1 in 5 students in the US between the ages of 12 and 18 are bullied at school, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. So, when math teacher Jordan McVay saw the struggles of her students, she decided to start the Random Acts of Kindness Club to help spread positivity around the school.

“As a teacher, I see firsthand kids getting picked on, and bullying is not as bad here at Bryant, but I mean, this whole world is just full of it.”

The club began as a Buzz Time session where students could do little things, like make cards for people, around the school and show some kindness where it might be needed.

“I love doing things for people, and so I thought ‘why don’t we do a Buzz Time where we give back to our school and our community,’” McVay said.

McVay ran the Buzz Time for four weeks, but soon students wanted to turn it into something bigger.

“I had kids saying ‘we should do this after school,’ and ‘we should do this on the weekends.’ I thought we could start a club and take care of that,” McVay said.

McVay got her idea approved by Dr. Todd Edwards, the principal, and soon people started joining the club.

Junior Nicholas Burrell was one of 118 students who joined the club. Burrell was already spending time outside of school volunteering at the Civitan Center, but joined the club to find more volunteer opportunities.

“I just like the reward of seeing the people that I helped, you know, happy,” he said.

Like Burrell, many students volunteer with other groups, and their involvement in other activities gives them more opportunities to see where kindness is needed.

“If the kids tell me like ‘hey I heard this happened,’ or ‘I have a friend,’ we’ll reach out to them, or if there’s a club having an event, we’ll help them out, sporting events, those things,” McVay said.

In December, the club donated gifts to a family at the Saline County Women’s Safe Haven. McVay hopes that by spreading kindness through the club, it will spread even more.

“Everyone needs [kindness], especially right now — not with just Covid — but all the things like students’ race, different backgrounds, religions, sexual orientations, things like that,” McVay said.

The club is still accepting new members, and sign up information can be found on flyers posted around the school. McVay and Katy Ray, the co-sponsor, can also be contacted for more information. To give the club suggestions on where some kindness is needed, fill out this Google Form.