Dear KIND friends,
As another school year comes to a close, we would like to express our gratitude to all of you. We cannot thank you enough for your continued and unwavering support since we first began in 2020. The 2023-2024 school year was a resounding success. We have more than doubled our numbers from the previous year and we have found that kindness is both sustainable and scalable. Kindness can permeate a community and bind all of us together.
This school year, we hosted thirty KIND days at seventeen different schools across the Upstate. A total of 2,700 students participated in KIND Days. Furthermore, 3,000 books were donated to students, teachers, and school libraries.
During KIND days, the students were able to learn about kindness, inclusion, and disabilities through multiple learning experiences and resources. We read educational books about disabilities together as a class, discussed what it means to be kind, educated students on differences through a PowerPoint presentation, and encouraged students to continue these conversations at home. The students were able to enjoy educational books titled Everyone Belongs by Heather Avis, When Charley Met Emma by Amy Webb, and Just Ask! by Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
We would also like to highlight some of the community activities KIND has participated in throughout this school year: Sara Collins Breakfast Buddies, The Children’s Museum of the Upstate Sensory Friendly Trick or Treat and story time. KIND board members and their children were able to host a holiday party for Meyer Center students and joined in music class plus holiday arts and crafts. KIND assisted Christ Church Episcopal School’s third graders with their Kindness project and Bell’s Crossing Amazing Shake for third graders as well. KIND spoke at a Kiwanis Club of Greenville event and a Barbara Stone CAN talks event. In April, KIND helped with the Greenwood Genetics Race for the Helix and this month KIND hosted friends, families, and supporters at a Greenville Drive Baseball Game. We love community engagement and enjoy participating in events throughout the Upstate.
The outpouring of love and support from you, our KIND community, has paved the way for KIND to be a successful organization in the Upstate. We are sincerely grateful for the generous donations we have received. Through your donations, every student has been able to go home with a hard copy of one of our favorite books as well as educational materials. We believe that if each student has a physical copy of one of our special books, this will spark conversations of kindness and inclusion at home and thus create a ripple effect within our communities.
As we look ahead into the 2024-2025 school year, we are full of hope and excitement. We will continue to grow and gain momentum throughout the Upstate. Thank you for your commitment and support as we strive to build a solid foundation of kindness and inclusion for all children.
KINDly,
Caroline Giguere and Francie Todd
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