Lombard pays it forward

GALESBURG — A local school's anti-bullying club has generated over 500 acts of kindness in 36 states and eight countries.

Lombard's anti-bullying Take A Stand club has been running a week-long initiative to encourage students to do random acts of kindness. By paying $1 for a Lombard Act of Kindness sticker, people are pledging to commit one act of kindness.

Katie Dunbar, the seventh-grade student who started the club this year, said that as of Friday morning, 525 stickers had been bought.

“We’re all about kindness, so we needed to spread kindness without you being in the club,” Dunbar said.

The money raised will be used by the club for future projects.

“We want to do this bracelet thing at the end of the year, and we needed money for that,” Dunbar said. “We’re going to buy bracelets and pass them out in the hallways.”

The acts of kindness have taken several forms. One student wrote an anonymous note to a janitor thanking him for cleaning up the school, which nearly brought him to tears, Principal Nick Sutton said. Seventh-grade teacher Barb Sandstrom bought a coffee for the person behind her in line.

Several students have been called to the office without being told why, and then when they get there, they are given candy with a Lombard Act of Kindness sticker on it.

“I was all confused when I got mine,” seventh-grader Jaden Simmons said. “I got a big Hershey’s bar, and it had the sticker on it. I was like, ‘Do you know who got me this?’ She (the office secretary) was like, ‘Somebody gave it you.’”

Simmons didn’t know who gave it to her and said she wishes she could thank the person.

The Lombard Acts of Kindness campaign has spread on social media and around the world. People can buy tickets for people around the world who commit to an act of kindness. They had one person in Japan who had pledged to do an act of kindness, Dunbar said.

The Take A Stand club students came up with the idea on their own and organized the campaign with the help of their faculty sponsor, special education teacher Mary Keith, Sutton said.

“This was their first activity as a Take A Stand club that they put together,” Sutton said. “I think it's pretty cool. I've been surprised by how far some of these kids have taken it.”

Ben Zigterman: (309) 343-7181, ext 255; bzigterman@register-mail.com; @bzigterman