A Canadian kindergartner and his dad are on a mission to increase the world’s kindness quotient. Their tool of choice? Kid-crafted bookmarks.

Wyatt and Scott Young of Vancouver, B.C., created the Kindness Bookmark project after watching a YouTube video about the Kind Kids Club, a Fresno, California-based project that won the 2014 Random Acts of Kindness Challenge. Wyatt was inspired by the first grade students in the video who wrote random of acts kindness on bookmarks and placed them in library books to encourage readers to spread kindness. Together, he and his dad hatched a plan to do something similar.

“We wondered if we could expand on that idea and make it easy for thousands of classes in schools across the world to do the same thing,” Scott says.

Bookmarks go viral

Under his dad’s guidance, Wyatt created a smiley-face bookmark that says, “Do a Kindness For Someone Today” and “Thank You From Wyatt, age 6.” The back of the bookmark contains space for students to write in their own kindness suggestions.

A family friend (who’s also a graphic designer) converted Wyatt’s design into an easily printable file that anyone can download and print for free. And in February 2016, Wyatt presented his idea to his entire school.

“At our recent Pink Day assembly, where the message of how to erase bullying through accepting and honouring the wonderful diversity that exists in our community was key, [Wyatt] offered a challenge for the whole school,” Vice Principal Doug Roch wrote in a recent blog post for Lord Selkirk Elementary School. “He spoke to students and staff about what kindness looks like [and]…offered a challenge to the whole community, encouraging everyone to engage in acts of kindness every day.” 

Spreading kindness is contagious

Wyatt’s entire school of 700 kids has since embraced the Kindness Bookmark project. Students have created and personalized kindness bookmarks and placed them in books in the school library. But Wyatt hopes the project travels far beyond his school. His goal, he says, is to reach “the whole world.”

And he just might, because his message is being amplified as students and teachers take to social media to upload photos and stories of their adventures in kindness.

Want to join the kindness revolution? Download Wyatt’s Kindness Bookmarks at the Kindness Bookmarks Facebook page. Then, use the bookmarks and the campaign for a lesson in digital citizenship.

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