Hello everyone, I’m Jaida, I am 12 years old and I came to the SLC with me and my mom’s nonprofit KIDS CARE. Being the service people that we are and the horrible Nashville school shooting that just happened, we decided to make kindness cards for the front-line workers who responded to the shooting. With the help of the SLC and our new friends at Laurel Springs School we were able to collect 115 Kindness Cards from the people at the conference.
We drove 20 minutes from where the conference was to the Nashville Fire Department #20 which is right next to where the school shooting happened. It was pouring rain but that wasn’t gonna stop us, so we got out of our car with a tiny little umbrella and started running through the fire department’s front lawn, the water was dripping down our backs but the cards were safe! We got to the front of the building and someone opened the door and said “This must be important”! She let us in and I started to hand the cards to her and explain what we were there for, but she stopped me and said that there was a man in their lounge room that actually responded to the shooting. We handed the cards to him and he was very grateful and said that they have been hanging all the cards on the front window. We started chatting with them a bit and the nice woman that answered the door was actually EMS! So we said that we actually had EMS cards in our car and I offered to run to get them and she let me out the back door, I got back and we took a selfie and she said that they would give the cards out to the people that needed them! After a little more chatting they said they would also take the 911 dispatch and hospital staff cards and give them out to people they think need them.
The Police Department we went to was the Nashville Midtown Hills Police Precinct. When we got there the doors were shut and locked, it was closed. We started walking back to the car and then someone came out the side door! I ran over and introduced myself and my mom and then explained what we were doing and he was very happy being that he had responded himself. After a bit of chatting with him, we got back in the car and I said MOM WE FORGOT THE FIRST RESPONDERS CARDS! And I grabbed them and ran to catch him before he left, he thanked us and said he would give them out the next shift he had. We also left him the big “We Care” poster.
In the end, making and giving cards to first responders in your local community is a great way to spread kindness and show your love. I really enjoy it because they go through and see a lot of hard things that can’t be undone and the cards make them feel loved.
