{"id":160910,"date":"2026-02-02T22:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T22:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/160910\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T22:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T22:33:07","slug":"orange-county-schools-take-part-in-the-great-kindness-challenge-ocde-newsroom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/160910\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County schools take part in the Great Kindness Challenge \u2013 OCDE Newsroom"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"888\" alt=\"Students from Samueli Academy\u2019s Helping Hands Club hold handmade cards created for patients at a local children\u2019s hospital.\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-46811\" data-id=\"46811\" data-aspect-ratio=\"1440 \/ 888\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/621298571_18561651661062189_6245868866493883146_n.webp.jpeg\"  \/>Students from Samueli Academy\u2019s Helping Hands Club hold handmade cards created for patients at a local children\u2019s hospital. (Photo courtesy of Samueli Academy)<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"888\" alt=\"Handwritten and illustrated cards created by Samueli Academy students are displayed on a table during the Great Kindness Challenge.\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-46810\" data-id=\"46810\" data-aspect-ratio=\"1440 \/ 888\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Helping-Hands-Club-cards.jpeg\"  \/>Handwritten and illustrated cards created by Samueli Academy students are displayed on a table during the Great Kindness Challenge. (Photo courtesy of Samueli Academy)<a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-prev swiper-button-prev swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"\/><a class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-next swiper-button-next swiper-button-white\" role=\"button\"\/><a aria-label=\"Pause Slideshow\" class=\"wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause\" role=\"button\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"has-background\" style=\"background-color:#ededed\">Quick look:\u00a0The Great Kindness Challenge returned Jan. 26\u201330, with Orange County schools encouraging students to show compassion through service projects and wellness activities.<\/p>\n<p>From writing cards for hospitalized children to decorating kindness rocks and organizing food drives, students across Orange County took part in the Great Kindness Challenge, a global initiative focused on compassion, inclusion and community service. <\/p>\n<p>The 2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/thegreatkindnesschallenge.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Great Kindness Challenge<\/a> took place Jan. 26\u201330 with the theme \u201cShow Us Your Kind,\u201d encouraging students to make acts of kindness visible in their schools and communities. The annual challenge invites participation from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade and provides schools with free resources, including customizable kindness checklists and classroom lessons.<\/p>\n<p>At Samueli Academy in Santa Ana, students from the Helping Hands Club created handwritten and illustrated cards for patients at a local children\u2019s hospital, sharing messages of encouragement and care.<\/p>\n<p>In the Brea Olinda Unified School District, students at Laurel Elementary Magnet School of Innovation and Career Exploration participated in a \u201cKindness Rocks\u201d activity during lunch. With support from the Orange County Department of Education\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/ocde.us\/SAMH\/Pages\/default.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">Student Advocates for Mental Health program<\/a>, students, staff and an OCDE employee decorated rocks with positive messages that will be placed throughout the school\u2019s garden spaces.<\/p>\n<p>At Ponderosa Elementary School in the Anaheim Elementary School District, staff encouraged students to extend kindness inward as well as outward. During lunch, students were guided through yoga stretches designed to help them relax, reset and practice caring for their own well-being.<\/p>\n<p>The California Department of Education <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cde.ca.gov\/nr\/el\/le\/yr25ltr1217.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">encouraged statewide participation<\/a> in the challenge, noting that the initiative promotes social-emotional well-being, bullying prevention and positive school climates. Last year, more than 4.4 million California students across 7,859 schools participated in the Great Kindness Challenge, completing more than 222 million acts of kindness.<\/p>\n<p>To showcase how Orange County students demonstrated kindness during the week, the OCDE Newsroom has compiled a selection of social media posts shared by local schools and districts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students from Samueli Academy\u2019s Helping Hands Club hold handmade cards created for patients at a local children\u2019s hospital.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":160911,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164],"class_list":["post-160910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160910\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}