Parents of students at St. Gabriel the Archangel (SGA) Jr. and Sr. High School know that small acts of kindness often have much larger consequences that expected and that’s why the St. Gabriel School Council was so excited to kick off a new initiative designed to inspire Random Acts of Loving Kindness (RALK) within the SGA community and beyond.
On Friday December 12, SGA School Council found a fun way to not only surprise the over 450 grade 7-12 students but also let them know how much they are loved and valued. Inspired by the work of the anonymous group www.hundredsandthousands.ca as well as the CCSD faith theme of LOVE KINDNESS; School Council members and parents surprised students by coming in over the lunch hour and handing out chocolates and candy canes to every student.
With Christmas Music playing over the intercom, students immediately could tell something was different about this lunch hour but when a few special parents emerged with the baskets of goodies and made their way throughout the lobby offering loving kindness in the form of a sweet treat, the students knew it was a great day.
One grade nine student said it felt really good to be surprised in that way, “At first we didn’t know what was going on but we could hear the Christmas music playing so we started singing along and then some parents came out with chocolates and candy canes and told us that our School Council wanted to remind us about how much we are loved – it was really nice!”
Christin Dewald, Co-Chair of the SGA School Council, explained that the idea came from an informal meeting of some of the council members brainstorming fun ways that parents could get more involved while instilling the importance of values such as generosity and kindness. “The students were so great and very appreciative of the surprise; I hope that we were able to inspire some of them to think of their own ways to perform a random act of kindness”.
“St. Gabriel’s is such a great school and we have the best students, I think its Chestermere’s best kept secret” says Dewald, “We are a small school but there are so many awesome things happening so I’m proud to give the students and staff a huge shout out for all they do.”
Sarah Papke, Co-chair of SGA School Council explains that although the idea of random acts of kindness is not a new one, she is excited to be involved in initiatives to bring it even more alive at SGA. “Studies have long shown that kindness is contagious and that makes creating a culture of kindness easy. I believe that building a respectful and caring school community positively influences our children’s learning and we want to help foster that at SGA.
“We are fortunate to have a supportive administration who worked with us to make this fun event possible, so I would really like to thank our principal Mrs. McDougall and all the staff at St. Gabriel’s for all the great work they do.”
Both Christin and Sarah say that students and staff can look forward to more RALK from School Council in the future. They are also excited to see signs of the ripple effect it will create. “The beautiful and mysterious thing about kindness is that it doesn’t have to be big to count and you might never know the effect it will have on the world,” says Sarah.
