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A day for kindness

MLCL ‘Be Kind’ event kicks off Week of Service and Civil Engagement

Photo by Deb Gau Nate McNett helped Kaysen McNett cut out a paper heart to glue on the front of a card he was making, during the “Be Kind” event at the Marshall-Lyon County Library on Saturday. The cards kids made at the event will be given to veterans.

MARSHALL — The table set up in the community room at the Marshall-Lyon County Library on Saturday was covered in art supplies, paper and just about everything you’d need to make a greeting card. And there were just about as many different styles of cards being put together as there were kids gathered around — there were written messages, colorful marker drawings and cut out paper hearts.

Brennan Russ traced around the outside of a cookie cutter to make flower shapes for the front and back of her card.

“I like flowers,” she said.

Once kids were done making cards, they would be collected and sent to Minnesota veterans. It was all part of a new theme for the Science Saturday program at the library: “Be Kind.” Kids and community members could do activities all about helping others, or even just making someone’s day brighter. It was a fitting theme for the Martin Luther King Day weekend, organizers said.

Putting the event together was a joint effort by the MLCL and Literacy Volunteers of Southwest Minnesota, and it was included as part of Southwest Minnesota State University’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Week of Service and Civil Engagement.

At first, kindness might not sound like a scientific subject. But research has shown that behaviors like cooperation and kindness are important human traits. Organizations like the Greater Good Science Center at the University of California, Berkeley, study subjects like kindness, said Candace Thomas of the Literacy Volunteers of Southwest Minnesota.

“That gave me some ideas,” for the “Be Kind” event, Thomas said.

Besides being an important value for kids to learn, kindness is important for making a positive difference in people’s lives, Thomas said.

“When you are mindful of kindness in your everyday life, then you start to see it everywhere,” she said. Making an effort to be kind can also lead you to reach out to people who may be different from you.

There was a good crowd of kids and families gathered at the library on Saturday morning for a themed storytime, and activities ranging from crafts to a role-playing game about the Civil Rights movement. Some of the activities let kids participate in service projects. They could assemble a care package for a resident at Morningside Heights Care Center in Marshall and make greeting cards for veterans.

More events in the Martin Luther King, Jr. Week of Service and Civil Engagement will continue all this week, at SMSU.

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