The Great Kindness Challenge. What is that, you ask?
It’s about paying it forward, bringing hope and healing to those dealing with a tragedy.
Between Jan. 22 and 26, local students had the opportunity to be Kindness Ambassadors and inspire others with words encouragement.
Under the guidance of Lynn Hildebrand, a teacher at the Humane Society of San Bernardino Valley, local kids from 10 classes painted wooden Stars of Hope to give inspiration to those in need of caring and encouragement.
These stars had a specific destination: They were going to Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, which were ravaged by monstrous wildfires and then by horrific mudslides.
Escorting the stars was Fran Sheff-Mauer, Stars of Hope graphic designer/consultant.
The artists who painted them? Elementary school students from Bing Wong, Emmerton, Lytle Creek, North Park and Holy Rosary Academy in San Bernardino – all during last month’s Great Kindness Challenge.
Stars were hung at schools and churches along the central coastline, including Montecito Union School, Holy Cross School in Ventura and at All Saints-by-the-Sea church.
“It was so amazing how much people appreciated the Stars of Hope,” Fran said. “These communities have been through a lot – first the fires and then the mudslides. It’s been hard on the first responders as well as the residents.”
A female bicyclist, riding along the highway, noted on Facebook that she saw the “awesome tree burned by the Thomas Fire but was now lit up with love.”
Lynn, who celebrates kindness every day, said they were touching lives just one at a time.
A sense of hopefulness can be conveyed in many ways — even in the small pieces of painted wood, she told me.
“And it’s a movement that’s growing, growing, growing,” Lynn said.
Stars of Hope, five-point wooden stars painted a kaleidoscope of colors, bear inspirational messages of “peace,” “faith,” “love,” “let your light shine,” “we are hand-in-hand with you” and other words of caring and encouragement.
San Bernardino first experienced these magical stars after the Dec. 2, 2015 terrorist attack that killed 14 and injured 22. And paying it forward, a group from the Inland Regional Center – where the shooting took place – painted stars for children in Nice, France, after the attack there.
At North Park Elementary School in San Bernardino, a shooting in April 2017 has left painful scars on staff and students there.
Nearly a year has gone by but Stars of Hope still cling to a campus fence – stars from the staff of Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.
READ MORE: Stars of Hope bring healing to victims of tragedy
Since 2007, Stars of Hope have become a global compassionate and creative effort, offering hope for neighborhoods, cities, countries around the world.
In all, more than 80,000 stars have brought comfort and support, lifting the spirits of millions of survivors of both natural and manmade disasters.
Stars of Hope help people know they are not alone and that things will get better.
Transforming tragedy into hope.
To me, some of the most poignant stars were sent to others from children living in shelters in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria devastated that island country.
Stars of Hope is a joint project of two families – the Parness family in New York who wanted to pay it forward for the love the city received from people around the world after 9/11 – and the Vincent family from Groesbeck, Texas who wanted to do the same thing for the help they received when New York Says Thank You volunteers rebuilt their home after a deadly tornado.
It’s one connection after another, Hildebrand will tell you.
A veritable constellation of stars, connecting the dots.
And next? Unfortunately, there always seems to be a “next.” Suzanne Bernier, Stars of Hope global representative who was at the Great Kindness Challenge, in April will be taking some stars the local children made in January to Parkland, Florida, the scene of Thursday’s school shooting.
“I worry about our world. There’s so much anger,” Lynn said. “It makes me not want to get old and die, but to keep my health and work with others to try to create a more peaceful place in which to live.”
Michel Nolan appears in The Sun on Sundays. Reach her at michelnolan77@gmail.com.
