THEDFORD, Neb.— In the heart of the Nebraska Sandhills at the intersection of highways 2 and 83, a seven student kindergarten class has discovered just how far kindness can travel.
View the video story at the end of this page
First-year teacher Dawn McFadden just hoped to provide a great learning experience for her students at Thedford Public Schools with a project called ‘Hearts Across America’. A classroom letter invited people to send Valentine’s Day cards so that the children could celebrate kindness and connection while tracking what they received on a map.
McFadden and the students soon saw the nation and the world answer.
“I made a request, a call out, just a flyer to send out and send home with parents,” said McFadden. “Then I posted on my own social media page and then a friend of mind grabbed ahold of it and she got really passionate about it as well.”
That friend was Elle Worley, whose social platforms helped quickly eclipse the classroom’s modest goal of receiving cards from 20 to 30 states. Within two weeks of the January 6th launch, the class had already filled in the entire U.S. map.
Envelopes began arriving by the handful, then by the hundreds. Soon, the small wall space McFadden planned to hang the cards on spilled down the school’s hallway.
“We have cards up and down all the hallways.. or, we only have one hallway, but one hallway and they’re all over. If there’s an open spot, there’s a card. We’ve received to date over 2,500 cards,” said McFadden.
Those cards and letters arrived to Thedford, with a population around 200, from 20 countries outside of the states including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Canada. Each arrival has been a lesson for McFadden’s students — finding locations on maps, talking about cultures, and also realizing that someone far away took a moment to care.
Online, many filled comment sections saying that sending a card gave them something hopeful and tangible to be a part of— a small act of kindness in a noisy world.
The weight of that kindness is something McFadden is encouraged to know that her students can carry with them forever.
“I think they’re very touched and they’ll probably remember this for a lifetime,” McFadden smiled.
The surprises didn’t stop at cards. Inquiries came about how else those following the story could support the little classroom of kindergarteners. So, a classroom wish list was shared— and subsequently fulfilled several times as donors sent supplies.
McFadden said she can’t even guess as to when the final card will arrive and that she won’t be repeating the project in the future. She did say she plans to sort the cards by state and country to use as teaching tools for future classes.
“I’m gonna love it (the project) the way it is now, and I know the kids are loving it the way it is,” McFadden said. “I will not do it in the future.. it happened because of this moment in time.”
In the small community of Thedford, that moment in time has turned one classroom into a reminder that kindness and love aren’t just out there, but they can travel thousands of miles to their destination.
