Reach out and touch somebody’s hand
Make this world a better place
if you can!!
Diana Ross
Social Emotional Development is created when kindness is incorporated into the family school culture. Wow, watching Dr. Oz today I learned about another kindness initiative “The Sparkle Effect” a cheerleading student ran nonprofit whose goal is to include all students. The kindness factor is truly proven by the work of Ms. Sarah Cronk, Founder of “The Sparkle Effect”. Life changing effects is what kindness creates in the lives touched by kind deeds. Moreover, early research findings suggest that the new generation of Social Emotional Learning approaches is having significant and positive impacts on students’ overall well-being, their behavior in and out of school, and their academic performance as well. (http://www.nasbe.org/wp-content/uploads/FPP-Social-Emotional-Learning.pdf)
Cronk's older brother, Charlie, is disabled, and she watched him struggle to fit in when they were in high school. When the captain of the swim team invited Charlie to join his friends for lunch, it inspired others to include him more as well. Cronk saw what that act of kindness did for her brother, and she wanted to bring the same spirit of acceptance to others.
She asked her cheerleading coach if the Pleasant Valley High team might be able to create a side squad comprised of able-bodied and disabled students, the Spartan Sparkles, to cheer during certain games and events. Her teammates jumped on board and, using a one-to-one ratio of mentor to Sparkle, they practiced and performed, becoming the first inclusive cheerleading squad in the country.
"A lot of these kids were pretty invisible before this program," she said. "And a lot of that was just because people didn't know what to say or what to do -- as if communicating with them was worlds different from communicating with anybody else. So maybe there's a girl with disabilities in your science class and you see her sitting alone every day but you don't really know anything about her, you don't really know what you would say. Then you see her cheering in a game on Friday and she's doing a great job. You can say 'Hey, you did a great job at that game,' and she feels comfortable and it boosts her confidence and you've sort of bridged that gap.
"When you see the Sparkles cheer, it really shines such a big spotlight on what they can do as opposed to what they can't. It kind of makes people take a second look and realize we're really a lot more alike than we think we are." http://espn.go.com/espnw/news-commentary/article/9104156/espnw-sarah-cronk-invites-athletes-all-abilities-cheerleading-nonprofit-called-sparkle-effect
Please visit Random Acts of Kindness website for resources on how to incorporate kindness in your family school culture:
Unite 4 Inspiration funds acts of kindness projects
For more information please visit
Please plan to participate in Random Acts of Kindess Week February 9th to 15th 2015, http://www.randomactsofkindness.org/rak-week
RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS WEEK
Please use #RAKweek to tag your social media posts so they can find them.
they will feature their favorite posts throughout the week.
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