What started as a zoom conversation voicing students’ feelings has turned into a project to inspire and encourage a school’s underclassmen.
The senior students at Desert Hot Springs High School built a “Kindness Garden” on their campus full of colorful, hand-painted rocks with an uplifting message painted on the surface.
The goal? To inspire other students on campus to leave behind this display, in the hope that this becomes a tradition.
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A display board, pinned to a tree, tells students to “take [a rock] when you need one,” and to “leave one for another.” It also invites them to “share one with a friend who needs some inspiration.” According to the display board, “One message at the right moment can change your whole day, outlook, life.”
Trinity Lockwood, a student at Desert Hot Springs High School, told News Channel 3, “They’ll have a reminder that everything is going to be okay … I’m on my way to success.”
An English teacher at the school, Danyel Snelson, said the idea sprouted from honest conversations with her class during the pandemic. “Students voiced through Zoom that they felt disconnected, that they felt hopeless, they were dealing with depression and anxiety. When students came back, we thought: What can we do to change our culture?”
Another senior student, Laylee Mendez, created that a rock that says ‘Never give up.’ “I hope this motivates other people.”
