While the rest of the world was wrapped up in the recent Winter Olympics, Hewitt Elementary School students were focused on a challenge much closer to home — the small, friendly actions and gestures that make up the school’s Kindness Olympics.

In January, the school adopted Rachel’s Challenge, a character-education program that was born from the 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School. Hewitt Elementary is using the challenge to fuel its own Kindness Olympics, which has classes racing to have the most on-record acts of kindness.

Hewitt Elementary Principal Diane Gough said she is already noticing a difference in the kindness climate on campus.

Students at Hewitt Elementary School have accepted Rachel’s Challenge to be kind and compassionate. Here, Chariah Jackson and JaNaiya Davis (right) make paper links for their kindness paper chains.
Rod Aydelotte/Tribune-Herald

She joked that the excitement over the challenge has children tattling on acts of kindness they spy rather than bad things.

“This kid was picking on one of my friends. And since we started doing Rachel’s Challenge, she’s been nicer,” fourth-grader JaNaiya Davis said.

Rachel Scott, for whom Rachel’s Challenge is named, was the first student to be shot in the Columbine rampage. Her belief in the power of kindness and compassion and the contents of her diaries are the foundation of the program that aims to change the culture of schools and businesses by starting “a chain reaction of kindness and compassion.”

Rachel’s father, Darrell Scott, spoke about Rachel’s Challenge in February at the fifth annual Teen Suicide Prevention Symposium at Education Service Center Region 12, hosted by the Junior League of Waco and ESC Region 12.

Rachel’s Challenge seems to be putting peer pressure to a positive use at Hewitt Elementary.

‘It’s cool to be kind’

“It’s neat to see a child recognize kindness in others. They’re looking for it. It’s cool to be kind at Hewitt Elementary,” Gough said.

There are different components to the challenge. First, students signed a pledge to be nice. Then the Kindness Olympics began.

Every time someone does something nice for someone else, the student on the receiving end of that kindness may make a link for a paper chain, and they present the do-gooder with the link, which is added to their class paper chain.

The paper chains are quickly becoming the dominant hallway decor, snaking around doorways and swinging from the ceiling in great swoops.

Each new link moves that class a little forward in the Kindness Olympics. By Gough’s count, the students have racked up more than 700 acts of kindness in more than two weeks.

‘More genuine’

“It started out with little acts,” Gough said, noting students eager to be praised for picking something up off the ground. “Now it’s gotten more genuine. They’re doing kind acts for the sake of being kind.”

Hewitt Elementary School students display one of their paper chains. Each link represents an act of kindness.
Rod Aydelotte/Waco Tribune-Herald

Gough said she can already see a difference around the school and that discipline referrals have dropped. The challenge calls students to look beyond themselves and consider those around them and their school as a whole. Eventually, Gough said she would like to expand the challenge to community activities.

“You can change people. There are not many bad things that happen in the world when you’re nice,” third-grader Lauren Berry said.

Lifelong impact

The students say they’re not going to be fickle about being friendly, that they’re going to carry the kindness challenge with them beyond the colorful halls of Hewitt Elementary.

“When you go to a different school, you could teach them how to do Rachel’s Challenge,” fourth-grader Darion Cotton said. “Even if they don’t (take the challenge), you could still be nice.”

That’s the type of attitude school leaders are hoping for.

“We hope we’re making a big impact now that will last their lifetime,” Gough said.

wgragg@wacotrib.com

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