“Spreading kindness is an easy feat”

The theme song of “My Little Pony” hit the bullseye, sharing kindness is easy and beneficial

Wesley Harrison Editor-in-Chief

Kindness is scientifically proven to improve people’s emotional and mental health. Doing or witnessing acts produces oxytocin, which helps lower blood pressure and improves heart health. It increases energy and serotonin, which causes people to be happier and more active. Being kind helps balance hormones and makes people more healthy.

“If you’re someone who hasn’t practiced extending kindness, you sometimes feel even better when you’re the one being the kind one or extending the kindness, it;’s an easy, simple task that makes everyone around you feel better,” Ms. Marie Papini, Marietta High School counselor, said.

Kindness is easy to spread. The positive effects of it make everyone who witnesses it more likely to also engage in acts of kindness. It only takes one good act to inspire the people in the area to pay it forward and spread more kindness.

“I love spreading kindness because it makes me feel so happy that I can affect everyone else’s day in a positive way,” Annie Gehring (11) said.

A random act of kindness is as simple as it sounds, it’s when a person spreads kindness to another person for no reason. The Random Act of Kindness Foundation advocates for people to stop hate and make kindness the norm. The Random Acts of Kindness Activ ists (RAKtivists) strive to encourage human connection and love between others. They organize an annual Random Acts of Kindness Day on Feb. 17 where they encourage people to do kind acts all day.

“Kindness helps to develop a community, it’s a speeding train that once it’s started, it will pick up everybody it goes past and they’ll be kind too,” Brett Woodham (9) said.

Although Random Acts of Kindness

“It’s really stressful this year, so kindness kind of helps bring my joy back to my life again and it helps me be more happy throughout the day,” Ryan Thompson (11) said.

Pitchfork didn’t stop there with spreading kindness though. After they had delivered the sticky notes to Marietta’s students, they took a trip to A.L. Burruss. Pitchfork staff members met with children at the A.L. Burruss afterschool program and wrote down their words to share with their peers.

They posted those sticky notes throughout the cafeteria for students to see and take as they needed. Students enjoyed this chance to make their classmates happier.

“If you don’t remind them that [you like them] then they’ll just forget and let it get in the way,” Rhea, a third grader at Burruss, said.

Pitchfork is continuing to spread kindness going into their Random Acts of Kindness Week which is Feb. 11-18. They began by handing out awards to select people who they believe exemplify a kind spirit on Monday, Feb. 11. Then they held an alumni connection meeting, where they got in touch with former staff members of the paper.

In 2023, the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation is asking people to spread kindness by encouraging others throughout the day. They also want people to engage with each other, reaching out to help encourage the spread of kindness.

Day is celebrated on Feb. 17, the Pitchfork staff has a whole week planned for it at Marietta. The staff posted sticky notes with kind words written on them under the grand staircase. Students were encouraged to take notes and pay that kindness forward.

Students can see the action that Pitchfork is taking to spread kindness on their Instagram, @mhspitchfork, and they encourage others to spread kindness throughout the rest of the week as well.