Jackson elementary students try to help others with 'kindness boxes'

A group of students at Orchard Drive Elementary in Jackson is always looking for ways to help others, and one idea it had this year was to reach out to the community with “kindness boxes.”

The boxes stand in front of the school. They are free-standing structures, 3 by 4 feet, each one a plywood box on a stout pole, one painted red and the other painted blue.

Each has a shingled, pitched roof and a clear-front door with its mission lettered on.

There’s a lending library, similar to a Little Free Library, where patrons are asked to leave a book and are free to take another book.

Other lending libraries such as these have popped up in Jackson — one near the Ground-A-Bout at 107 E. Adams St. and a free book exchange at the Jackson Civic Center, 381 E. Deerwood Drive.

Those were sponsored by Riverside Regional Library’s Jackson branch, but this exchange in front of Orchard Drive Elementary was built by a volunteer.

There’s also a “kindness pantry” — a box people can bring nonperishable food items to and are invited to take what they need.

“Take what you can and leave what you can,” said Audri Wortmann, 6, whose grandfather built the boxes from plans her mother found online, after the Wortmann sisters saw a Little Free Library in a neighbor’s yard, she said.

“It’s really cute,” said Ali Wortmann, 9.

These boxes fit well with what the group, the Kindness Task Force, is doing, said Jill Hadler, school counselor at Orchard.

“There are a lot of people in the neighborhood,” she said, gesturing to nearby streets with several houses each.

People might not necessarily want to ask, she added.

Aside from the houses, assisted-living facility The Villas of Jackson and Jackson Manor nursing home also are in the neighborhood, Hadler said.

“We’ve excited about that connection,” Hadler said, and added the school is a real neighborhood school.

Last school year, Hadler said, the group held a successful food-and-supplies drive for the Humane Society of Southeast Missouri.

“We’d love to collect pet food, too [in the pantry],” she said.

That’s not to say there haven’t been challenges.

Orchard Drive Elementary principal Shanna Wilson said she’d done research before the boxes’ installation and found canned goods shouldn’t be exposed to temperatures above 85 degrees.

Because the boxes have a Plexiglas front and not much ventilation, that could mean temperatures inside would go well over that mark during the summer, she said.

Wilson said she checks the pantry each morning and takes out cans if the day will be warm.

So far, people have dropped off everything from baby oatmeal to grits.

“When people are out shopping and find a deal, I think that’s where they get some items,” Hadler said.

Wilson said the kindness pantry also is good for toiletries and personal-care items, from toothbrushes and toothpaste to ponytail holders.

But these outward signs aren’t the only projects by the Kindness Task Force.

Tripp Wine, 5, a member of the task force, said he likes to treat others nicely and has gotten his name on the “Kindness Tree” on the interior wall opposite the school’s entrance.

It’s a mural of a tree, and paper leaves are pasted on with a student’s name to signify they’ve done something kind, principal Wilson said.

Xavier Williams, 7, said he likes to participate in the Kindness Task Force’s student mentor program.

“It helps Orchard,” he said.

Jack White, 8, said the task force does all kinds of things, and he likes helping.

Ali Wortmann said last year, the group came up with different challenges for Kindness Week, and they’re thinking up ideas for this year, too.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

1402 Orchard Drive, Jackson, Mo.

107 E. Adams St., Jackson, Mo.

318 E. Deerwood Drive, Jackson, Mo.