prepare as we found out about it a week prior but the students worked hard and quickly to pursue the ideas they came up with to spread kindness in our school and community. On one day we raised $30 to take to Starbucks and give to the cashier to give out the next few coffees for free. The Starbucks was so touched by this gesture that they decided to add an additional 30% off the drinks so that the students’ money would stretch to more people. We sat at the tables and worked on Valentine’s Day cards as customers came up smiling and grateful to thank the students. The Starbucks cashier told us after that we completely uplifted the feeling in the shop by doing what we did. The following day these students walked down main street and handed out candy and Valentine’s notes to people they knew and to strangers. One student even wrote a personal card to a teacher of hers to tell her how much she appreciated her. The teacher was thrilled. Our second class decided to ask Starbucks to donate a box of hot chocolate so that they could walk through town and hand out hot chocolate. In addition, this class decided to make posters with kind tear off notes for people to take and hand out. We put the posters up in town as we handed out hot chocolate. The posters in the school had all the tear offs gone after two days! The students were really proud and felt good about what they did.
Citadel Middle School
The students in Ms. Dawson’s class made special cards for all staff at the school then delivered them to each person with a chocolate treat! The students worked on these cards independently, each having a specific meaningful note to each staff member. The same students also made up little comment cards encouraging their peers to write positive thoughts and moments on the cards. They used a rolling bulletin board to share these positive memos with the school community (the board is displayed in the front foyer of Citadel). Ms. Dawson’s students carried extra copies of these comment cards with them all month of February handing them out to ensure everyone had a chance to share. During the first week of February, students from Ms. Dawson’s class made posters to put up around the school announcing everyone to wear purple February 10 – 13 to acknowledge and appreciate Real Acts of Caring Week. For the 4 days of wearing purple, a few students accompanied Ms. Dawson’s EA, Ms. Schuk in rewarding those who wore purple by giving them a treat. We went through thousands of candies in the four day period due to so many Citadel students participating in the purple week!
3rd Place: Greenwood and Midway Elementary Schools, School District #51 (combined entry)
During the week of February 9th-15th students at Midway Elementary and Greenwood Elementary joined together to create Valentine cards for community members which included our local manor (senior's home) to remind our community members how important they are and how appreciative we are of what they have done for everyone over the years. Students in primary grades worked hand and hand with students from intermediate grades to create the special Valentines cards.
Secondly, we provided students at Greenwood Elementary with shovels and after one big snowfall we went out into the community and shovelled driveways for an afternoon. Thanks for instilling the reminder to participate in Real Acts of Kindness. Our hope is that this will foster our students and our community to pay it forward with acts of kindness.
And some other great entries!
Killarney Secondary School, Vancouver, School District #39
Leadership in Killarney is more than just a course, it provides senior students with an opportunity to give back. To give back to not only their peers, but also to give fellow students a safe and welcoming environment wherever you are in the school. Leadership is a class you have to apply for, and the main requirement is willingness to do good for someone else. February is our Kindness month. We celebrate kindness by doing various different activities at our school. One of our kindness projects, the 3rd party compliments is an initiative where anyone in the school can write anonymous compliments to teachers, staff, and support staff. This initiative has the goal of spreading positivity behind people's backs. By having a compliment sent to them, we hoped that the recipient knows that they are appreciated. Our class has also made thank you cards for all of the teachers and support staff at our school.
Riverview Park Elementary School, Coquitlam, School District #43
Our focus on kindness and caring has been ongoing throughout the month of February. RAC had its start in SD43 and encourages students to do something kind for another, without expecting anything back in return. Some of the initiatives that students at RVP participated in during this year's RAC included:
- Presenting Team Time messages about kindness
- Creating a Kindness Chain where students record ways people have shown them kindness, and ideas of how people can be kind (see attached photo)
- Creating 'super loops' on the Kindness Chain when a kindness action was taken by a group
- Organizing to pick up litter during break times
- Creating kindness notes and delivering them secretly to another class
- Writing affirmations and displaying them in the window
- Creating placemats and delivering them to a local homeless shelter
- Making flowers and notes to give out in the community to neighbours, store clerks, etc.