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JERSEY SHORE -- In the midst of the pandemic, employees of the ManorCare Nursing Home as well as the emergency medical technicians who have been working with the facility during the crisis were treated to the thoughtfulness of two fifth-grade students in the Jersey Shore Area School District who wanted to show the community that "Kindness Counts."
"Kindness Counts," a fundraiser created by Isabella Gottschall and Brady Allison, who attended the Jersey Shore Elementary School, exemplifies just that -- showing kindness to others in the community.
It began last year when the two were chosen to represent the elementary schools on the Jersey Shore School District's Advisory Council, and learned about different programs and different projects that the district puts on, according to Nicole Kephart, fifth grade teacher at the elementary school.
Kephart said that the two decided they wanted to do something similar to the WeShoreCare food drive conducted in the high school.
"They kind of took that and they tweaked it to do something similar to it, but different," Kephart said.
When they came back to school after Christmas break, Isabella and Brady asked for donations of tissues, hard candy and crossword puzzles, with the idea of donating the items to a local nursing home for their residents.
They had established a goal of 500 items overall. Then they made a video to kick-off the fundraiser, taught it to all the grade levels and then introduced the fundraiser, Kephart explained.
"Every day they would go out and tally what they had collected," she said.
The plan was to deliver the items in gifts bags for the residents of ManorCare at Jersey Shore on Valentine's Day, which they did. An anonymous donor heard about Brady and Isabella's project and donated $300 so that they could do something else.
"They decided to do something for the people that do things in Jersey Shore," Kephart said. "They were thinking like the police, firefighters, EMTs, hospital staff and stuff like that."
Then the pandemic happened and schools were shutdown. In spite of that, the two elementary students said they were moving forward with their project.
"The Love Center in Jersey Shore has been giving meals to students almost every single week, twice a week, and to the people in the community who are having a hard time," she shared.
"So, what Brady and Isabella did was they took the donation and they bought food for the Love Center," she said.
The two also used some of the money to purchased gift bags which they filled with items they had collected during the fundraiser and then gave the bags to each employee at Manor Care and to the EMTs who have worked closely with the facility.
Both Brady and Isabella would like to continue doing service projects like "Kindness Counts" as they enter the Middle School next year.
"I would love to continue this throughout middle school and high school," Isabella said.
Brady concurred. "I hope I can create more fundraisers and stuff to help my community and hopefully someday, even further than Jersey Shore," he said.
So, what is the most important thing they have learned from this experience?
"I think I've learned that it's nice to do something for a human if you know that you're not going to get a reward," Brady said.
And for Isabella, now that she's leaving the elementary school, she'd like to give those students coming after her a word of advice. "Believe in yourself and remember that other people are going to help you," she said.
For Kephart, the leadership skills the students gained creating and conducting the fundraiser are invaluable.
"I also think they were amazed at how helpful everyone was. At first they were a little nervous that they weren't going to reach their goal. And then they were just so overwhelmed with the amount of donations," she said.
"I think they found that the kindness of other, like when you spread kindness, others spread it as well," she added.