Students Learn Benefits of Showing Kindness to Others
Circulate Coupons in St. Ignace Area
By Karen Gould

Spreading kindness and circulating kindness coupons is the goal of St. Ignace Elementary School students. Some of the students participating in the program and ready to hand out more coupons Friday, November 14, are (back row, from left) Tucker Shepard, Brian Harju, Anton St. Andrew; (front) Connor Fitzgerald, Tessa Shepard, and Laci Soblaskey.

Kindness coupons are circulating around the community as part of a project underway by students at St. Ignace Elementary School. Children in kindergarten through sixth grade are performing random acts of kindness while distributing coupons that encourage others to take up the practice.

Anyone can receive a coupon, said Anne Cowell, the cultural technician at St. Ignace Area Schools for the last eight years. She is leading the program.

The coupons are handed out when a good deed is performed, and offer instructions reading, "You have just received a random act of kindness, please pass it on, along with this card. Together we can change the world — one person at a time."

The project was designed to help build character and develop self worth, said Mrs. Cowell. When preparing this program and others for students, integrating many world cultures, including Native American, helps students learn that they are important and their actions affect others, she said.

"In the classroom, I don't want to zero in on just one culture. I pull them all in and use the cultural beliefs to light a fire in their hearts to get them to know that when you look out at the world, there should be value in what you see," she said. "I want them to have a burning

desire to be a voice for innocent children, animals, and older people, because sometimes they don't have a voice."

The students say they enjoy performing the acts of kindness, which can be spontaneous or planned in advance.

"I feel good," said second grade student Tucker Shepard, who washed dishes for his grandmother. His grandmother, he said, appreciated the help.

Also in the second grade, Laci Soblaskey said she likes making people happy and hopes her acts of kindness help people be kinder to others. So far, she gave a hug to her teacher, Helena Shepard, and now has four more coupons to give to others when she is kind to them.

The program is proving successful, said Mrs. Cowell, as some of the students have run out of coupons and have gotten more.

As part of the Thanksgiving season, Mrs. Cowell said she is preparing students for the next lesson, which will be about thankfulness. Students will be learning about the many things their parents and guardians do that affect them, things the students may not be aware of, including paying utility bills, making car payments, and helping them with sports and other extracurricular activities.

For this program, she is challenging students to leave a thank you note on the pillow, bathroom mirror, or some other obvious place to be discovered by their parents.

Some students already have started leaving thank you notes, she said, including Tucker Shepard, who left his mother a message on her pillow.