Lakota preforms 1,200 acts of kindness

KANSAS—The Lakota High School Women's Leadership Council, consisting of 25 young women in grades nine through 12, recently chose to participate in an anti-bullying project that involved the entire school. #HatNotHate is a program with a mission to encourage individuals to stand up to bullying and create awareness over the topic. The Lakota Women's Leadership Council had a goal to challenge all members of the Lakota community including staff, students and other administrators to perform an act of kindness throughout last week. With everyone in the school system performing an act of kindness, the school was able to officially complete 1,200 acts of kindness. As part of the #HatNotHate kindness and anti-bullying program, blue hats were donated to each student and staff member at Lakota Local Schools. The blue hats are hand-knitted or crocheted by individuals across the nation and donated to the program. The hats represent awareness, peace, and solidarity. Additionally, blue is the color one wears to display support for anti-bullying. On Dec. 9, all staff members and students wore their blue hats and hosted an assembly at 1:30 p.m., where each grade discussed the acts of kindness they performed, and activities were completed that represented teamwork. A student-produced video was also displayed during the assembly, reflecting on the #HatNotHate program and how to spot and deal with bullying. "This is the second year our Women's Leadership Council has spear-headed the distribution of the hand-made hats," said Nancy Slotterbeck, Lakota's school counselor. "We like to emphasize kindness with our students and model those behaviors. Some students have been raised with these values by their parents and extended family members. Others learn about kindness from their educators and peers. We all face our own challenges in life and demonstrations of kindness and empathy make our co-existence so much more harmonious." Along with Slotterbeck, Cassie Velasquez and Valerie Karhoff serve as advisors for the Women's Leadership Council at the school. Slotterbeck emphasized that when everyone works together with a common goal of kindness, it creates a happy and healthy environment for individuals within it. "Kindness can also be simple, spontaneous acts like holding the door open for a stranger or letting someone step ahead of you in the lunch line," she explained. "Our hope is that this shared vision serves as a reminder that we all have the power to make someone's day more pleasant. And then there is the ripple effect and a culture of kindness develops. The blue hats serve as a reminder of this simple, yet powerful message."