Kindness Video Parent Letter – This gives a brief description of the video that we sent out to parents for allowing their kids to star in this locally produced Kindness Video.
It’s finished! The locally produced Kindness Video is complete and it’s INSPIRING KINDNESS! This video was made to show to all our Public School Students on Monday, September 21st, the first official day of Kindness Week! When I envisioned this video, I knew I wanted to show our students how an initial thought, could sow an action, that in turn could start a ripple effect, that grows into a Tidal Wave. Since, I have personally experienced this through my family’s journey in creating “The Kindness Movement”. Anyone that desires to make a difference, can! I want to teach our children that they too can “BE A WORLD CHANGER”.
Cade Sutton was the guy for the job! He was destined to inspire all our students. Without Cade, this wouldn’t of been possible. I can’t thank him enough for being KIND and sharing his talents with all of us. Tomorrow, he leaves on a mission for 2 years to Tacoma, Washington. I want to wish him the best and I hope to be able to write and tell him all the amazing stories, once we share the community.
Bio on Cade Sutton:
Cade Sutton is an aspiring filmmaker who is the director and editor of the YouTube channel Splash Films. Cade is 18 years old and has been making movies with his friends since he was in 8th grade. Since his interest in film began, he has directed many different kinds of videos including: action, documentary, PSAs, short story, weddings, and music videos. While attending Century High School, he took film classes whenever he could, but gained most of his education through constant practice, research and a passion for film. He won the Kiwanis Teen Film Festival in 2014 as well as 2015 with videos in the short subject and action categories. Also, he took first place in Idaho for the TSA (Technology Student Association) digital video production competition in 2015. In addition to winning film festivals and other contests, Cade has showcased his work through projects for his high school, as well as films for his hometown of Pocatello, Idaho. Music has also been a big part of his life. In 2014 he took 2nd in the nation in the Hal Leonard Composition Competition with an original piano piece. Cade composes much of his music on the piano, but is also currently learning guitar. In the future Cade hopes to pursue a career in film, and will continue to make movies for the rest of his life.
I am very grateful for the AMAZING support from sponsors in our Community that believe in the cause to help inspire our children! I can’t express enough how appreciative I am of for their willingness to support the YELLOW “Kindness Begins with ME!” T-shirt. Again, it’s just not another T-shirt with a logo. The color yellow symbolizes “Happiness”, but also resembles my family’s personal story that magnifies the cause. The T-shirt doesn’t have just another Kind logo, but it has a saying that reminds us all where change comes from and how it starts within ourselves. Anyone can inspire change, anyone can make a difference, anyone can have a voice to make a contribution, and I hope for all our children to consider the idea that they can too become their own “WORLD CHANGERS”. It can be within their own friendship circles, out on the playground, on social media, out in their community, and it can spread and influence others around them. I am a believer in doing “Simple Acts of Kindness” it’s what I have been all about from the beginning.
Raising $17,000 provides 6500 T-shirts for all our Elementary School Students in the School District and also give us operating costs to cover the first community order of T-shirts to start our Community T-shirt Fundraiser. We hope by doing this that we can gradually fund other schools in our community. For we have the Middles School, High Schools, and other local schools. We also applied for many grants through the PTA, since they are my non-profit sponsor and if we are granted any of these grants we will fund the other schools with Kindness T-shirts. For Kindness Day is celebrated in the community and throughout the schools, every 3rd Thursday of the month!
Do you like the “Idaho” shape that we added to our t-shirts, thanks to the idea from Terry Frederson, the owner of New Day Products and Resources, here in Pocatello, they are printing our Kindness T-shirts and Terry is a Kindness Movement Committee Member.
I will announce our AWESOME and SUPPORTIVE SPONSORS – Coming Soon!!
After alot of caring, research, long hours, and many meetings, today I am very happy to say that my Kindness Movement Proposal has been officially APPROVED by the City of Pocatello, Idaho and Pocatello/Chubbuck School District #25 and rumor has it, the City of Chubbuck. I am excited about it! There’s tons of work to be done. I have $33,000 to raise for all public school kids. But, I am really hoping that this will help remind the Community (adults/parents) that the example of Kindness begins in our homes.
