“Thank you for being you.”

This phrase was written on several Post-it notes in the D-hallway at Hershey High School by Miriam Collins. Collins is the advisor of the new club Random Acts of Kindness (RAK). The club began when Hershey High School students Patrick Gavazzi and Nate Strohm heard students being negative in class, and wanted to change it. Last week, their club met for the first time on Tuesday. They hope to make not only Hershey High School a happier place, but also the community and beyond.

RAK meets on Tuesdays before and after school. Before each meeting, they watch a video about being kind. This week they watched a video of a man helping the people of his town just because, as Collins said, “It makes him feel good.” After the video, the club discusses their future plans.

Strohm, one of the creators of the club, wanted a way to help his school that didn’t conflict with sports, so he created the RAK club.

Collins believes the club is important because there are always students who are stressed and bullied. Students can even start to feel upset around the holidays, especially if they’ve lost a loved one or their parents are divorced.

They hope their club can bring a little bit of joy into students’ lives. This week, the club decided to spread joy by posting sticky notes on students’ lockers with positive messages. A lot of lockers said “smile” while others got creative by writing things like “you’re more awesome than bubble wrap.”

The club also created their own hashtag, #DTSDRAK, so people could thank the person responsible for the notes and see what other students were doing to spread kindness.

Strohm, however, has bigger plans. The RAK club plans to spread even more of these sticky notes during finals week. They even want to give weekly tips to promote acts of kindness, and soon hope to start a challenge that encourages students to be kind.

At the meetings, club members are greeted with their own sticky notes with the same encouraging words and a piece of paper with ways to spread kindness. They plan on challenging their club members to try to complete one of these ways a week. Some ideas include thank your parents, hold the door for someone, or write down a kindness quote. All these ideas came from the RAK website.

“Start small,” Collins said. Even a small thank you can make someone’s day better.

Moxie Thompson, a junior at HHS, said, “If people do what’s being asked, it could really benefit the environment of the school in a positive way.”

And that’s the goal. Collins said the bottom line is simple. “We want to remind each other how to be nice,” she said.