The posters appeared suddenly throughout Emerson Elementary.
A sun sporting sunglasses with the message “Too Cool for School.” A giraffe below the words “Stand Tall.” A sign made specifically for Elizabeth Meta: “To the BEST librarian ever.”
Then came the Post-It notes filled with encouraging words: Keep shining. You’re a Shooting Star. You’re Awesome.
For the past three weeks, Emerson staff discovered encouraging hand-written words on doors, across desks, on whiteboards from the same source — The Kindness Ninjas.
“I thought it would be kind to do something for someone else,” said fifth-grader Addison Tubaugh, who started the Kindness Ninjas as a club. “So many people do kind things for me. I thought it’d be cool to do kind things for someone else.”
Each year, fifth-graders propose ideas for clubs towards the end of the year. Tubaugh offered up the Kindness Ninjas as an option; Kate Stuckey, Angela Trudden, Harper Hahn and Abrianna Mikel jumped at the chance to be part of the group.
They set a goal of sending positive notes to all staff, from the art teacher to the substitute custodian. They devoted their lunches to crafting their notes or delivering them to unsuspecting recipients. (Although in some instances, they asked teachers for permission to post encouraging signs in their room.)
“We kind of just wanted them to feel encouraged and appreciated and have a good feeling inside,” Stuckey said.
In addition to notes, the group created flower pens for the front office and worked with the origami club to craft paper turtles and cranes for first-graders.
For Mikel, the club was an eye-opening experience.
“I learned a lot about everyone,” she said. “I didn’t know that people (didn’t feel) appreciated. It felt really good to go and give everyone a note of kindness.”
Principal Chris Poynter told the students their work made more of an impact than they realized.
“For the adults, they also felt proud,” he told the girls. “I don’t know if you knew you were spreading that, but we were very proud to be associated with this castle because we were so proud of what the students were doing.”
With members of the Kindness Ninjas heading off to different middle schools in the fall, the future of the club is uncertain at Emerson. However, they are open to starting similar efforts in their new school.