By Jessica Thompson | [email protected]

Taylorsville - In 2015, children and staff of the YMCA Salt Lake and Weber County after-school programs made a goal to participate in 1,000 acts of kindness before the end of the year. Emilie Gibson, Taylorsville community family center program coordinator at the YMCA, said, “The acts of kindness the children did throughout the two months ranged from holding the door open to being nice to someone who was sad or needed a friend. One of my personal favorites included kids surprising their parents with a clean house.” 

Around Christmas time the children reached their acts of kindness goal, and to celebrate the YMCA hosted the Festival of Kindness where children were able to participate in holiday crafts, food and Christmas performances. The purpose of this event was not only to celebrate reaching their goal, but was also to celebrate the children’s efforts at making the community a better place through kind acts. Families were even able to hang their acts of kindness on a Kind Acts Tree, so all could see the good they accomplished together. 

“My favorite aspect of the Festival of Kindness is seeing families come together and enjoy quality time with our activities and performances,” Gibson said.  

This event helped give parents an opportunity to see what their children have been learning and doing at the YMCA after-school program.  Staff at Taylorsville City’s YMCA were proud of the youth in the program and all the kindness they provided. 

“I feel proud that our children were making an effort to be more caring and thoughtful. It is encouraging to see them bring about goodness to the community through their kind acts,” Gibson said.

YMCA of Northern Utah would like to thank the University of Utah Pharmacy Club for all the help they did at the arts and crafts stations. Children at the YMCA’s Festival of Kindness made wonderful memories of making holiday crafts and cookies with their families, but Gibson feels they left the festival with a little bit more. 

“We hope the children will have a greater desire to reach out to others and give back to their community through simple acts of service after they were a part of this Festival of Kindness,” Gibson said.