Endeavor Celebrates 100 Days of School with 100 Acts of Kindness

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” This quote, also printed boldly on Endeavor Elementary’s playground “buddy bench,” was a key takeaway for at least one student about the recent school-wide celebration of Kindness Month. 

“That’s what it reminds me of,” said third-grader Jaiveer Aulakh, referring back to this quote.

This year, Endeavor put a different spin on its traditional 100th day of school celebration, combining it with a unique nod to February’s Kindness Month and an extension of the school’s model for positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS).

Led by Assistant Principal Ben Schneider and Counselor Amy Hauer, the effort kicked off with a shared exercise across all grade levels during one of the school’s daily morning meetings. One by one, every single student contributed to a shared document that in the end housed 700-plus ideas for random acts of kindness they could do at school and out in their community. 

From there, four giant posters - one for each grade level - were printed to capture a total of 100 random acts of kindness suggested by students. They included everything from thinking before doing something to staying positive during a game that you lose. Similar to a “cover all” game of Bingo, Endeavor students were challenged to “get caught” doing all 100 acts throughout February. 

Students and staff, alike, could call out a colleague, peer, teacher or student whom they witnessed doing any one of the acts on the poster. For each act reported to the office, another sticker got added to one of the posters 

“It’s really been something special to witness,” said Schneider, noting that the main goal was to reinforce kindness as a habit and also something that gets noticed and praised. He also wanted to create something that every single student could take an active role in.

Students have yet to learn whether they reached their goal nor what the prize is for doing so. But either way, that part of it seems to be an afterthought.

“You’re not going to do it for the prize,” said third-grader Imran Fkhar. 

“You just do something kind and if it happens to be on the board, then it’s good luck,” echoed third-grader Nora Theiss.  

“Sometimes you just do something and no one sees it and that’s okay,” added third-grader Nora Okel.