Kindness Projects spreads positivity through Frankfort community

FRANKFORT, IL — The Frankfort community enjoyed more kindness throughout their everyday encounters last week during the Frankfort Kindness Project, initiated by Frankfort School District 157-C students.

During the week of February 9-15, Frankfort residents and visitors who stopped by one of 30 participating Frankfort businesses received handmade stickers with positive messages. Students at all three District 157-C schools created the stickers by hand.

The Hickory Creek Middle School PozSquad spearheaded the initiative. The club, which is sponsored by teachers Michelle Matz and Cristina Vallejo, is in its first year. Its mission is to spread kindness through small interactions that create a ripple effect throughout the school, District, Frankfort community, and world.

Matz explained that a small act or word of kindness shared with one person can inspire the recipient to be kind to others, multiplying the amount of positivity and compassion in the world.

In addition to the Kindness Project initiative, students in grades K-8 celebrated Kindness Week by engaging in social emotional learning lessons and activities focused on kindness.

For example, at Grand Prairie Elementary School, students participated in an annual food drive for the Frankfort Township Food Pantry, created handmade Valentine’s Day cards for veterans and brainstormed random acts of kindness.

At Chelsea Intermediate School, students created kindness journals to reflect on how they can be kind each day; participated in a toothpaste challenge in which the power of words is demonstrated by a tube of toothpaste – once words are out, they are difficult to take back; and created kindness mobiles to hang in their classrooms. Additionally, students could be the “I” in “kind” by standing in front of a wall adorned with printouts of the letters.

Also at Hickory Creek, Student Council members delivered Grand Prairie’s food drive collections to the Frankfort Township Food Pantry.

The Frankfort Village Board of Trustees proclaimed the week of February 9-15 Kindness Week in Frankfort, and area businesses and residents were encouraged to join in on the positivity by paying kindness forward after receiving or handing out a sticker with a student’s positive message.

District 157-C is grateful to the Village for its support of the Frankfort Kindness Project and to local businesses that agreed to distribute stickers throughout the week.