Kindness club sparks communitywide event

Published 12:45 pm Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Being nice is not a revolutionary idea, but the idea has created its own movement in the lower Valley. Students at Cedarcrest High School in Duvall have been propagating an environment of kindness for more than 15 years now, through the Random Acts of Kindness Club, RAK for short, and inspiring resident Connie Berg to bring the movement to an audience of all ages.

“I saw an article about the high school RAK club and I thought it would be really cool to have something like that in the community,” said Berg, who launched the first Duvall Random Acts of Kindness Week Jan. 21 to 27, 2007, in an effort to help out area businesses that lost power, and business, for more than a week in December 2006.

“All of the businesses were basically closed, and this was during the holidays,” she said.

So in January, Berg asked the city to declare a week of kindness. Building on the success of the signs she and her children had made to thank utility workers for their hard work restoring power to homes in December, Berg also created and posted, with volunteer help, a bunch of “Shop and Dine in Duvall” signs for the week.

“It’s really hard to believe that it has been 10 years,” said Berg, as she prepared for Duvall RAK Week 2016, March 7 to 13.

The tradition has grown and changed with time, and with the help of the Cedarcrest High School RAK Club, led by advisor Peggy Filer, a health teacher at the high school. Filer’s own involvement started with club co-founders Samantha Ritter and Hadley Rose, then seniors.

They “had an idea to start the Random Acts of Kindness club our senior year of high school,” Ritter wrote, and “We went to Peggy Filer and asked if she wanted to be our advisor. We had no idea what our club would be other than doing random acts of kindness around our school for random people. It has obviously turned into so much more!”

Another past club member and Cedarcrest alumnus, Duncan Hunter, had no hesitation about coming back to the high school in December for an assembly to celebrate the club’s 15th anniversary.

“I love everything RAK stands for,” Hunter said. “It is a club with a purpose, and it includes everyone, no matter what. And it’s free!“

“Fifteen years of Random Acts of Kindness means that Cedarcrest has been making Duvall a better place. I believe that Mrs. Filer is the reason … even if she won’t take credit for it,” he continued. “So many people look up to her and go to her for advice. This in turn draws people into the club and her kindness radiates to every student.”

From the students, it radiates into the community, especially on some of the special RAK days. For this week, there will be “Fun Flower Friday,” when volunteers hand out flowers, donated by a local business, to people in the community, at random. There’s also Sparkling Sunday, a day for picking up litter and beautifying the community – something the Cedarcrest RAK club has done on a regular basis. Usually, they go to lunch at Ixtapa afterward to eat and select whose lunches they will buy from the other diners at the restaurant.

Friday is Berg’s favorite event, because it’s Happy Honking Friday when people line the streets of the city encouraging drivers to honk their horns.

“Who doesn’t want to honk for kindness?” she asked. “It’s just two hours of yelling and smiling and laughing and waving.”

No formal events are planned for the week until Friday.

“I’m really encouraging people to come up with their own unique ideas of how they can spread kindness,” Berg said. “I’ll send out suggestions, too,” on the Duvall Random Acts of Kindness Facebook page.

Berg is also focusing on working with RAK clubs at schools; she hopes to establish a club in every school in the Riverview School District and proudly reported that a club is forming at North Bend Elementary School.

“I really think kindness clubs in schools are going to be very important,” she said. “I think if one kid is thinking his life is boring or thinking about doing something violent, if he could receive some kindness, that could change everything.”

Kindness has definitely had an effect on past RAK Club members.

“I am so proud of what it has become and so thankful that Peggy and the staff and students have made such a huge impact on the culture of the school and community,” Ritter said.

“Fifteen years of kindness has had a huge impact on the community and I am excited to see what 15 more years does,” said Hunter.

Duvall Random Acts of Kindness is aiming to become an official non-profit this year, and to grow.

“I am going to start holding regular meetings and see how big we can spread this,” Berg said.