The Reed Intermediate School and Newtown Middle School (NMS) communities recently teamed up for a joint Kindness Craze fundraiser, encouraging students to spread kindness.

Held from January 23 to February 6, Kindness Craze had students collect donations and pay it forward by completing acts of kindness at school, at home, or elsewhere in the community.

These acts of kindness could range from holding a door and returning a shopping cart to helping someone load groceries into their car or giving someone a hug if they had a bad day.

By the end of the two-week fundraiser, Reed students performed 4,076 acts of kindness, while NMS students performed 4,215 acts of kindness — making for a total of 8,291 good deeds across both schools.

The NMS community raised a total of $6,550, while the Reed community raised a whopping $20,875.

These funds go back into each of their respective schools, supporting educational opportunities and student experiences.

This is not the first Kindness Craze event; Reed held the event last year, much to the excitement of students, staff, and parents.

So it came as no surprise to NMS PTA President Heymi Colon when Reed PTA President Meagan Warnock reached out in late fall to ask about a joint venture, in which the Reed students would compete against the NMS students to see who could perform more acts of kindness.

Warnock said the idea was to have a friendly competition and encourage even more students to spread kindness and love in the community.

From the moment she heard about it, Colon thought it would be a great idea.

“Middle school is a hard time for a lot of kids, so it’s a nice way to encourage them to be kind to one another, to show appreciation to their teachers, their parents, and the people that influence them positively in the community,” Colon explained.

She and Warnock got to work right away.

The NMS Student Council helped their school’s PTA put together a wish list of prizes for the student body; over 30 prizes for the first week and over 50 prizes for the second week. These prizes ranged from a scavenger hunt puzzle book, lip balm, speakers, and a mechanical pencil sketch kit to gift cards, magnets, a Starbucks cup, and Labubus.

Students could put their tickets into a raffle box for the item of their choice. On Friday each week, NMS Resource Officer Hugo Rojas pulled a lucky winner from each raffle box.

It was a similar story over at Reed, where students could put tickets towards 26 prizes in the first week and 32 prizes in the second week. Reed students could test their luck and try winning a Connect 4 game, a basketball hoop, a pottery studio kit, gift cards, and a Slip ‘N Slide, among other items.

On Friday each week, a Reed PTA member read out the names of students who got caught performing acts of kindness during lunchtime. Students were encouraged to cheer for their friends and classmates.

For both schools, all of the items were generously donated by local families or businesses.

Each PTA also collected several prizes for their school’s staff to raffle for.

Both intermediate and middle school students got excited about doing kind acts. NMS PTA members encouraged students to write gratitude cards, with each day focusing on a different group of people. On February 4, students wrote thank you cards to the schools’ custodians, and on February 5, they wrote cards to their favorite teacher ever.

“And then we’d deliver them, whether it’s to Reed or another school,” Colon said.

NMS PTA Co-Vice President Denise Webb said one of her favorite things is that the PTA gave every teacher slips, which they use to write acts of kindness they see.

“So as kids see the teachers hand out acts of kindness slips, it’s like positive reinforcement,” Webb said. “When they know someone’s watching and appreciating someone genuinely being kind, it goes a long way.”

Colon said that, once someone is kind a handful of times, it feels good.

“Then you’re just encouraged to continue to be kind, not just because it feels good, but because it’s the right thing to do,” Colon said. “It’s very rewarding to see somebody smile because you made their day by being kind.”

Warnock said the event hammers home the importance of kindness, and said that some of the kind deeds she has seen over the course of the event “have been amazing.”

Their hope, she said, is that this kindness continues long past Kindness Craze.

At the very least, the students’ impact has gone beyond their schools. Reed and NMS students decorated coffee sleeves to give to local cafes and restaurants. Reed’s coffee sleeves went to Cosmic Cafe + Smoothie Bar and Better Day Cafe, while NMS’s went to The Daily Rise, Angelina’s Italian Deli, and Dodgingtown Market & Deli.

The two schools also collected items for the local FAITH Food Pantry, as well as Dorothy Day Hospitality House in Danbury. Students could bring anything that would be useful to either organization.

Reed students also donated books they did not need or want as part of a in-school book fair the week after Kindness Craze, where students could come down to the library and pick up books for free.

Any remaining books went to Bridgeport School District. By the late morning of February 6, Warnock said Reed students donated a total of 1,328 books.

At the end of the day, Colon said they want to “do cool things for their kids and the community.” She noted that, when someone raises funds in a year for the PTA, those funds have to be spent that same year.

“So literally, whatever this group of kids are bringing in and fundraising, it is being used this year for those kids,” Colon said.

Warnock said she feels the same way.

“We have a very long list of what we’re trying to accomplish because honestly, I want everything for these kids,” Warnock said.

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