This year, the Blue Mountain senior class is doing a senior exit project, the transferable skills project, and the kindness challenge. For this, seniors have to pitch an idea and act upon it; showing that they can spread and show kindness throughout the school.

This idea was started from a previous project of Principal Emilie Knisley and high school English teacher Leah Gawel. “Mrs. Knisley and I created a gratitude lesson for our seniors. They were tasked with writing letters of thanks to BMU staff or teachers who positively impacted their educational experience,” stated Gawel. The result of the project was so good they decided to take this idea one step further and turn it into a full kindness project.

Also, Gawel believes that this is an excellent idea for the future. “Mrs. Knisley & I are eager to see the seniors interact with different grades and our staff; one of BMU’s greatest strengths is having pre-k – 12th grade under one roof, and we can’t wait to see them work together to make our world a better place.¨

Seniors Karli Blood and Jordan Alley went back to the third grade with their ideas. They had two different days planned, one with a presentation and the second-day making “kindness flowers” to be displayed in the high school hallway. The presentation was about how much of an impact showing kindness has on the things around you. The kindness flowers are cut-out flowers that you write an act of kindness on each petal in the hope that they’re inspired to act upon them. 

“Our goal for this project was to educate children about the impact that kindness has on our world, and why it’s so important to be kind to everyone. We were hoping to inspire the third graders to use kindness more in their everyday lives. Mrs. Roberts already reached out expressing how her students were emphasizing kindness in their daily actions more than usual,” says Karli Blood. Be on the lookout for acts of kindness throughout November and December