Great Kindness Challenge to Return to Yelm at End of January

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The tradition of the Great Kindness Challenge, which began eight years ago at Lackamas Elementary School, is set to return to elementaries within Yelm Community Schools and businesses throughout the city.

The challenge will last from Jan. 23 through Jan. 27.

The Great Kindness Challenge is an event where students within the six elementaries promote kindness throughout the duration of the event, according to Yelm Community Schools.

“The Great Kindness Challenge is a challenge for people to do 50 kind acts throughout the week,” Shannon Gubser said. “There are lots of different kinds of acts for these students to do in each school.”

Gubser said that participation in the Great Kindness Challenge looks different for each of the elementary schools, but there are a plethora of activities for the students to do. The activities include painting “kindness rocks,” which are placed throughout the schools, as well as thank you cards and other activities.

Students will also have the opportunity to participate in different spirit days like “Brighten the World With Your Kindness Day,” where students and staff are encouraged to wear neon colors to school.

Lackamas Elementary School will have a Great Kindness Challenge kickoff assembly, according to Gubser. She said there’s been an effort to have Mayor Joe DePinto attend the assembly to help celebrate kindness week.



While the challenge first started in the community at Lackamas Elementary eight years ago, word of the positive responses received from the event spread to other school counselors around the district, according to Gubser.

“We were having a lot of bullying behaviors, particularly at the upper grades, and so we started to problem solve to figure out what we could do,” Gubser said. “We did a webinar and the tool kit that came out of it had so many helpful items. Our first year with the Great Kindness Challenge, we saw huge decreases in reported bullying numbers and an increase in our friendship numbers. Other counselors within the district heard of how well this program worked and wanted to get involved with it, too.”

Aside from the participation of elementaries, Yelm Community Schools is asking for business partners to join in on kindness week. Gubser said Grocery Outlet provided “kindness bags” for elementary students to decorate. Once decorated, the bags will be returned to the store for use.

“We are asking our business partners, or our Graduate Yelm! partners, if they’d like to participate in kindness week,” Gubser said. “It’s exciting to see this idea spread citywide. In any city across our country, there will be certain things the city is known for. If it was New York, it might be the New York Yankees. I think it’s so exciting that as a city we are prioritizing kindness and I believe that says a lot about what our values are within this community.”

The Rotary Club of Yelm has been a sponsor of kindness week since the event first began. Gubser said the organization originally donated $300 for the cause and matched more than $300 in donations for each elementary that joined the event. Now, the Rotary Club of Yelm is donating $1,800 for Yelm’s participation in the Great Kindness Challenge.

“When we first started this, I went to the Rotary Club of Yelm and asked if they’d sponsor this event and they said they’d love to,” Gubser said. “We invited them to the assembly, the kindness station. They not only donated money, but they participated which was super cool. Rotary Club, from the inception of this, has been a great supporter and nearly the sole supporter financially for this.”

For businesses interested in participating in kindness week, contact Andrew Kollar with Yelm Community Schools at andrew_kollar@ycs.wednet.edu for further details.