For several days, Montgomery City and Jonesburg elementary schools participated in a worldwide campaign to help promote individual and global kindness.

The schools were part of the Great Kindness Challenge, which impacted over 19 million students, 39,000 schools and 110 countries. Students are challenged to complete an age-appropriate list of kind acts to be eligible for prizes.

Both MCE and JBE held their Great Kindness Challenge weeks from Jan. 24-26. School was not in session on Jan. 23 due to weather issues.
At MCE, students wore their western wear on Jan. 24, dressed like what they wanted to be when they grow up on Jan. 25 and donned their groovy clothes on Jan. 26. The school was scheduled to wrap up its Great Kindness week on Jan. 30, when students wore their pajamas.

Kindergarten teacher Liz Freie said her students enjoyed dressing up during kindness week. At one point of the week, her class had the most students dressing up in the entire school.

“They had a lot of fun showing us their costumes and their dress up days,” Freie said. “They really liked the career day, showing us what they wanted to be when they grow up. We had some YouTubers, pop stars, teachers, farmers and cowboys.”

There are 26 students in Freie’s kindergarten class. She said the students did an outstanding job of learning kindness.

“We’re really excited that we’re showing kindness to each other,” Freie said. “We’ve really been encouraging them to be kind. We read stories about kindness during the week. Just instilling it at a young age is really important for our kindergarteners.”

JBE had a different agenda during kindness week. During the three days, students wore Wildcat spirit gear, hats and clothes with bright and neon colors. A kindness cart was made and it included items that students can pass out to staff members.

The school also had a visit from Wellsville author Gina Sachs, who wrote a children’s book, “Ellie and Hip Share Kindness,” in July.

“She brought this little coloring page and it had little cards that you can cut out and make your own message and give them to people,” said JBE counselor/student council advisor Lacy Gambill, who was in charge of the school’s kindness week activities. “Those have been floating around the school all week.”

Fifth-grade students Ada Boylan and Emelia Hans learned during the week that kindness is pretty important to everyday life.

“It just really makes everyone feel good,” Ada said. “It kind of helps people get on with their day.”

“Whenever someone gives you a compliment, it makes your day better when you’re having a bad day,” Emelia said. “You just have a good day.”