I had to share this amazing story from a recent Kindness Contest winner....it illustrates how a beautiful intention coupled with such a small amount of money seems to have made a positive difference in the public school where she works.

Her Idea: "Kindness Coalition: We are a group of three in an inner city elementary school who want to change the culture of our school into one of kindness and compassion for everyone. We plan small acts of random kindness throughout the year and any funds we could get for this project would be passed along to the ones we are trying to serve. Our staff works tirelessly with lots of pressure and few rewards and we want to acknowledge, appreciate and value their efforts."

The Follow-Up:
"A friend and fellow teacher and I were talking, making plans after attending the Greater Good Summer Institute in Berkeley this summer. We both work in an inner-city elementary school, where needs are great and burnout is high. We wanted to try an experiment to see if we could begin a movement toward a more compassionate, kind community, and in the process, renew ourselves. This is how the Kindness Coalition was born.

We submitted the idea to KindSpring, and won the monthly prize! In the two months that have passed, amazing things have taken root. We began by giving everyone on staff a personally grown, small potted plant, along with a kindness quote, and encouragement to pass it forward. Since then, we buy small gifts and anonymously place them in mailboxes or workspaces, along with a quote and a tag from the Kindness Coalition. We keep track of people we've tagged, and always encourage them to pay it forward. We now have a wonderful coffee station, being supplied by our local Starbucks and other spontaneous volunteers who bring treats and creamers and such.

We have a Random Acts of Kindness board, very full of appreciative thank you notes, we have 4 official members, and we have lots of smiles! We've even let in a fifth grade class on the secret club and students are starting to make notes of appreciation and practice other random acts of kindness too - for staff and for other students. Thank you for helping us make our school a kinder, friendlier, and happier place."