Undercover Kindness was co-founded by Vicky Xu and Deifilia To two years ago. It is an organization that strives to make the school and city a more positive place.
“Everything we do is based around getting people to smile, encouraging others to do kind things, and showing people how powerful simple acts of kindness can be,” said Vicky.
During the event, participants were able to display kindness in a variety of ways. They wrote on large thank you cards for teachers and caretakers to let them know how much they were appreciated. They also had the chance to write uplifting and motivating messages to someone in particular, or just anyone in general, using sticky notes, small white boards, or even by submitting compliments online. The compliments are anonymous, and allow students to show their appreciation for other people. They will be published online, and can be seen here. Furthermore, students could take kindness challenges, where they picked a strip of paper with a kind action written on it and followed what was written.
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- Ms. O’Flynn Wheeler encourages students with a kind message. Photo courtesy of Undercover Kindness.
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- Volunteers for Kindness Cafe. Photo courtesy of Deifilia To.
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- Students sign a thank you card for teachers and caretakers. Photo: Deifilia To.
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- The school principal gives her honest words of encouragement to students. Photo courtesy of Undercover Kindness.
“The purpose of the cafe was to get the student body to be aware that it’s easy to do something nice for others.” said Deifilia, the co-president of Undercover Kindness. She added, “Undercover Kindness wanted to show that it doesn’t take a lot to make someone smile. It’s the little things (like putting a note in someone’s locker or giving a cookie) that count.”
With that being said, the next day, the kind messages written anonymously by students on sticky notes were distributed by members of Undercover Kindness on the lockers of students. Many students were pleasantly surprised to see a compliment or uplifting message on their locker in the morning.
“It felt great to be able to compliment others and know that you could have made their day a bit better,” said Christina Zhang, a Grade nine participant.
Many students agreed that the Kindness Cafe was a great opportunity to express kindness in ways that they normally would not.
