Quartz Hill High School’s “Kindness Week” is a week full of bright colors, fun activities, and kind messages for the students and staff of QHHS. Kindness Week, lasting from September 16th to September 20th, is the one week of the school year where kindness is continuously imposed on all those attending QHHS. Each day of the week, there is a designated color and an activity in the main quad that allows everyone at QHHS to express their kindness. Giant, brightly-colored KIND letters were also placed between the 300 quad and admin for students and staff to take pictures with, perpetuating the narrative of kindness throughout QHHS’ campus. With Kindness Week falling in September, National Suicide Prevention Month, it is a constant reminder for all those at QHHS to always be kind to their peers. 

Since every day of the week had its own unique qualities, students and staff were able to continuously be united in their participation and expression of kindness. Students were asked to “Get ‘RED’Y for Kindness Week” by wearing red on Monday, “Say ‘YELLOW’ to a new friend” by wearing yellow on Tuesday, “Don’t be BLUE” by wearing blue on Wednesday, “It’s a GRAPE day to be alive” by wearing purple on Thursday, and to “Taste the Rainbow” by wearing multicolor on Friday. Each day of the week also came with its own activity in the main quad. On Monday, students were encouraged to put their handprint (using paint) on the kindness tree poster. On Tuesday, kindness grams were available to students to give to one another. On Wednesday, polaroids were taken of students for free. On Thursday, pins were handed out as well as face paint. On Friday, the kindness picnic took place, with music and many games available for everyone to partake in. With the week full of so many kind gestures, QHHS’ campus was bursting with liveliness. 

While Kindness Week is intended to be a week for the expression of kindness from the goodness of one’s heart, students had an additional motive behind actively participating. Students who participated in Kindness Week by wearing the color of the day or engaging in an activity and posting it on Instagram using the hashtag #qhkindness along with the respective year they will graduate, received spirit points for their class. The class with the most spirit points received $1,000 towards a class party. This meant that the competitive spirit in students was able to compel them to participate and post. 

The end result was that seniors had won, which is commonplace, aside from the rare case of the sophomores winning last year. In second place came the juniors, in third place the sophomores, and in last place the freshman. While there was only one winner, the active participation of students throughout the week helped to make QHHS just a little brighter. 

Kindness Week, primarily organized by ASB, is done for the students, and to encourage kindness throughout the school. ASB is the greatest force pushing for participation during weeks like these. From making posters to notify the students of the future activities, to organizing many of the events, the student government encourages students to get involved in spirit weeks. In fact, without ASB, there would likely be a significant decrease in participation levels. 

Junior Eden Plantinga stated, “I think that it is important for a student body to come together for the greater good and put our differences aside and simply be kind to one another. Every week there should be some way to encourage kids to be kind to one another, maybe it does not have to be a whole week, but it can be something.” 

Kindness coordinator Joey Mahady also had similar views on Kindness Week: “The importance of Kindness Week at QHHS is so that every student around campus can feel uplifted and empowered. Having two Kindness Weeks may seem like overkill because they are many other spirit weeks during the year, however, kindness is a year-round event. Kylee, the other kindness commissioner, and I take it seriously to promote kindness year-round; one activity during the week was to put your handprint on the kindness tree. That ‘tree’ will be put up on the big gym for the rest of the year, to show that kindness is permanent and important. The main reason we decided on using colors this year was to make the most out of the spirit week. Having days that are more relaxed and easy makes people want to dress up more!! And I think this year’s participation was great compared to other spirit weeks!”

Overall, Kindness Week is an important week for the students and staff of QHHS, encouraging students to be kind to one another and reminding everyone that it is always important to treat one another as best as they possibly can.