• #26Acts of kindness: San Antonio third-graders rack up 115 good deeds

    Susan Garcia

    A third-grader at Thomas L. Hatchett, Sr. Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas wrote this message about the value of performing acts of kindness for others.

    By Laura T. Coffey, TODAY

    After covering the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., NBC News’ Ann Curry wondered what could be done to ease the national suffering over the loss of 26 children and teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary. Why not, she tweeted, commit to doing one act of kindness for every child killed there? People responded — and wanted to up that to 26 acts of kindness for every child and adult lost at the school. Now people around the country are committing random acts of kindness — connected through the hashtag #26Acts (#20Acts and others are also trending). Get inspired: You can start your own acts of kindness right now.

    Like many school teachers across the country, Susan Garcia was nervous. On the Monday after the unthinkable school massacre in Connecticut, how would she handle the inevitable tears and questions from her third-grade students? What could she possibly say?

    Then she saw a tweet from NBC News’ Ann Curry. The tweet mentioned the idea of doing 26 acts of kindness in response to the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Garcia thought, “That’s it!”

    “I knew this could be a way to spread positivity at our school and honor those victims,” said Garcia, 44, a teacher at Thomas L. Hatchett, Sr. Elementary School in San Antonio, Texas.


    She sat down with her 8- and 9-year-old pupils on Monday and floated the idea of doing random acts of kindness throughout the week.

    “They ran with it,” Garcia said. “They are SO excited.”

    The kids enthusiastically began dreaming up thoughtful deeds they could do for teachers, students, school administrators, custodians, parents, siblings and others. Their ideas included:

    • Give someone a hug.
    • Give someone a smile.
    • Meet someone new at recess and play together.
    • Make Christmas cards for parents, teachers, custodians and others.
    • Pick up some trash.
    • Take someone’s tray for them at lunch.

    Inspired by Curry’s original tweet, Garcia did some sleuth work online to find ways to make the random acts of kindness concept resonate with 8- and 9-year-olds. She found ideas on Pinterest and on the blog 3rdGradeThoughts.com, which ran a post about orchestrating Random Acts of Classroom Kindness at school and having students log their kind deeds on Random Acts of Classroom Kindness, or “RACK,” sheets.

    Susan Garcia

    Third-graders filled out "RACK sheets" like this one and logged their kind deeds throughout the week.

    By the end of this week, Garcia’s class collectively completed 115 acts of kindness.

    “They want to keep doing this in January after we come back from (winter) break,” Garcia said. “I told them, ‘We don’t have to stop! We can definitely keep doing it if we want!’

    “We were all so shocked and devastated by what happened. This has been a way to turn it into a positive.”

    Related stories:

    There are many questions about Friday's shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, but one being asked by just about everyone is how to best honor the victims. In Newtown and across the country, random acts of kindness are being performed in the memory of each person lost. NBC's Andrea Canning reports.

     

     

  • 'If you do good, you'll feel good': Ann Curry explains origins of #26Acts of Kindness

    A massive, unexpected wave of goodwill began online with a simple idea: "Imagine if we all committed 20 acts of kindness to honor the lost children of Newtown." NBC News National and International Correspondent Ann Curry sent the message on Twitter and Facebook. The idea has evolved into a viral effort known as "26 Acts of Kindness," in honor of the students and faculty who died at Sandy Hook Elementary.

    By Ann Curry, NBC News

    After being in Newtown, I woke up the next morning and thought about what could be done. What is the answer to this kind of national suffering?  And I remembered a moment on the edge of Darfur, when I came upon a woman who was elderly and in the hospital, recovering from burns after an attack by Janjaweed militias. She was surrounded in the hospital, by younger women carrying babies, and I asked her to tell the story of how she had suffered these terrible burns all over her body. I learned that she had tried to rescue her invalid husband when her village was attacked and her house was set on fire. She tried to carry her husband out of her house and stayed so long that the thatched roof of her house came down, the hot embers giving her 3rd degree burns.  But she was unable to save her husband. Her husband died.

    Antoine Sanfuentes

    Ann Curry's inspiration for #26Acts of Kindness dates back to an experience she had while reporting on the genocide in Darfur in 2007, and the joy that giving Polaroid pictures of children brought to mothers who had never held a photograph of their kids.


    I remember walking out of that hospital, and the producer saw the look on my face. He said, “Are you okay?” And I said, “No.” And without even thinking, I remember going to our team van and pulling out a Polaroid camera I had brought on that trip. And then I went to all of these women with their children who were in the  courtyard of the hospital, knowing that they had never owned a photograph – ever – of their child. I went around from woman to woman, and I took pictures of them, I took pictures of them with their child, or just of their child alone – without even thinking, just snapping pictures. The first time I did it, I remember giving a photograph to a woman, and she looked at this black square with this quizzed look on her face, and I said, “Just wait one minute! Just wait one minute,” holding up one finger. And then I watched her face melt as she watched her child’s face slowly appear on that Polaroid.
     
    It made me feel better. So I went from mother to mother to mother until I ran out of film.
     
    After the experience in Newtown. I thought, “What if? Imagine if everyone could commit to doing one act of kindness for every one of those children killed in Newtown.” So that’s what I tweeted. And guess what? People committed. I said in my tweet, “I’m in. RT if you’re in.” Not only did they commit to 20 acts of kindness, they wanted to up it to 26 acts of kindness for every child and adult who was lost at the school. Some even debated maybe we should include the mother, who died, at 27 acts. Some debated maybe we should include the killer as well as he was struggling and in pain.

    What’s really remarkable to me is how many people responded. They are the ones who carried the ball. They are the ones who chose what to do. People would tweet back, “I’ve done two!” “I bought coffee for a guy in line!” “I bought toys for homeless children!” “I’ve got 18 more to go!” or “24 more to go!” – whatever number they were trying to reach.

    I was inspired by them. So I started tweeting about what people were doing. Some people thought it was boasting when they would say “I’ve done this” or “I’ve done that.” I don’t think so. I think that whenever you show by example an act of kindness – big or small – something that spends a lot of money, or because you don’t have the money, something that doesn’t, all of it is welcome.

    There is no judgment. I think that’s the key. If people want to do it, great. But I think that if they do it, something great happens to you.

    When I was tweeting, I noticed that the number one trending topic was something like "ThingsIlikeaboutmyself."  I thought, “Well, if you do act of kindness, I bet you’ll like even more about yourself.” So that’s what I tweeted.
     
    I know the truth: if you do good, you feel good. It’s the most selfish thing you can do. Right now, this country wants to heal. I think the only thing comforting in the face of a tragedy like this is to do something good with it if you can. Be a part of that wave.

    Here are some ideas to get you started: 

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