Westland Elementary School students and their families made 300 hygiene kits and collected 164 pairs of shoes for Utah Foster Care during their annual

Kindness Week.

“It’s so meaningful to know that a child is helping out another child,” Utah Foster Care Specialist Esmeralda Malili said. “Sometimes these kids don’t know that the kids in their school or their friends are the people that they’re serving.”

Westland Elementary School PTA executive board member Hillary Moser said the annual Kindness Week service project was bigger and better this year thanks to a grant from National PTA and donations by Walmart.

“Usually our service project just has to be donated things, but we were able to purchase everything for the hygiene kits,” she said.

The Kindness Week service project was also expanded to a Wellness Fair.

“We send out a survey at the end of each year, asking, ‘What are you most concerned about for your child at Westland?’ and the biggest one is always kindness and bullying, so that’s why we have our Kindness Month, but then we’ve never been able to address any of the other areas which people do answer, too, so I was excited that we were able to do this Wellness Fair that can add to all these resources for families.”

A variety of booths and activities, hosted by the West Jordan Library, the West Jordan Fire Department and Police Departments, Utah State University, Jordan District Student Safety Department, Safe Routes Utah and Walmart, focused on fire safety, the D.A.R.E. anti-drug program, mental health, physical health, pedestrian safety and hygiene habits.

West Jordan Fire Department shared tips for home safety and advertised community classes for CPR, Jr Firefighter Academy, Citizen Readiness Corps and Babysitting Academy.

Jordan Landing Walmart Store Manager Cody Backman shared information about Walmart’s pharmacy, vaccines and delivery services.

“We’re just here talking about our pharmacy and some of the benefits, so just trying to teach the kids how the pharmacy can help keep them safe and healthy,” Backman said.

Representatives of Safe Routes Utah talked to kids about pedestrian safety and had them practice using a crosswalk. They directed families to the school’s safe walking route published online at saferouteutah.gov.

Safe Routes Utah representative Madison Okumura said pedestrians, both adults and children, should verify a driver is paying attention before they begin crossing a street.

”Even if a car sees them, it doesn’t mean they will stop for them, and so they have to be making eye contact and not running in front of cars,” she said.

 Students joined an exercise activity to enjoy physical fitness and practiced good hand-washing techniques and then looked at their hands under a dirt-revealing light to see where they’d missed.

The Wellness Fair and service project was held on the final day of Kindness Week in which daily dress-up days and activities focused on kindness, such as making a new friend or giving a compliment. Each kindness performed was written on a paper shoe and then displayed with other shoes along the top of the school hallways as a visual representation of the kindness of Westland
students.

Students also created a collaborative artwork project, making 20 kindness posters which were posted around the school.

Liesel Spencer, who was a substitute teacher during that week, said Kindness Week was fun for the kids but also made an impact on them.

“When we would walk through the hallways, the kids were always pointing out all the things, reading the posters, and they’d come and tell me every time they’d do something kind,” she said. “They really were thinking about kindness more that week.”

Kindness Week was followed by Jordan School District’s Health and Wellness Day Friday Feb. 7. No classes were held that day so that students and staff members could engage in activities to benefit their mental and physical health. The district’s Wellness Department posted a list of resources and ideas for students and families to do, and arranged for more than 30 wellness activities, classes and discounts for district employees. λ