Due to a few deaths of young men in our valley, a lot of talk has been going around town about bullying. This has brought a lot of attention to the local schools and student attending both the middle school and high school. With all that fresh on everyone's mind, something needed to be done. The 8th Grade SBO were talking with their advisor, Mr. Barlow in preparing for their upcoming 8th Grade Assembly, on what they can do to help build up the moral at school. They wanted the assembly to be something uplifting and positive for the kids. The topic of bullying was pushed to the side and kindness was brought to the table. McKenna said that the discussion with the advisor, that she presented the idea of being kind to others and how kindness can make a difference. She told him of the idea to make posters to hang in the school halls as an initiative to remember kindness. The other members of the presidency liked the idea and were ready to get to work.
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| Taylor Anders, Monica Mendez, Syndey Otten, McKenna Taylor, and Jayden Jensen |
These two photos and the following quote were pulled from the South Sanpete School District / GVMS website, "We are excited to announce a new movement that has been started at GVMS. A few weeks ago, several of the 8th Grade class officers approached their advisor about 'doing something' to help the school focus on being kind to each other. Out of this initial meeting came the Kindness Program. The 8th Grade class officers went home that night and hand wrote over 100 kindness quotes on colorful 8.5" x 11" cardstock papers. The next day they were plastered all over the school. These same students painted a poster with the phrase, "We can change the world with kindness". This poster is now displayed in the commons for all of the students to see."
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So the kindness kick was off to a great start and kids were all acceptable of the idea. The class officers prepared Kindness Coupons and if someone was caught in the act of doing something kind, a Kindness Coupon would be given to them, which in return they could turn into to one of the SBO's and get a small reward. One day after the Kindness Campaign started, a suicide prevention assembly was planned. This was what the 8th grade class officers decided needed to be done for their assembly. Snow College sent down six students to put an assembly based on prevention. McKenna, McKaylyn, Halle, Jaida and Paige had an awesome opportunity to sing in this assembly. These girls had worked on this song together all week in preparing themselves to sing 'Why?' by Rascal Flatts. It is quite an emotional song based on feeling right now at school and it took a lot of courage for these girls to get up and perform this for the entire GVMS student body.
But the highlight of this was the experience McKenna has had being involved in this great opportunity. First, there was an article written for the Sanpete Messenger reporting this event. McKenna was the only student quoted in that article based on the kindness drive that she initiated. Secondly, Mr. Alan Peterson, the middle school principal, came up to McKenna and thanked her personally for all that she has done. Seems small, but for anyone to get a compliment from that man must mean you made a huge impression on him because he is usually pretty negative. And last but not least, Jeremy said that in the assembly, Mr. Barlow got up and announced the line up for the assembly and when he was through with that, he took a moment to thank McKenna Taylor for this great idea and all her hard work that she has put forth to make this such a successful campaign. What a great recognition that was for her! She is such a great example to me of kindness and Jeremy and I are so blessed to call her our daughter!
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