Kindness That Comforts, Encourages, and Stays

Evergreen Elementary School in Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania, serves about 505 students in a rural community. Counselors Scott Williams and Tara Morcom lead the kindness work across the building, with Williams supporting grades three through five and Morcom working with younger students.

The school’s definition of kindness came from fifth graders, who drafted possible versions and voted on one to represent the school: “Kindness is helping, respecting, and comforting others, with words or actions, from the kindness of your heart, without expecting something in return.” Williams values that emphasis on giving freely, without expecting a reward or something in return.

Teach Kindness lessons like Circle of Concern, STOP!, Personal Slogans, and Group Jump help students practice self-control, perspective-taking, and positive peer interaction. The school also keeps kindness visible through hallway displays, student-created bulletin boards, and messages posted throughout the building.

Through the school’s Cat Cash system, students earn recognition for kind and positive behavior. Tickets can be spent at the school store, and monthly celebrations keep the momentum going. Williams says the system works best when it catches small, genuine moments rather than big performances. When students need more support, the counseling team adds small groups focused on feelings, friendships, and problem-solving.

Morcom sees the work show up in specific students. She describes a first grader whose kindness is visible throughout the day: in how she speaks to classmates, how she helps adults, and how she treats people when no one is watching. That is what the counselors are looking for. Not a performance, but a pattern.

Williams keeps his approach practical. He knows teachers are stretched, and he believes the most sustainable path is to start small and build gradually. “If you try to do everything at once, you’ll burn people out,” he says. At Evergreen, that has meant building a culture where kindness is noticed often, practiced regularly, and treated as something worth repeating.