AUSTIN — On Friday, an eighth grade class in Austin ended its week with a school service project.
Gorzycki Middle School PALs or Peer Assistance and Leadership students are participating in an online "Pay it Forward" challenge.
Erin Everette is one of the eighth graders participating in the challenge. The students posted hundreds of sticky notes on classmate's lockers with a few encouraging words on them.
The notes read, “You’re amazing,” “It always seems impossible until it’s done,” “You Rock,” along with personalized messages.
“Right now, there's a lot of negativity in the world,” said Everette. “I think this is like a great way to incorporate social media into something positive, something's that's really easy to do."
The acts of kindness are being tracked by "The Good Cards" app.
"The Good Cards" is an online platform that gives you a list of ideas to do something nice for someone.
When you choose an act of kindness from the app and complete it, you leave a card with a barcode so the person who received the good deed can scan it and sign up on the app to continue the good deeds.
From there, you can track the good deeds on the app.
"I'd love for them to see that as kids, they can make a real difference," said Jon Howard, the teacher who is facilitating the project.
Howard chose the PALs or Peer Assistance and Leadership class to test the project on.
"I feel like a lot of times we are just kind by coincidence,” said Howard. “Like, oh that person needs help. But I think if you go out and you're looking for chances to be positive, then I think you start looking at the world in a different way."
Most of the class stayed in one hallway on Friday posting the sticky notes, but student Charlie Starr took a different turn – to encourage special education support classes.
"We've been working with our PALs now for like eight months,” Starr said. “I've gotten pretty close with mine. They’re cool and I like hanging out with them."
Even if it is just a small act of kindness, the class hopes it leaves an impact on their peers.
"Someone might be having a bad day and a little note might make them smile,” said Erin Everette.