As a young kid in elementary school, being nice to every kid on the playground or classroom is not always how things go. The idea of kindness is not something one is born with, but something that is understood through one’s peers, surroundings and life experiences. Most notably though, kindness is something that can, and should, be taught at a young age. 

Kool 2 Be Kind does exactly that.

Kool 2 Be Kind, a club at Staples focused on promoting kindness and ending bullying, has visited each of the five elementary schools in Westport for the months of February, March and soon to be April, in hopes to educate and work closely with young students.

Members of the club participate in interactive activities with elementary students to encourage kindness and empathy while teaching about the harms of bullying. Club advisor Kelly Shamas says that she usually starts with an ice breaker that focuses on understanding people’s differences. Then, they show a video followed by the main activity.

“We like to have the students create something that they can express their individuality with,” Shamas said. “Lastly, we end our lesson on coming up with ways that these students can spread the lessons message to their peers and school community.” 

Each month  the club focuses on a different theme. For the month of February, the theme was “lollipop moments,” which are small moments of kindness in one’s life that had a large impact on them. 

“We had them make ‘lollipops’ with a popsicle stick and two stickers,” Grace Alfero ’23 said. “We had them think of a moment when someone did something small that made them feel good and made their day better. On the stick, they wrote that person’s name to show their gratitude for the kind action.” 

Alfero explains why the club feels it is specifically important to target young minds when teaching about kindness. 

“I think targeting elementary students is really important because they are at the age where they are beginning to mature, but sometimes don’t know what it means to be kind to others,” Alfero said. “Having students being engaged in the lesson feels as though we are making a difference and really getting through to these kids, and that is really our goal.”

By having monthly lessons with the schools, the club hopes to not only teach the students in the classrooms, but to reach all elementary students in Westport in order to have a large-scale impact. 

“We hope that because we cannot meet with every elementary schooler in Westport,” Alexa Gibson ’23 said. “That the students spread what we teach them to their peers and that they are all taught the importance of kindness.”

Club advisor Elaine Daignault explains how Kool 2 Be Kind aims to help young students understand what kindness truly means and how to utilize it in their own lives. 

“We hope that kids feel seen and heard by their older peers and use the lessons to explore their own experiences of feeling different or alone,” Daignault said. “So they might go out of their way to be kind to others.”