Hoping to spread kindness around the community, the Warsaw Community High School Student Council initiated the “Pay It Forward” project recently. Two hundred black bracelets were handed out to WCHS teachers and randomly chosen students. When they see an act of kindness done by anyone anywhere in the community, they are tasked with giving the bracelet they have to the person who did the random act of kindness. They also explain the purpose of the bracelet. A person recognized for their kindness wears the bracelet until they witness a random act of kindness. They then pass the bracelet on to whoever they witness doing a good deed. On the outside of the bracelet, it reads “Pay It Forward”. The inside reads “WCS”, for Warsaw Community Schools. The project originated at an Indiana Association of Student Councils meeting. Cody Shafer, the WCHS junior class president and the Northeast District representative to the IASC, attended a meeting for all the district representatives. The 15-member group was deciding on a two-year project for all high schools in the state. It was decided the project for 2012-14 would be “Choose Kind”. Shafer then took the project decision to the executive board of the WCHS student council over the summer. During the discussion, Shafer thought of the movie “Pay It Forward” starring Haley Joel Osment, Helen Hunt and Kevin Spacey. He then suggested the idea of passing bracelets on when someone sees an act of kindness being performed. “It is a communitywide project,” Shafer said. “Anywhere you see someone doing something kind, pass on the bracelet. Keep passing it on.” Every school quarter, the student council will purchase more bracelets. Each time they are purchased, they will look different from the previous ones, he said. Initially, Shafer said they purchased 200 of the black bracelets, which were given to teachers and random students. At the end of September, they will get 300 more. That shipment will be passed out to student council members, more teachers and people in the community to give to samaritans. Shafer said through friends and classmates, he is hearing stories about how the bracelets are being passed on. “It’s bringing out kindness because people want the bracelets,” Shafer said. “They don’t know who has them or when or where.” He witnessed one teacher give a student a bracelet for helping another student pick up their books after he spilled them in the hallway. “It can be anywhere in the community. It can be anywhere you see an act of kindness,” Shafer said. Some students want to keep the bracelets, but Shafer said that’s not the point. The idea is to pass them on when you see acts of kindness. “Hopefully,” Shafer said, “we can keep it a tradition. Hopefully, you see it spread out so while you are walking through Walmart, you see people wearing them.”
