It is that time of year again — Hawley Elementary School students and staff came together for the school’s 13th annual Kindness Assembly on Friday, January 9.

The assembly originally began as a sing-along, but eventually grew into a celebration of kind acts through art, writing, and music. It also serves as the culminating event for Hawley’s Kindness Month. Celebrated every year in December, Kindness Month has Hawley students learn about the importance of kindness and how one small act of compassion can positively impact someone.

They also celebrated with several different activities throughout the month, from students writing down their acts of kindness to everyone dressing up in pajamas or crazy socks for Spirit Week.

This year’s Kindness Assembly was originally scheduled for Tuesday, December 23, the final day before winter break. However, it had to be rescheduled since Newtown Public Schools closed due to a snowstorm that same day.

The delay did not stop students from being excited for the assembly Friday afternoon. As people poured into Hawley’s gymnasium, many students had their own acts of kindness showcased in a special slideshow.

Hawley Assistant Principal Alison Carmody was the first to address everyone once they settled into the room, saying it had been a really exciting and meaningful year exploring the concept of kindness.

“I know we’ve been walking through the classrooms and the hallways, and your teachers and the staff are always talking about kindness, and we see it in all of your actions every single day,” Carmody told the crowd of students.

She passed the microphone over to math/science specialist Amy Hiuro, who said every year they participate in Kindness Month, they are asked to stop and reflect on what it means to be kind.

This year, she said, was no exception. All classrooms read The Mitten Tree by Candace Christiansen, a children’s book where an elderly woman anonymously leaves knitted mittens on a spruce tree for children waiting for the bus who have none. This kind act created a joyful winter tradition of giving and community, culminating in a surprise gift of yarn for the elderly woman to continue her secret kindness.

Each student got to write acts of kindness onto a mitten, where it was hung up on their own classroom’s mitten tree. A few students from each grade even got to read their acts of kindness throughout the assembly, sharing how they are kind when they share, hold the door from someone else, or give a hug to their teacher.

As was the case last year, this year’s Kindness Assembly was led by six fourth grade students chosen as the school’s Kindness Ambassadors. In previous years, the assembly was led by members of Hawley’s Kindness Committee composed of staff and faculty. However, Hawley language arts consultant and longtime Kindness Committee member Patti Vitarelli said last year they wanted to give students a chance to lead the discussion on kindness.

Any fourth grader who wanted to be a Kindness Ambassador had to write an essay on what kindness means to them. The Kindness Committee read through each essay and selected six of these applicants to be ambassadors and lead the assembly.

This year, the six Kindness Ambassadors were Anaya Karim, Hudson Stevens, Raelynn Martins, Naiha Kane, Shylo Peterson, and Margot Eide. When asked by The Newtown Bee how they felt stepping up to the role, the six fourth graders said they could not be more excited for the opportunity.

Each of them got to read their essay in front of the whole school, and introduce other students and speakers as the assembly went on. Then came a longstanding tradition of the assembly: each grade performed a “Kindness Song” for their peers and teachers. These Kindness Songs are not only a tribute to how the assembly started as a sing-a-long, but are picked out by each grade’s teachers to represent their students.

Kindergartners sang “What You Share It With” by Layup, first graders sang “One Call Away” by Charlie Puth, second graders sang “Have It All” by Jason Mraz, third graders sang “Never Gonna Let You Down” by Colbie Caillat, and fourth graders sang “Saved My Life” by Andy Grammar and R3HAB.

Kindergarten teacher Deborah Lubin shared some words after everyone sang their Kindness Song. She called everyone coming together for the assembly a “beautiful culmination of December’s kindness events,” but said there was an exceptionally kind person they all wanted to thank this year: Vitarelli.

Lubin said Vitarelli puts her entire heart and countless hours into leading the Kindness Committee every year.

“Vitarelli worked with us to choose an exceptional book in which kindness is built around, coordinates activities that she feels inspires us to spread kindness, not only throughout Hawley school, but out to the greater Newtown community and to the whole world,” Lubin continued. “Her hope ... is that you’re steady in heart and mind not only during Kindness Month, but throughout our lives.”

Of course, it would not be a Kindness Assembly if the entire school did not sing a song together. In the final moments of the assembly, everyone from students to staff sang “Nothing More” by The Alternative Route, a song which Eide said has become a Hawley kindness anthem over the years.

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Reporter Jenna Visca can be reached at jenna@thebee.com.