CMU pays it forward with kindness
Counseling Center to spread kindness to CMU students on World Kindness Day
The counseling center booth has stress balls and other items available to guests on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at the NIRSA Room in the Student Activity Center. Similar stickers, candy and positive coping strategies cards will be in the kindness bags handed out by the CMU Counseling Center on Feb. 17. (CM-Life | Mark Hoover)
On Monday, Feb. 17, the Central Michigan University Counseling Center will be celebrating Kindness Day by distributing kindness bags across campus to students.
The Counseling Center created 1,000 bags to hand out to students that include candy, stickers, positive coping strategies cards, suicide prevention stickers and mini Play-Dough. They also contain a card encouraging the student to pay the kindness forward.
Additionally, the Counseling Center has had students write messages on labels that will be put on coffee cups, so when students go to either Ponder Coffee Company or Einstein’s Bagel, they will receive a message from an unknown CMU student with their coffee order.
Melissa Hutchinson, the executive director of Counseling Services, said the center decided to promote Kindness Day this year because they thought kindness was needed for everyone on campus right now. She said the Counseling Center's motto this year is, “Kindness is free, sprinkle it everywhere.”
“There is a lot of uncertainty and change happening in our country and globally,” Hutchinson said. “Change and uncertainty can cause individuals to feel worried, stressed and anxious. Predictability and consistency are easier to navigate because we know in advance what will happen, or we have experienced something similar so we can make sense of the situation.”
Hutchinson said spreading kindness helps those who are engaging in the act and those on the receiving end.
“The ripple effect, if the acts of kindness continue to spread, can be profound,” she said. “We are encouraging the campus community to get involved and pay it forward. Being kind doesn’t cost money or take special talent. We are all capable and can help to brighten another’s day.”
Hutchinson recommends easy ways to spread kindness like opening a door for someone, assisting in clean up from an event or acknowledging someone’s efforts. She said expressing kindness is a way to control something when everything else feels out of control.
“So during this difficult time, we are encouraging the campus to engage in kindness as an antidote to the stress, worry, and anxiety they may be feeling,” Hutchinson said.
