PAY IT FORWARD in SCHOOLS (Real Life Examples)

Southwestern College (United States) – After watching the movie ‘Pay it Forward’ the class was split up into 10 groups and were instructed to find some way to Pay it Forward to the community and then present their projects to the class a month later. Some of the things the groups did included: visiting nursing homes, helping a working family renovate their house, helping a man who had a stroke clean his house because his wife was getting treatment for leukemia out of state, and recycling thousands of bottles and cans.

Picnic Point Primary School (Australia) – The whole school got behind the initiative and created special School Pay it Forward Cards. Then students pulled a name out of a hat and they became the recipient of one of their good deeds. The other 2 good deeds could be completed at home, school, or in extra-curricular activities.

Ekstrand Elementary School (United States) decided to start the “Pay it Forward” challenge and organized a school and community wide recycling program to help pay for an important surgery for a 3 year old girl named Hayley Brang. The class has so far raised $9000 to help other children in need. Kids can make a big difference and the whole of society benefits as the ripple effect continues!

Heathcote East Primary School (Australia) made Pay it Forward Day a whole school initiative. From baking Anzac cooking for the local nursing home, to collecting non perishables for charity the school really embraced the initiative. The school principal, Mr John Walters, says it was an excellent initiative that was keenly supported by teachers, parents and children.

Priory High School Exter (England) The Pay it Forward School project involved pupils setting up peer mentoring groups, school garden and grounds clean-up crews and the development a homework help club. Students are now looking at setting up a few bigger projects to take out into their surrounding community.

Southern Regional Middle School (United States) Students watched the movie “Pay It Forward” and completed an exponential growth activity to show how quickly kindness could spread through their school, state and the world. They prepared lunches which were sold to the staff and teachers at school. They created placemats with positive character quotes and decorated the cafeteria in a “restaurant style”. The “customers” thoroughly enjoyed the gourmet lunches. All the profits were donated to charities chosen by the students. They wrote stories and letters which that shared with students who were coming to the school next year. They also wrote personal letters to former teachers, family and friends to let them know how important they were in their lives.

Pink Elementary School (United States) came up with an idea to help children less fortunate.  They made “Birthday Boxes” for children living at the women’s shelters or in local foster homes.  Frequently, these children get left out on important days like birthdays.  The birthday boxes were made out of shoe boxes, filled with such things as streamers, napkins, paper plates, decorations, balloons and gift cards for pizza and cake.  Every child knows how much fun it is to have a birthday party and are very excited about the idea of creating a ‘birthday party in a box’ for others.  In addition to the goodies inside the boxes, there was also a note explaining the Pay it Forward concept urging recipients to find some way of ‘paying it forward’, if not materially then with simple kindnesses to those around them.  There’s always a way to help others no matter what our own circumstances and the students at Pink School have found this out – what a powerful lesson!