Back in the 1999-2000 school year, when PSCS was still a nomadic school (meaning we didn't have our own site but used a variety of spaces donated to us), we were meeting at the Fred Lind Manor, a retirement center on Capital Hill, one day each week for classes. We invited the residents to join us, making many of our classes inter-generational with an age range of 12-85. That fall I offered to facilitate a kindness class and it filled with four PSCS students and four Fred Lind Manor residents. The idea of the class was to commit acts of kindness, both during the class sessions together and in between on our own.
One week, one of the youth had contacted a nearby florist to see if some flowers could be donated for our kindness purposes. The florist not only obliged, but gave us a dozen or so bouquets. After picking them up, the nine of us (remember, four PSCS students, four residents and me) delivered most of them to shut-ins at the retirement home. One elderly man who was alone in his room broke into a wide-eyed grin and then cried. In his long life, he'd never been given flowers. Honestly, it was awesome and something I regularly recollect.
One bouquet was left by the time our class was over that day. It was a fairly small one but the students knew what they wanted to do with it. The next day, three of them presented it to Melinda who back then worked alone for PSCS in a small office in Bellevue. I took this photo:
PSCS has been putting kindness first in education for 23 years. We could not do it without your help.
