LF_082417

4 | August 24, 2017 | The lake forest leader NEWS
LakeForestLeader.com
Montessori School of Lake Forest completes 50 acts of kindness
Alyssa Groh, Editor
The number 50 has been
the magic number for The
Montessori School of Lake
Forest this year. The Montessori
School celebrated
its 50th anniversary this
year and in doing so, the
school decided to give
back to the community.
Beginning last September,
the school launched its
Kindness Campaign, challenging
them to participate
in 50 acts of kindness, one
act of kindness for every
year the school has been in
existence.
“[The Kindness Campaign]
was to mark the
50th anniversary of the
school,” said Kirstin Carruthers,
a volunteer who
helped lead the Kindness
Campaign. “We wanted
a way to celebrate what
we are and who we are
and involve everyone related
to the school. ... We
could have done an event
or something else, but the
school itself is really [focused
on] giving back and
helping others and so we
brainstormed and thought,
‘Well why don’t we give
back to the community?’
and we set the goal of 50
acts of kindness, one for
every year.”
The idea was simple.
Students, faculty, staff
and families were asked
to complete a few acts of
kindness as a way to give
back to the community.
The school also organized
a few events to give back
to organizations in the
area.
The school’s mission
to complete the 50 acts of
kindness was not to teach
the students what it means
to give back but to learn
about a variety of organizations.
“This wasn’t really
Aidan Carruthers participates in the summer harvest act of kindness on Aug. 16, at
the Montessori School of Lake Forest, to celebrate the school’s 50th anniversary.
PHOTOS SUBMITTED
for the students to learn,
Carruthers said. “... The
way we are structured
at a Montessori school
is working to help each
other. We wanted to bring
more people together and
learn about other organizations
that you may not
have known about before.
Service work is always
at the front of our minds.
We learned more from the
students watching them
thrive on this and coming
up with ideas. It was
a great opportunity for all
ages to come together.”
As one of the schools organized
events, they came
together to make blankets
for people going through
treatments for cancer. Students,
families and faculty
spent a night making blankets
and donated them to
Phil’s Friends, a nonprofit
organization which provides
care packages for
cancer patients.
To end the 2016-17
school year, the school
also came together to
help out the schools in
North Chicago. Carruthers
said they knew
schools in North Chicago
don’t have school
supplies for students and
they wanted to make sure
they had enough supplies
for students going
through summer school.
The Montessori School
of Lake Forest collected
school supplies and donated
them to the schools
in North Chicago.
The school completed
the official 50th act of
kindness on Aug, 16 by
harvesting crops in the
school’s garden and donating
its produce to the
Community Care Center, a
food pantry in Mundelein.
Students spent the day
with Outdoor Classroom
Director Julia Lunn, completing
the 50th act of
kindness.
Carruthers said donating
the produce as its final act
of kindness was “the perfect
fit because [produce]
is not something people at
the food pantry generally
get to enjoy.”
Carruthers also said the
school is going to continue
donating the produce each
summer as a way to give
back to the community.
The acts of kindness
didn’t stop there. Families
Montessori School of Lake Forest students and families
gather to make blankets for Phil’s Friends, a nonprofit
organization which provides care packages for those
going through cancer.
Students at the Montessori School help collect produce
to donate to Community Care Center, a food pantry in
Mundelein, on Aug. 16.
worked together to come
up with their own ways to
give back while each classroom
also completed their
own acts of kindnness.
Carruthers said one
classroom donated to the
Ronald McDonald House,
as one of the families
spends a lot of its time
at the Ronald McDonald
House.
Now that the school has
completed its 50 acts of
kindness, they are beginning
to see the results of
their dedication to helping
others.
“Although it didn’t start
as a goal of the 50 acts, it
was one of the most significant
results: the students
saw that their actions
and contributions really
do matter, and realized
that they can make a difference,
a real difference
in the world,” Carruthers
said. “[The Kindness Campaign]
inspired many to
talk about what they would
do next — and many are
already on to other acts of
kindness.”