Hallmark Channel Features Secret Kindness Agents

Omaha – Over the past week, viewers of the Hallmark Hall of Fame’s presentation of The Christmas Train saw a short video about the Secret Kindness Agents, an program created by Teacher Education Instructor Dr. Ferial Pearson which encourages students to perform daily random acts of kindness.

In 2012, Pearson and students from Ralston High School started the Secret Kindness Agents shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy. Pearson was looking for a way to prevent future tragedies by creating a culture of everyday kindness.

The rules are simple: participants must create an Agent name (as to remain anonymous), and they must come up with the acts of kindness themselves.

The Hallmark video features Instructional Facilitator Karolyn Roby (a.k.a. Agent Boss Lady) and her students at Omaha’s Skinner Magnet Center.

Roby heard about the Secret Kindness Agents two years ago and implemented the practice in her classroom to help her students be more mindful of the effects of random acts of kindness on the larger community.

"If I can start this program and make a little difference—and if more people do it—we can make a big difference."

Roby’s students describe the importance of kindness and compassion: "Everyone has a nice person inside them." "Help others with their problems." "When someone falls, you help them back up."

According to Pearson (a.k.a. Agent Mama Beast), "Kindness doesn’t have to be a big production; it just comes from your heart."

The Secret Kindness Agents have been recognized by TEDx Omaha, Teaching Tolerance Magazine, Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, and Hallmark’s Care Enough Initiative. It’s been implemented in more than 350 schools, from preschool through University, in more than a dozen states as well as two different states in Canada.

For more information on the Secret Kindness Agents, follow their Facebook page or watch Pearson’s TEDx Omaha video.