By: Miriam Landru
With over 100,000 followers on Instagram, the Kind Campaign has swept through the country with their school tours for elementary, middle and high school aged girls with a thoughtful lecture with activities catering to kindness.
Founders Molly Thompson and Lauren Parsekian were friends attending film school at Pepperdine University in 2009 when conversations led to them speaking about their past experiences being bullied. And so, the duo, along with their mothers, headed cross country to find out why there’s an epidemic of girl versus girl bullying, which resulted in the award-winning documentary, Finding Kind. On any given day, their documentary is viewed in schools across America.
Since then, the Kind Campaign has grown to have a huge social media following on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter among girls of all ages. The Kind Campaign also distributes a magazine, an anti-bullying curriculum and the “Free to be Kind” tour to schools around the country.
Parsekian and Thompson presented an hour and a half long program for select 4th and 5th grade girls from the host school, Margaret Willis and also from Ferguson-Easley Elementary School. The founders recounted being bullied in middle and high school and encouraged the girls to be kind to one another through making a “Kind Pledge.” Thompson said, “We are really just focusing on how we can make the most change in schools through our assembly programs. We also have a Kind Club curriculum.” Schools can purchase the Kind Club curriculum which includes worksheets, activities and guidelines so clubs can start at their respective schools. The Kind Club curriculum is free for Title One schools.
Jamie Hurley, art teacher at Margaret Willis Elementary School, heard of the Kind Campaign and applied. The young teacher won the opportunity for Thompson and Parsekian to speak at the small school near Mazarick Park. “It’s such a great and refreshing campaign,” she said.
