WHS Random Acts of Kindness Club Spreads Kindness Through Clean Up

Tuesday marked the second day of Spring and the perfect opportunity for the Wenatchee High School Random Acts of Kindness (RAK) Club to spread kindness at the Wenatchee Valley Community Transitions Program house. Armed with rakes, gloves, and a positive attitude, a crew of students, including Chris Hockett, the RAK advisor, cleared leaves and spruced up the house's backyard. An hour into the job, the team had filled a pile of trash bags and cleaned up and wiped down lawn furniture. Hockett knew many of the staff and students involved in the transitions program and saw an opportunity for the club to spread kindness by helping at the house. The Wenatchee Valley Community Transitions is a program within the Wenatchee School District’s Special Education Department. It is a community-based vocational training program for students who are 18-21 years old. 

The RAK club aims to promote kindness at Wenatchee High School and out in the community. Between 20 and 30 students attend the RAK’s weekly club meetings. “There are a variety of people that get involved with one goal—spreading kindness,” said RAK vice president Elle Smith. Elle, a junior, has been involved with the club for the past three years and says she was attracted to join because the club aimed to make a better community. She was excited about the opportunity to help her peers at the transitions house by surprising them with spring cleaning.

The RAK is completely student-directed, explained Hockett. Students decide on projects, big and small, both inside the high school and out to take on. They even involve other clubs in their activities. “Sometimes we do little things, said Smith, like create bookmarks with positive messaging for the public library or go big. We have plans to show our appreciation for teachers during teacher appreciation week this year!” Other projects the club has been involved in include Randi’s Warm Hands and Feet Drive, a campaign to provide needy people with hats, gloves, and socks. The campaign is a memorial to Hockett's late uncle Randi Morrell. 

The work of the RAK directly supports a new exciting initiative in our community called Kindness Counts. Launched this February by The Community Foundation of North Central Washington and spearheaded by Dr. Gene Sharratt, the goal of the Kindness Counts is to do 2023 acts of kindness in 2023 in our community.

The club also hopes to expand the culture of kindness to Pioneer Middle School next year. RAK is collaborating with Pioneer staff to explore this idea and will also be actively recruiting 8th graders to join the club when they arrive at WHS in the fall as Freshmen. 

Students or community members interested in connecting with the WHS Random Acts of Kindness club can contact Chris Hockett at Hockett.c@wenatcheeschools.org for more information or to offer up new projects for the club to consider.