… we realized how a big gesture isn’t the only form of compassion and kindness, in fact it’s the little things that really make a difference in people’s lives.

DISCUSSION –

WRITTEN BY A GRADE 8 STUDENT AT BOND LAKE P.S.

We first started off this whole campaign by having the two grade 8 classes come together and talk about kindness and compassion. We compared these concepts and got in groups to talk about what kindness and compassion mean to each of us. We then watched a Ted Talk talking about compassion and what it really means, this lead us to discover how topics such as kindness can be put in a category under compassion. Think of it this way, if compassion is an umbrella then kindness is one of the poles holding the whole thing together.

As a group, we realized how a big gesture isn’t the only form of compassion and kindness, in fact it’s the little things that really make a difference in people’s lives. So as a group we decided what our community needs and this lead to coming up with our message being that we need to communicate with each other and to be there for each other more. In the end our goal is to have our community show compassion towards each other and come together, so let’s start by creating our ripple effect.

The purpose of our project –

WRITTEN BY A GRADE 8 STUDENT AT BOND LAKE P.S.

We are a community that have a tendency to include each other… But we are not as connected as we were.

In this day and age, technology has taken over. We disconnect from life because we feel as if being social through our devices is enough. We tend to forget that most of what we say to each other is communicated by body language, tone of voice and expression. This is why we decided to start this project. We were inspired by people that go out of their way, just to help a complete stranger and show acts of kindness and compassion. Bond Lake wanted to display similar acts by painting “Kindness Rocks”, and handing them out to random people as a way of inspiring them to do the same, creating a “Ripple Effect.” We wanted people to know that someone cares about them, whether it was helping them carry groceries or just a smile, they will still feel better and cared for. We as a school believe, that if more people show kindness towards others, then our community will be a more inclusive and caring group. If someone were to get a rock and pass it on, the receiver will feel the need to continue that specific act of kindness. We want our message to be spread by you. Every little thing counts.

Understanding our role as leaders and the power of inspiration

WRITTEN BY A GRADE 8 STUDENT AT BOND LAKE P.S.

Bond lake public school in collaboration with an organization called Kindness Rock, designed and implemented a kindness campaign for our community, after understanding the main purpose of it, we had to coordinate this project with students from kindergarten to grade 8. This activity truly shows how anything can be accomplished with teamwork, the grade eights demonstrated true leadership in working together with the school. Our students understood the purpose of this campaign and why we needed it in our community. We took time off of our classes and remembered our schedules to take on this leadership role across the school. As leaders, we use this opportunity to inspire other kids, to understand the objective of the project and in a short amount of time we had over 500 students excited to create their rocks and to be part of this community work.

From this event I’ve realized the true importance of hard work and I know know that if I have to opportunity to inspire others in any way I will be inspired by kindness rock to take action!

We believe that we can make a difference in our community, but with the help of everyone…

WRITTEN BY A GRADE 8 STUDENT AT BOND LAKE P.S.

There are two different kinds of rocks that our entire school painted. The first one is a ripple rock and this is the one that you received. The students of Bond Lake P.S loved painting the various shades of blues creating a ripple, and this is for the kindness we hope to spread. We chose blue because it represents our school and how we hope that you will help us to be a part of the ripple effect. The message you find on the back of your ripple rock (kindness is contagious spread the word, small waves of kindness become big waves of change, become part of the ripple effect, kindness spreads like waves on a lake, It all starts with a single rock) is to remind you that we are all special and different in our own way and we should try and do something nice for someone to get others to understand how unique you are and how special our community is. We really enjoyed painting this rock as it will hopefully bring our community together.

The second rock we painted was the message rock. If you come by our school, you will find a sign. The sign will explain to you to why we are doing this and what our purpose for this project is. You are welcome to pick up a rock if you really like it as they are for you. Take it home with you as a daily reminder to make sure you are someone who helps form small waves of kindness in becoming big waves of change. Meaning to help grow the kindness in our community and hopefully take it to other communities as well. We loved creating these rocks as we believe that they will make you and others happy.

We believe that we can make a difference in our community, but with the help of everyone in our community. Without everyone we will not be able to show others the beauty that we can bring within this neighborhood. We need to prove that humans can be selfless and can really care. Join us today to help change this society that we have created.

Community reach

“Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean”.

Believe it or not Bond Lake P.S. students organized into sectors to be able to cover all the neighborhood. More than 550 rocks were placed on our community walks. We feel very proud of this work and the positive feedback we have received from our community.

Community Walks and the ripple rocks

WRITTEN BY A GRADE 8 STUDENT AT BOND LAKE P.S.

“Small ripples of kindness can grow into big waves of change, and it all starts with a single rock.”

Bond Lake P.S. is doing a campaign, to promote kindness. We’ve painted rocks, which we distributed around our community. Each class participated of a community walk, leaving rocks around the Bond Lake area. These rocks have kind messages on the back, as well as a link to our website. We hope that these rock will inspire our community to be more kind, even with small things such as saying hello to your neighbour.

The ripples on our rocks are in different shades of blue. The blue is one of our school colours and relates to the waves of our logo. The ripples represent how one small act of kindness can grow, like how a small rock thrown into a lake can create ripples many times bigger than itself. Small ripples of kindness can grow into big waves of change, and it all starts with a single rock.

Kindness Rock Garden
WRITTEN BY A GRADE 8 STUDENT AT BOND LAKE P.S.

“I alone cannot change the world, but I can cast a stone across the waters to create many ripples.”

“Take ONE if it means something to you, Share one with a friend who might need inspiration or add one to the pile and join us in a kindness campaign for our community”. Meghan Murphy, Kindness Rock Project

After giving our kindness ripple rocks to our community, we are inviting them to take part in our Kindness Rock garden joining the movement. Bond Lake students worked hard painting rocks with kind messages to exchanges with anyone who wants to join our movement. So come along and share your messages in our kindness rock garden! By bringing a painted rock to this garden we will surely demonstrate our interest in becoming a stronger and a more beautiful community.

Remember to do everything with kindness.