Buckhannon Academy held their “Kindness Counts” Food Drive and Random Acts of Kindness Challenge during the month of February.

Buckhannon Academy’s Communities in Schools Coordinator, Krista Sappey, thought of the idea during an email that she received promoting National Random Acts of Kindness Day, which was on February 17. 

She challenged the classrooms to collect items that will go straight into the school’s weekend backpack program, which is used for their own students who need a little extra support on the weekends. Each item that students brought in counted for a point toward the reward of a pizza party and an indoor snowball fight 

After collecting for the entire month of February, BAES school families collected a total of 8,762 items!!!!

On top of collecting food items, Mrs. Sappey also encouraged students to raise their classroom points by completing Random Acts of Kindness throughout the building. 

“This was a wonderful drive for us to complete. If students were unable to donate food items, they were still able to contribute to their class points by doing the random acts of kindness. The amount of food we received from our school families was overwhelming and we are fortunate that all of our donations go right back to our students here at BAES.”

Mrs. Sappey has taken over the school’s backpack program as one of her Communities in School’s responsibilities. “Student leaders and I put together about 40 bags per week that are sent home with some of our students who may need a little assistance over the weekend. I’m fortunate to be able to have this position at BAES and am enjoying every minute of working with our families.”