Kindness counts. Two fourth grade girls, who are also best friends, are making the most of that phrase.
Amiyah Martin and Adalyn Oak are part of the After School program led by Jeanette Adams. The group talks about kindness regularly. They received a kindness calendar for November/December, which gave ideas of kind things they can do for other people.
One of those ideas was to send a postcard to sick children.
“We thought, why don’t we start that and send cards to sick kids at Christmas time,” Adalyn explained. Their initial goal was 20 handmade cards.
Some of their friends pitched in to help as did some students in Mrs. Adams’ guided reading group. As the project went along, the girls decided to set a new goal - 100 cards.
“After a couple of weeks working on the project during free choice time in after-school, Amiyah and Adalyn decided we needed to set a new goal of 100 cards and finish the project the next day,” Adams said. They ended the day with 84 cards.
So, Adams put out a call to the Cartmell staff for help in reaching the 100-card goal the girls set.
They surpassed their goal and had 144 cards to mail to two childrens’ hospitals before Christmas.
“I think they’re really thoughtful for doing that,” 9-year-old Amiyah said. She noted some children were unsure what to write so Adams created a template for them. In addition, another teacher helped with artwork on the cards.
The girls chose to send the cards to Norton Children’s Hospital in Louisville and St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. A family member had surgery at Norton’s and the girls said they saw commercials for St. Jude, which inspired their choices. The cards were split evenly between the two hospitals.
“I just felt this was the right thing to do,” Adalyn, age 10, said.
“I think some kids need positivity from somebody else,” Amiyah added. “I am so thankful we got to do this.”
Adams said Amiyah and Adalyn led the entire project and learned many valuable lessons throughout. “While my staff and I are very proud of the girls, we are not surprised they wanted to do something to brighten the day for other kids,” Adams said.
