Every Thursday morning, you’ll see a group of people standing outside the main entrance holding signs with positive, uplifting messages. Whether it’s 10 degrees out or 80, they’re still standing there, hoping to put a smile on your face to start your day off on the right foot. This is all part of the “Kindness Campaign” started by principal Mr. Jason Markey.

Mr. Markey started the campaign a few years ago while he was talking to a few students about aspects of Leyden’s mission statement: be kind, find passion, and commit to excellence. Mr. Markey wanted to do a better job of demonstrating Leyden’s strengths. He believes that Leyden has the nicest kids: teenagers who are genuine and not petty. He wanted to highlight that part of our school.

Since the campaign started, Leyden has made a dramatic improvement. Mr. Markey is proud to report that in the last two and a half years, discipline referrals have dropped over 40 percent and that students report they feel safe and happy.

But how much can kindness really matter? Within any group, there has to be that one group that thinks everything is “dumb” or “stupid,” right? When asked if the students are taking the kindness campaign seriously, Mr. Markey responded,  “I’ve never had any negative responses to the make someone smile notification.” While he’s sure there are some that push the weekly appointment to the side, he believes they still appreciate the Thursday mornings greetings.

“A certain number of students don’t take it seriously, but we are trying to make students take it seriously and get as many on board as possible. You’ll never get 100% of the students to buy in,” says student activities director Mr. Tony Pecucci.

Thursday morning regular Mrs. Beatrice Porro believes that the kindness campaign really is working. She’s noticed students always saying hello or good morning to her in the halls, as well as her usually shy students beginning to speak up and engage in conversation during class. Any student can participate in the kindness campaign. Whether it be by greeting on Thursday mornings, or even joining a club such as Key Club, Interact, Rak Club, or Snowball.

Mr. Markey believes that you should always start with kindness, and after that everything else will fall into place. Although the kindness campaign started as something small, it has slowly grown into a large part of what Leyden is truly about and is continuing to grow each year as students come and go.