Hey, Hey, Hey! It's Pay It Forward Day!

Posted by Toni Carl

on Apr 15, 2015

Hey, Hey, Hey! It’s Pay It Forward Day!

At C. Roy Carmichael School in Portola

Culminating six months of reading and learning about kindness, the 5^th and 6^th grade students have realized a dream of holding a “Pay It Forward” Day on campus at C. Roy Carmichael Elementary School in Portola. And, what a day it was on Friday, March 20^th! It was the inspiration of one of the 5^th grade student members of our newly formed “Pay It Forward Club”, a joint effort of Portola Rotary Club and our local grammar school.

Pay It Forward (PIF) Day followed a week of student activities lead by our young PIF Club members, with Rotarians and the school librarian, Klytia Dutton as mentors. We are so proud of them all for introducing the “kindness” concept to the student body! They read to all the younger students, shared a “kindness" video in the upper grades and lead discussions in all classrooms. The activities were developed by the PIF Club after reading a special book with us in the school book club last fall.

As background explanation for the story, this project has been the 2014-15 RI District Community Grant Project developed by the Portola Rotarians. Our Rotary club recognized a need in the local community to help young people learn about kindness at a very vulnerable age. We proposed an innovative “Pay It Forward” Literacy and Youth Leadership Project to the Bruce Williams, principal of C. Roy Carmichael Elementary School (CRC) as follows: Offer 5^th and 6^th grade students the opportunity to read an inspirational book about kindness and learn to apply the principles with the help of Rotarians and school leaders. Mr. Williams accepted our proposal with the caveat that we make sure it was student driven for optimum understanding.

The book we chose was first written about ten years ago by Catherine Ryan Hyde, having been recently revised for a young reader. It is called PAY IT FORWARD. In the book, a social studies teacher asks his students to “THINK OF SOMETHING TO CHANGE THE WORLD AND PUT IT INTO ACTION.” The story revolves around a 12 year old boy whose world changing idea was to practice kind acts towards others and encourage the recipient to pay the kindness forward rather than thank him for the deed. His hope was that exponentially the world would become a kinder place by paying deeds forward. It seemed simple, right? And, so the story goes…

Over the course of the last six months Rotary members and school leaders have read a thought provoking book with our students in a book club format, held great discussions, given good guidance and helped the students develop possible “kindness” projects of their own for their school. One of those great ideas has been to hold a “Pay I

t Forward Day” on campus at C. Roy Carmichael School. Other student inspired projects include: serving meals at our service project community supper in December, collecting books for the “Little Free Library” project, practicing random acts of kindness in downtown Portola to complete strangers, and becoming “Welcome Ambassadors” to all new students that begin class mid-year, complete with a welcome package and letter.

Have we helped them understand what kindness can do for their school? We hope so! We hope we have equipped them with the tools to create a kindness culture for themselves, their community and the world. It is impossible to predict what results can occur tomorrow, next week or next year. One can be sure that the club and the school will continue their partnership. We know that the students of the “Pay It Forward” Club want the concept to continue to grow at their school and our local Rotarians will continue to be positive role models for them in our community.

For more information, feel free to contact the toni@redhouseart.net, a proud member of the Rotary Club of Portola.