A $747 grant from the Emporia Public Schools Foundation is allowing every student at Logan Avenue School to try a little kindness, one class at a time.
The “Kindness Counts” grant was written by school counselor Carla Fessler, who calls the new program a “pay it forward” project.
Forty-five children in the two kindergarten classes initiated the program this month by making a cocoa mix they called “Kindness Cocoa.” Then they bottled it in jars trimmed with ribbons.
“We all got together and they worked kind of like a little assembly line,” Fessler said.
The jars sold out to teachers and staff at Logan Avenue.
“With the money they’re getting from the cocoa, they’re going to buy mittens or hats for kids who don’t have those things,” Fessler said.
The project has been important for the young ones, who often feel they have nothing they can give to anyone.
“After they give their mittens away, then they pass the job up to the first graders and the first graders are going to have to come up with something to do in January to help someone else,” she said. “By the end of the school year, all of the grades will have done something and passed it forward to the next group.”
At the end of the year, the entire school will celebrate all of the kindnesses they have accomplished from a base grant of $747.
Fessler, who was pleasantly surprised to receive the grant, is optimistic that the students will find many ways to bring kindness to others through the grant.
“I feel very blessed because we have so much attention on (Adequate Yearly Progress) and making academic progress and gains,” Fessler said. “This is not curriculum focused. It’s a social and emotional learning. I felt very lucky that mine was chosen to do this.”