Dignity Health 'Matching' Kind Acts of Santa Cruz-Area School Kids for 'Great Kindness Challenge'

Dignity Health Dominican Hospital is participating in The Great Kindness Challenge taking place this week through Jan. 30.

Dignity Health is the presenting sponsor of the Great Kindness Challenge, created by the non-profit organization Kids for Peace.

The Great Kindness Challenge is a bullying prevention initiative dedicated to creating a culture of kindness in elementary, middle, and high schools nationwide.

The event challenges participating students to complete 50 acts of kindness in one week.

The Great Kindness Challenge is currently on target to have more than 2 million students participating for 2015, which will amount to 100 million acts of kindness in schools nationwide.

In addition to serving as a presenting sponsor of the Great Kindness Challenge, many of Dignity Health’s more than 65,000 executives, employees, and physicians will be taking the Great Kindness Challenge alongside the students this week, effectively “matching” their good deeds in hospital, clinic, and office settings.

Dominican Hospital staff will be among those Dignity Health employees participating in The Great Kindness Challenge. Dominican also has partnered with Good Shepherd and Holy Cross Elementary Schools to bring Great Kindness Challenge week to their schools.

“Dignity Health Dominican Hospital is thrilled to once again participate in the Great Kindness Challenge,” said Nanette Mickiewicz, MD, Dominican Hospital President. “Together with our community school partners, we look forward to strengthening our culture of kindness throughout this week and into the future”

“Kindness is the foundation of our healing ministry, and we are proud to support the Great Kindness Challenge for the second year,” said president/CEO of Dignity Health, Lloyd H. Dean.

To learn more about what kindness means to kids, Dean recently spoke with dozens of students from San Francisco’s Mission Dolores Academy, one of the schools taking part in the Great Kindness Challenge. The students’ responses and insights were shared with Dignity Health employees to inspire them and their in-hospital participation in the upcoming Great Kindness Challenge, and culminated in a video: Kids Say the Kindest Things, which is available for viewing at http://youtu.be/YZYzZp54nhI .

To follow Dignity Health’s acts of kindness, please visit facebook.com/dignityhealth.

To learn more or participate in the Great Kindness Challenge, please visit dignityhealth.org/GKC.

About Dominican Hospital
Dignity Health Dominican Hospital has been caring for the Santa Cruz County community for more than 70 years. Dominican offers emergency services and is a Certified Stroke Center and Chest Pain Center. Dominican’s services include the only comprehensive Cancer Center in Santa Cruz County, a Total Joint Replacement program, and the hospital is a leading provider of neurological services.

Dominican regularly receives ‘A’ grades for hospital safety from Leapfrog Group, and has received national recognition for superior safety and quality from Healthgrades, a leading provider of comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. Dominican also has received several awards for environmental excellence.