This year, Nov. 10 to 15 marks Kindness Week, a week in which students and faculty come together to celebrate being kind to one another and spreading positivity. Kindness Week was created 10 years ago when students and faculty collaborated in order to create a week that celebrates kindness on campus. According to its coordinators, the goal of Kindness Week is to celebrate how friendly and amazing the community at Brandeis is. The Kindness Week Committee hopes to spread kindness to others and also make sure Brandeis students are aware that it is important to be kind to others and, most importantly, yourself. The celebrations in Kindness Week lead up to Kindness Day, which is Thursday, Nov. 14.
In an email interview with The Brandeis Hoot, Sarah Lavin ’21, the social media coordinator of the Kindness Day committee, highlights how being kind to others is one of the “most special and important things you can do in this world!” As the social media coordinator, Lavin’s job is to create all the Facebook events, posts and Instagram posts. She created the logo for Kindness Day last year and also created the buttons made this year.
Lavin got involved in Kindness Week through her love for helping others. She explains, “I thought, what better way [to help others] than to join the kindness committee and help promote kindness around campus!” She also loved the events put together during Kindness Week in her first year, and she was inspired to join the committee to create more wonderful events.
There are many events that occur during Kindness Week such as A Decade of Kindness: Coffeehouse Kickoff Event, Cupcakes and Kindness Card Writing, Kindness Day Bingo and Boba, Kindness Day: Free Popcorn and Games, Kindness Roses with SCRAM, Kindness Zen Zone Mediation and many more. I specifically attended the Cupcakes and Kindness Card Writing event in which committee members and volunteers came together to write cards thanking anyone here at Brandeis, make banners thanking the faculty and most importantly, eating cupcakes.
At the event, Ashley Young ’22, the treasurer of the Kindness Day committee, discussed the inspiration behind this event. She explained that the Cupcakes and Kindness Card Writing event is a promotional event to gather excitement leading up to Kindness Day. She highlighted how there are people working on posters for the faculty. For example, individuals were working on a poster for chaplains, which are religious heads, while there were also posters for the mailroom, Upper Usdan and Lower Usdan. Young got involved in the Kindness Day Committee because she wanted to get more involved in the Brandeis community. She described being on the committee as “an absolute joy” and “a team effort.” She explained that Kindness Week attempts to “thank the people who aren’t always thanked for their support.” She hopes that individuals will learn to “think about others and show that you care about the people around you.”
In order to recognize staff and faculty during Kindness Week, there are various events happening. There is an event for Brandeis Public Safety. Individuals can also send kindness cards to anyone at Brandeis, which includes staff and faculty. Lastly, volunteers have made posters to thank the departments and faculties on campus. Overall, Kindness Week strives to bring students and faculty together and allow people to understand that they are loved and supported by those around them, and if they feel alone, they can always reach out and seek help from others.
