Service Group at Peninsula Organizes Weeklong Event Through Online Means

Due to the district-wide shutdown in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, all onsite extracurricular events have been canceled unless otherwise stated. Thus, many programs, like service group Service Learning Leadership (SLL), at Peninsula have resorted to organizing events and activities through virtual means. This organization in particular continued to stay active online through an event called Random Acts of Kindness Week on their Instagram account, @pvphsservicelearning.

Throughout Random Acts of Kindness Week, which took place from March 30 to April 4, SLL assigned different charitable deeds Peninsula students could do and reposted participants’ acts of kindness on the SLL’s Instagram story. Through this activity, SLL hoped to continue its mission of spreading kindness in a time when people felt isolated from their friends and the community.

After being inspired by a challenge started by South High School’s Virtual Spirit Week, senior and SLL member Lauren Kim suggested this idea to the SLL Public Relations Committee, which advertises and promotes events organized by the program. Led by Intermediate Dance, Yoga teacher and SLL adviser Heather Myrick, the committee came up with the structure of the event and posted it on their Instagram story on March 30. They illustrated in this post that it would be one week long, and in order for them to see their fellow classmates’ charitable deeds, they suggested for students participating in the challenge to tag their account in their posts. While there were no specific events that SLL wanted the participants in this activity to do for each day of the week, Kim posted a generator on the SLL’s Instagram story, which listed different acts of kindness based off of categories such as one’s birthday or the color of their shirt, to make students more eager to participate. 

“[Random Acts of Kindness Week] was one of the best things that I have done during [this time of] quarantine,” Kim said. “The students who participated got really creative with their acts of kindness. This is an easy way to spread positivity during this crazy time, and [I hope] it helped keep people’s spirits up.” 

Other SLL members like junior Makenna Murphy immediately supported the idea when Kim proposed it. Murphy and other SLL members posted the kindness week schedule on their Instagram accounts for their fellow students to see. To contribute to the Random Acts of Kindness Week, Murphy baked cookies for her family and wrote letters to her friends.

“Although I did not post the acts [I performed] to my story, I still participated in them and am continuing to do so,” Murphy said. 

Myrick also participated in Random Acts of Kindness Week by delivering donuts to one of her friends and writing notes to her neighbors, even though she did not post them on Instagram for SLL to put on their story. She feels like the Random Acts of Kindness Week was well-received.

“It can feel hard to do kind acts right now because we need to limit our physical contact with others; however, there are plenty of opportunities for people to get creative with it,” Myrick said. “I am happy about the support that it got from the wider community, and [I hope we] sent good vibes into the world.”

While SLL has no other plans for future events at the moment, Kim is working on having a smaller version of the University of California, Los Angeles Blood Drive, though specific details are unknown still, while Murphy is planning to continue to be kind and positive in the wake of COVID-19. Murphy also hopes that the activity’s intent to spread kindness extends beyond Random Acts of Kindness Week and continues throughout the rest of quarantine.

“I loved the Random Acts of Kindness Week and the positive feedback from the Peninsula community,” Murphy said. “Because of this, I hope that the impact [of the Random Acts of Kindness Week] is felt beyond Palos Verdes.”