We teach our children how to serve and treat others. Empathy is a powerful lesson to teach our children. Also, I want children to know that it’s needed for them to SPEAK UP, to be leaders in their schools. They don’t have to witness bullying and keep quiet, they can help change another child’s life and be a friend.
We all can make simple changes in our day-to-day lives to be part of this change. I work on this personally everyday and by no way, am I the perfect model. But, I make sure that I try my best. We all will make mistakes, no one is perfect, but may we learn from our mistakes and humble ourselves to forgive. And I know that this is easier said, then done. Kindness is simple, but also many times forgotten. May we put our pride aside and choose to be KIND.
I was invited by Terry Fredrickson, the owner of the Grays, to pitch the first pitch at the Gate City Grays Baseball game tonight. Thank you for a great night! And thank you to Pocatello Mayor Blad for his willingness to warm up my arm, so that I was able to throw a decent pitch. And to my husband, Sam who bought me my favorite color Grays Hat for good luck and to support the team! My kids loved it, we received many compliments on our kindness t-shirts and I was able to visit with a great group of Veterans who wanted pictures. Eddie, my pitching partner was also a great sport as well! It was a lot of fun being out in the community meeting a lot of great people tonight.
I finally finished writing my Community Kindness Movement Proposal, that I submitted to the Pocatello & Chubbuck Mayors Office and the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District to review. It was finished on July 3rd, 2015. I have heard back from the Mayor’s Office and they have approved the community portion of the proposal and both Mayor Blad and Mayor England are going to be writing a proclamation for a Community Wide “Kindness Week” for Pocatello and Chubbuck to celebrate each year. The date for Kindness Week is September 21st-27th! There are many other things that the proposal includes, but we are in the mist of getting everything assigned and planned.
The School District has looked through it and we are meeting to discuss implementation. I am really excited and I feel inspired and hope the community will embrace it too! I have spent countless hours serving in our community and know that if we can give our children the right tools, that they in turn can teach each other. Not only, do I believe that empathy is taught in our homes, but I also believe that us parents are the examples. Our actions are mimicked by our children. “May WE remember, that we are the true models of Kindness”.
I hope that in the end that we find a more unified community and happier and safer learning environment for our children.
School District approved this proposal and has been very respectful in carrying out the vision that was intended. I appreciate their support.
We also put together a school wide Kindness Video that is being produced by Cade Sutton, a local 18 year old, Youtube video maker. We also have our local Pocatell/Chubbuck school students starring in the video. We are excited about it and hope the kids will feel inspired. For they all can be “World Changers” it just takes a simple thought, that turns into a simple action, that can create a small ripple effect, and then possibly turns into a Tidal Wave!
The Pocatell 4th of July Parade this year was a blast for all of us. Thank you for all those who helped make it happen. I appreciate SignUp Signs for donating the AWESOME banners and for Dragon Fireworks for donating all the sparklers. Also, to my friends and family that helped. It was fun designing and making the shirts for the kids. I bought 25 lbs of candy and they tossed it all out in the 1st block, they were excited. We also threw out Sparklers and the community loved that. Enjoy the video!
My son is 9 years old and has been on the Autism Spectrum due to the speech delays that he was dealt with pretty much is whole life. He goes to therapy for Speech and OT at Speech Therapy Service here in Pocatello. He wanted to do Acts of Kindness to those kids. So, we visited STS last Thursday and handed out over 35 roses to the kids there. They loved it! My kids loved it. Again, such a great experience. I was able to talk to alot of parents about why I was doing the Acts of Kindness Project and the importance in the awareness of Anti-bullying and how we can help out kids to promote kindness. Thanks again to Bud’s & Bloomers Flower Shop for donating the beautiful roses!
My kids and I visited both Gable Retirements Homes here in Pocatello. It was part of my kids Act of Kindness Challenge and they wanted to take flowers into the elderly residents. It was a great experience, my kids were really happy to do it and it brought alot of smiles to their faces. This is my way to teach my kids the importance in serving others and how to feel empathy for the elderly, they too need kindness. Thank you to Buds & Bloomers Flower Shop here in Pocatello for sponsoring me, by donating all the beautiful roses.