This poster made for Crestview’s Great Kindness Challenge recognizes intervention specialist Kim Gilbert.

Crestview students grades K-4 last week participated in the Great Kindness Challenge. It was the district’s first time participating in this national event, which is a bullying prevention initiative sponsored by the organization Kids for Peace. In 2016, 8,022 schools participated. Students were assigned with the task of completing a “Kindness Challenge Checklist” which suggested 50 kind actions for students to participate in to deliberately spread kindness throughout the week. In addition, each classroom was assigned a Classroom Kindness Mission which involved the class being assigned a person or two in the building who they were responsible for spreading kindness to throughout the week. Students also had the opportunity to draw attention to other students’ kind behavior by witnessing and writing the kind actions they observed on a leaf to be put on the Kindness Tree in the cafeteria. Students and teachers went above and beyond in their participation with this event. There were songs sung, choreographed and filmed, posters made for local businesses to spread the message that “Kindness Matters”, special notes to the bus drivers and cafeteria staff, and letters of appreciation written to the superintendent.