“If a tree falls in a forest with no one there does it still make a sound?” Most of us are familiar with this long time saying that can be related to random acts of kindness. Even if no one sees or acknowledges an act, it still makes a difference. This idea is being taught to the first graders in Ms. Dahl’s class during the Christmas season. She is trying to teach the first graders the joy of doing nice things, even if they don’t get anything back.

Every day the first grade class turns to the Advent calendar anxiously to see what their daily act will be, and the acts will continue until Christmas day. One day the act is to put a thank you sign on the garbage cans to thank the people who do the job, another was putting post it notes all around the school that say nice things to people who read them, and yet another was simply giving compliments to one another. The class does these things during the school day, but on the weekends they will get acts that they will have to do at home.

“It makes people happy, and that makes me happy,” is what 1st grader Charlie Hietpas says when asked about the importance of the project. He says that even after Christmas he would continue doing random acts of kindness because they made peoples’ day and he liked that. He also added that he doesn’t need to be noticed because he likes doing these acts of kindness since they make him happy. If a first grader can recognize this, how hard can it be for us to recognize this simple but powerful truth?

Thanks to some fifth graders, I have some examples of random acts of kindness. I went into their classroom earlier this month and explained to them what random acts of kindness are and asked them to fill out some sheets if they saw any. To my delight I got quite a few back.  Sofia picked up Emme’s headband, Gabby picked up a pencil case, Nate helped Jimmy pick up his flash cards, Joe, Tessa, Emme, Sofia, and Stella all picked up Reed’s binder, and Sydney passed out papers without being asked. Sure these acts of kindness are small, but together they still make a difference. That group of people picking up Reed’s binder probably made his day a whole lot better, and Nate probably saved Jimmy a lot of time by helping him out with the flash cards. In all, these things put together make an image of kindness that shines.

Finally, I am stuck with the same saying, “If a tree falls with no one to hear it in a forest, does it still make a sound?” Yes it does, and all acts of kindness don’t need to be seen to make a difference. Even if no one sees the act, it will still be noticed. The person who received the kindness will be inspired and pass it on. These small acts are important to our everyday life, and they should be shared.

Our newspaper would like to recognize these small acts and are asking you to please let us know when you see random acts of kindness. You don’t need to be a kid to share what you see, you can be anyone in the St. Robert community. Please email an act of kindness that you received or you observed to [email protected]. And thank you to all who turned in acts of kindness and are doing them everyday; you make a difference.