Mirroring Kindness

This was such a short week; because of a weird ice storm we only had two days of school. I used some of that time to cut out letters for this kindness display.

Got it up in time to kick off next week's Great Kindness Challenge.

We're super excited; the kind acts check lists went home today.

On the way out the door, one of our fifth-grade boys enthusiastically shared that he'd already completed seven of the suggestions! Have you signed up yet?

Those of you who know our school's story know that this year has been a difficult one for our district and town. Hurricane Harvey hit just seven days into the school year; 63 of our Bales students and eleven of our faculty and staff were displaced by those fierce flood waters. Life has been a challenge course for all of us as we recover, rebuild and restore from this trauma.

But there have been some sun showers, too, like when the Kindness Team from Kids For Peace came to Friendswood to bring donations. They then chose Jet Stream Jax as their national spokesperson for this year's Kind Coins campaign and filmed him on location right here in town and at our school,

to kick off their annual Kind Coins charitable collection.

Right before the holidays, we got an email from Jill, co-founder of Kids For Peace, asking if they could build a play space to help our school family heal. Such a humbling, beautiful surprise; that virtual challenge course that we've been on in real life is going to be built in real life just outside our gymnasium, a generous gift.

For us.

A rainbow in our cloud.

To help us heal.

Here's a sneak peek.

Weather permitting, the ribbon cutting will be Wednesday, January 31st. I can't wait for the Kindness Team to come back to Texas and help us put the finishing touches on the Peace Garden that's adjacent to the challenge course.

Good Morning America plans to feature Kids For Peace this coming Thursday to showcase the Great Kindness Challenge family edition, so be sure to tune in. Additionally, Hasbro Children's Fund will be matching all #KindCoins donations up to $100K, so if you haven't donated yet, now's a great time.