THE GIFT OF GOOD WILL

A poster in the hallway promotes random acts of kindness week, which ran from April 19 to 23.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY AMI MARCINEK

The CURE club holds Random Acts of Kindness week

BY MARY MARCINEK reporter

‘‘ Kindness doesn’t just need to happen in the school, but also everywhere else we go. Holding the door for people at the store or paying for someone’s coffee in the drive-thru can go a long way. Simply being intentional about putting others before yourself shows so much kindness.

junior Ella Matthysse

A kind word can go a long way, and the CURE (Courtesy Understanding and Respect for Everyone) club at CPHS is determined to spread this message.

Every year, the CURE club sponsors one full week of kind gestures for CPHS students and staff. The goal for Random Acts of Kindness week (RAK) is to not only bring positivity into school, but to encourage others to pass on random acts of kindness.

According to club sponsor Ami Marcinek, the CURE comes up with creative ways to spread kindness during RAK week.

“One of the first things we planned was our ‘Post-it palooza’ because we always get really good feedback from this,” Marcinek said.

Outside of RAK week, Marcinek notes that the CURE does other various events throughout the year.

“We always have an event for new students, so this year we’re hosting breakfast. Since we have so many new students who stayed virtual, we sent out greeting cards to those students to let them know that we’re thinking of them. One of the favorite activities this year was passing out free snacks at lunchtime to students. We also did a passit-on type kindness act for the staff, hoping it would generate a chain of events.”

Even though these acts are simple, they are significant to members in the CURE. CURE member junior Ella Matthysse sees RAK week as a great way to emphasize that kindness is something people should always be practicing, especially outside of the classroom.

“Kindness doesn’t just need to happen in the school, but also everywhere else we go,” Matthysse said. “Holding the door for people at the store or paying for someone’s coffee in the drive-thru can go a long way. Simply being intentional about putting others before yourself shows so much kindness.”

Marcinek says that in order to supply students with a little extra inspiration during RAK week, the morning announcements start off with a kindness quote. She discusses the reasoning behind this.

“Our hope is that just hearing (the quote) kind of plants the seed of positivity for the day,” Marcinek said. “It just starts off the day on a positive note and gives students another chance to see that they have the ability to make the day a good day for themselves or for someone else.”

Creating positivity in the community is very simple, and Marcinek believes that sometimes the most uplifting acts of kindness one can do are simple and completely free.

“Some of the easiest ones are giving compliments, holding a door open, picking up something that someone dropped. Those are all random acts of kindness many people do every day and don’t even realize they come across to someone,” Marcinek said.

Matthysse believes that being kind to others is not difficult, it is just sometimes overlooked. According to her, the CURE club’s mission is simple: they want to make a habit of sprinkling kindness into others’ days whenever feasibly possible.

“Our mission is to make the school a kinder place,” says Matthysse, “Just by complimenting someone on their outfit or having a conversation with someone who you may not know very well can literally make their day.”

(left to right) Senior Madison Flewelling, junior Sarah Gardiner and junior Bella DiFabio pose with sticky notes the CURE put up in the halls for “Post-it palooza.” These sticky notes have words of encouragement and kindness written on them.

PHOTO PROVIDED BY MADISON FLEWELLING

‘‘ One of the favorite activities this year was passing out free snacks at lunchtime to students. We also did a pass-it-on type kindness act for the staff, hoping it would generate a chain of events.

club sponsor Ami Marcinek

Quoting Kindness

“You cannot do kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.“ “Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible.”

“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward, safe in the knowledge that one day someone might do the same for you.” “A part of kindness consists in loving people more than they deserve.”