Courtesy photo Soo Hill Elementary students pose in the school gym recently while wearing their Kindness T-shirts. During February, students and staff are promoting acts of kindness globally, locally, in their school and at home.

ESCANABA — Feb. 16-22 is Random Acts of Kindness Week, but students at Soo Hill Elementary turned the whole month of February into Kindness Month. During February, students are taking part in a variety of activities that promote kindness in many aspects of their lives.

“Kindness is contagious. Ask yourself if your actions are worth catching,” said Soo Hill Principal Paulette Wickham. “Students are working to make their actions worth catching, thanks to Becky Leonoff (school social worker), who spearheaded our Kindness Month. She worked with staff members to come up with ideas and ways for our students and staff to make kindness a priority with the goal of it becoming the new norm.”

Soo Hill first-grade teacher Mary Zuidema organized a can drive through Feb. 14. Students brought in non-perishable food items to support local food banks as a generous act of kindness. Soo Hill’s Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) will host a pizza party for the students in the class that donated the most food items.

Deb O’Connell, Escanaba’s elementary physical education instructor, taught students how to be kind to their hearts through the American Heart Association’s Kids Heart Challenge, Tuesday, Feb. 11. Classes were released throughout the day to take turns joining O’Connell in the gym where she set up an obstacle course. Students learned about the heart and how to take care of it, physically and emotionally. Once in the gym, students were divided into groups and moved through the obstacle course, doing activities at each station before going back to their daily schedule.

“Not only are we teaching students to be kind to others this month, we’re teaching them to be kind to their hearts,” said O’Connell.

Finding a way to spread kindness globally was easy for these students. They chose to raise money in-house, to support the Australian koalas that suffered during the recent fires in Australia. The staff are also getting involved by donating money to wear jeans on Fridays during February. All donations will go to an animal rescue organization called WIRES, Wildlife Information, Rescue and Education Service, Inc., from Australia. “In class, students are learning about the Australian wildfires and how we can help,” said Special Education teacher Kaisa Ives. “To bring together academics, Leader in Me, and Kindness Month, we chose to pay it forward with a contribution to WIRES to aid wildlife relief and rescue.”

Hanging on a wall, just inside the main entrance, is a kindness meter. The goal of 2,000, is set at the top of the meter. Staff and students are on the lookout for acts of kindness all through February. When they see an act of kindness, they place a cotton ball in the class jar, and describe on a piece of paper what the act was they witnessed. Each Friday Karen Beattie’s first-grade class, February’s leadership class, will count the slips.

Kindness doesn’t stop when the students leave school, they are continuing their acts of kindness at home. Each student took home a kindness bingo card. As the student carries out an act of kindness at home, the square is marked off by the parent. Once the student gets a bingo, the card can be brought in and the student can make a project for the kindness board inside the school.

“Our goal with Kindness Month is to encourage our students to see how their actions can have a positive impact on others,” Leonoff said.

Other kindness special days in February are silly sock day, warm fuzzies day, super hero day, spirit day, and every Friday students are asked to wear their kindness shirt. In addition, students will write thank-you letters to local law enforcement officers, according to Leonoff.

“Hopefully our random acts of kindness will spread outside our school walls and into the community,” said Wickham.