The Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) is joining forces to spread kindness throughout the conference, and hopefully beyond, this winter. The AMCC is taking part in Jordyn's Kindness Banner Project, where member institutions pass around a banner that reads "Be the 'I' in Kind" and spread kindness throughout their campuses and communities while they have it on their campus.
The idea for receiving one of the banner came from Penn State Altoona Head Athletic Trainer/Senior Woman Administrator Jessica Welsh, who placed Penn State Altoona Athletics' name in an application database with a short description on why PSA should be a recipient of one of 15 banners to promote kindness during national kindness day, which was Monday, November 13. “The reason I entered Penn State Altoona Athletics name to be a recipient, is that you never can have too much kindness. Everyone is battling a battle you know nothing about. This is so true, especially heading into the holidays. I just thought it would be a simple way to connect people and do some good at the same time.” The Banner Project and mission of spreading kindness was started by the company Be Kind to Everyone. This company’s birth was inspired by four individuals. Jackie (mom), Ben (dad), Jordyn, and Hudson (brother). Jordyn has autism and speech apraxia and had aged out of school services. Like many parents of children with disabilities, Ben and Jackie worried about what would happen when she aged out of school because the opportunities for adults with disabilities are limited.
In 2018 Jackie and Ben shifted their focus from what was not available to creating something for Jordyn. In June 2018, Jordyn's Summer Shirt Project was created in their basement. They designed a shirt with the simple but powerful words: Be Kind to Everyone. Their goal was to sell 40 shirts to family and friends that summer with the purpose of teaching Jordyn job skills.
Fast forward to today and Jordyn now independently rolls shirts, adds wristbands, and signs/stamps thank you cards. Be Kind to Everyone tees have been sold in all 50 states, and Jordyn has been featured on CBS News, 11 Alive, Fox 5 Atlanta, Newsbreak, 94.9 The Bull, Forsyth County News, VoyageATL, Love What Matters, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. What started as a summer project has now turned into a family business that Jordyn is thriving in. In January 2022, they moved their shirt shop into a 5500 square feet warehouse in Cumming, Georgia.
In conjunction to the business, Jordyn’s family is huge in promoting and spreading kindness. They decided to ship off 15 banners to different businesses, schools, etc. that were interested in promoting kindness. All 15 banners received a home before national kindness day and were featured on their website. Throughout the year, they will share updates about how far Jordyn's Kindness Banners have traveled and how schools/businesses have used them to spread kindness within their communities.
Once Welsh received one of the banner on November 13, and along with Penn State Altoona Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Sue Patterson, they started planning their events on campus. They provided free cookies and hot chocolate one night and even held their own Taco Tuesday to help bring the students together. Welsh placed the banner in the athletics building, as staff and students were encouraged to do acts of kindness all week and take their photos with the banner and post to social media with hash tags #WEAREKIND and #BEKINDTOEVERYONE.
Welsh and Patterson have promoted and encouraged the following simple acts of kindness: holding the door for someone, giving someone a compliment, calling a friend or family member you haven't spoken to in a while, call/visit a grandparent, buy someone a coffee, etc. They have also distributed stickers and shoelaces all around campus to help promote kindness campus-wide.
Welsh has spoken to student-athletes and teams about being kind while playing their sport -- they can be competitive and still be kind or show sportsmanship.
Penn State Altoona has passed the banner onto AMCC neighbor, Mount Aloysius College. Mountie Athletic Director Kevin Kime and Assistant AD/Head Women’s volleyball coach Brianna Baker are excited about being the next recipients of the banner and eager to get their student athletes involved in such a noble cause. Be on the lookout for posts, tweets and follow the AMCC institutions to see how each school promotes acts of kindness. The goal of the banner is that it travels and makes a meaningful impact not only on each campus, but brings unity to all of the AMCC communities. “Kindness is free, kindness is a gift everyone can afford to give.”- Author unknown.
Links to learn more:
Be kind to Everyone Apparel:
https://bekindtoeveryone.com/collections/new-arrivals
Banner project:
https://bekindtoeveryone.com/pages/jordyns-kindness-banner-project