North Central Washington reflects on a year of kindness

CASHMERE - As 2023 draws to a close, a group of North Central Washington citizens will come together to celebrate the highlights of a year spent living kindly. 

The group, Kindness Counts NCW, declared 2023 the year of kindness and has worked to inspire, recognize and contribute to acts of kindness in NCW and beyond throughout the year. 

Kindness Counts will gather for their final meeting on Thursday, Dec. 14, at the Confluence Technology Center ( 285 Technology Center Way, Wenatchee) from 2 - 3 p.m. The meeting is open to the public.

The event will feature a slideshow that reflects the projects and meetings of the year. Members will share their highlights of the year and what they have learned from the experience.

Group member Laurel Helton said it has been interesting to watch people come up with ideas for kindness and act on them. She said the members are sad to see the year-end and have enjoyed gathering for meetings and events.

Helton said there wasn’t any single event that stood out as a highlight to her. It was all the small acts of kindness because often it's the small acts of kindness that really make a difference in someone’s life, she said.

“Prior to this, I was involved in several nonprofits, but for me, it really highlighted the fact that just a small act of kindness can really change someone's day, just a tiny thing,” Kindness Counts member Abbie Gundersen said. “And it also made me, it reminded me, to thank people when they were kind to me and acknowledge them. When I was the recipient of kindness, you know, all throughout the year when people have done nice things to me, I thought I need to take the time to acknowledge them.”

“It's, you know, been a catalyst to bring people together in that one goal to spread kindness and uplift people,” Gundersen said.

“I have genuinely become friends with people I've met through this, and our friendships have formed beyond just going to kindness counts meetings together,” Gundersen said. “It's been a blessing in my life to meet so many wonderful people.”

“Kindness counts has been this kind of a vehicle for people who maybe already were doing things to promote kindness, but it gave them just a big year to think of things to do it within,” Helton said.

After this, members will go forth into their communities and continue to spread and encourage kindness.

“We’re not done,” Sharratt said. “It's not like we're not going to do kindness anymore. We are simply going to spread that energy out to other groups right now.”

In the early days of 2023, Gene Sharratt gathered a small group of individuals he had worked with on past projects to share an idea.

“Well, this last early January of this year, I got a group together with the idea that I was seeing too much divisiveness in our community, in our state, and our nation,” he said. “And it was around separating us rather than uniting us.”

“And so I thought, why don't we see if we can't make 2023 the year of kindness in our community by turning down the noise on our differences and turning up the volume on what we have in common,” he said. “And so I thought to myself, what is it that we have in common, regardless of our demographics, or political persuasion, religion, whatever it might be? And what we have in common are the attributes of kindness, thoughtfulness, and civility. Those are the attributes of a strong community and a healthy community.” 

The group responded enthusiastically to Sharratt’s idea. To launch the initiative they got several communities in the region to make a proclamation of a year of kindness on National Random Acts of Kindness Day in February.

The towns that made formal proclamations include Cashmere, East Wenatchee, Lake Chelan, Moses Lake and Wenatchee. 

The group set a goal to reach 2,023 acts of kindness this year but exceeded that goal by early spring.

“Our theme really was that we're only as strong as we are united and only as weak as we are divided,” Sharratt said. “So let's turn down the volume on differences. Let's turn up the volume on what we have in common. And let's unite around those common values: kindness, thoughtfulness, and civility.”

“We developed a Facebook page and a website then so that people could submit acts of kindness, and then we would post them on our Facebook page,” Sharratt said. “And that has been overwhelming. What started as a group of about five to 10 people in January has grown to over 175 people.”

Kindness Counts member and Cashmere resident June Darling said she was amazed that their message of kindness seemed to resonate deeply with so many people.

“For some of us, we so need resilience, and a big part of that resilience is building community and understanding and trusting each other,” Darling said. “And when we trust each other, it’s like, oh, okay, people are doing these kind things, I don't have to be wary and worried, and I know we're in this together.”

“I think that one of the bigger pieces is how do we bring community together,” Darling said. “We need to be, you know, building thoughtful ways of keeping each other in mind and small. And I don't have to do big things, just little things that can make a difference. Sometimes we get so self-absorbed that actually that leads to our anxiety and depression and loneliness and the very thing that can be the antidote to that is just doing something small that's kind and makes a difference.” 

The group did not just benefit those who received the kindness but also those who worked to encourage and highlight kindness.

“I didn't really know how many good organizations that are in our community, you know, nonprofits trying to help other people,” Gundersen said. “I was involved in a few but my eyes were really opened to the fact that this community is really a great place to live. And that there are genuine people who are genuinely doing good things.”

“I'm always delighted, more than surprised, that people just respond so readily, and so generously up and down the valley, to anything that you're working on,” Helton said. “There are always people that want to get behind it and make it be successful, and that's not true in every community. I've lived all over the United States and I think it's really just a great community spirit here. People really do care about the place we live in and they care about the community.”

Quinn Propst: 509-731-3590 or quinn@ward.media.