There’s something transformational about a smile – how it lights up one person and reaches the person right next to them, quiet but undoubtedly powerful. The door held open, the compliment given, the extra Starbucks drink or homemade baked cookie gifted to a friend on a random Thursday – they are small alone, but together, are a thousand pinpricks of light in the darkness.
Through the Random Acts of Kindness Campaign, Coach Antione Ford is challenging students to make kindness go viral. Students can pick up a kindness slip at room 2106, or scan the QR code on the flyers posted around the school to submit their acts digitally. The campaign’s goal is 1,000 acts of kindness.
Below, Ford discusses the inspiration behind the campaign and what kindness means to him.
Karen Wei: What was the inspiration for this campaign?
Antione Ford: I originally got the inspiration from a church I attended when I lived in Atlanta, Georgia. We did 10,000 random acts of kindness amongst the church, and that kind of stuck with me. When I got here to Clements two years ago, I was thinking about it.
I was like, man, I want to do something that means something – that hopefully makes even the smallest difference in the world, or not just necessarily the world, but even as small as our community. Maybe it can spread like wildfire or something.
KW: Why are random acts of kindness important in today’s world?
AF: Oh my goodness, if you look at the news, if you scroll down social media feeds, it’s hate. It’s division, so much of it based on colorism, based on racism, based on classism, what economic status you are. People are just hating people for multiple reasons and none of it is valid.
When you look at somebody because they look different from you and you hate that person or you hate that group of people without ever really getting to know those people, you know, that’s shameful. You missed out on some great folks that you could have had in your life.
Spreading these random acts of kindness is [so] that people know that there are still folks out here that actually care and recognize and respect your humanity. That’s why it’s important.
KW: How do random acts of kindness transform the school setting?
AF: The plan is that students get out of sight of their normal circle of people and just touch the lives of somebody that they don’t know. Even something as a gentle gesture of, ‘hey, your hair looks really nice today.’ You never know how that may change the esteem of that person for the rest of their life.
Or, that kid that’s been sitting at the lunch table all year by himself and you just decide to just sit there and eat lunch. You don’t know how you may have changed that child’s life for the rest of his life. We don’t know what people are going through and the random acts of kindness, at least in a school setting, can maybe transform the direction of somebody’s life or somebody’s day.
You never know who may have been thought about that day, ‘I’m going to end it.’ But somebody was kind to them, and now it’s like, you know what, I have something to live for.
KW: Has there been a random act of kindness that changed your life?
AF: Not in particular – I guess it’s a collection of just people who decided to pour into me. I was a young man who lacked a father figure, an active father in my life. So I was trying to figure things out, trying to figure out manhood, trying to figure out what to do, and I also had very low self-esteem. It was coaches and teachers who poured those words of encouragement or those words of kindness into me to help bring me up and mold and shape the man that I am today.
I’m just trying to give back. I teach and I coach because I’m just trying to give back the way that those people gave to me. That’s why I show up for kids.
KW: Pretend I’m an alien. Explain to me what this thing called ‘kindness’ is and why humans choose to do it.
AF: Hello, alien. I don’t know your name, alien, but it’s good to meet you, alien. I’m Coach Ford. Welcome to Earth. I hope that you find this experience very good.
I look at [kindness] as another synonym for just small acts of love. Just showing that you care. You actually care about somebody’s well-being. You care about what they care about. You’re just showing that you actually care about their humanity or their, I’m about to make up a word, alien-inity. So hopefully that explains it to you.
KW: It does. Thank you. I think I’ll like this place called Earth. Do you have any other comments?
AF: I hope the students run with it. I hope it transforms even the community even just in the smallest nature. Because what the saying says, ‘don’t despise small beginnings because small beginnings can become great things.’ Hopefully, something like this can blow up.
