“Capture Kindness Springfield” will celebrate community spirit and positivity, 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 14 at COHatch, 101 S. Fountain Ave. The event is free and open to the public and will include live entertainment and activities.
The event will be indoors and outdoors to help maintain social distancing. Attendees will be required to wear masks.
“COVID has exacerbated everyone. This is to spread kindness and hopefulness to Springfield,” said Noah Chesshir, B.A.T.S. co-founding member and co-president with fellow Global Impact STEM Academy student Addie Powell. “It’s also to promote local businesses.”
Formed from WellSpring’s prevention programming, B.A.T.S. began this past summer from concerned middle school and high school students wanting to promote healthy choices including suicide prevention, an anti-tobacco media campaign and encouraging mask wearing.
Most recently, the group helped Springfield firefighters choreograph a TikTok video for First Responder Appreciation Week that drew attention.
Springfield High student and B.A.T.S. member Dina Rulli-Heaphey came up with the concept for the kindness project, for which the group invited people to photograph acts of kindness in the community and submit them on Instagram and Facebook. The public is invited to select their favorite images on display Nov. 9-14 at COHatch and in the windows of the parking garage on S. Fountain Ave. by using their phones to scan the QR code on the photos.
B.A.T.S. members will choose top 10 finalists and the public attending the event can select the top three, which will win cash prizes of $300, $100 and $50 respectively. Itinerant Studio is helping with the images and framing for the project.
The winning entry will be framed and hung in COHatch permanently and the other finalists will continue being displayed in the parking garage with the approval of City Manager Bryan Heck.
What impressed B.A.T.S. adult ally Beth Dixon was the students are organizing the event and everything involved on their own, using their own personal interests in the process.
Powell found bullying among her peers, especially young women, concerning and found it extended to women as well and reached out to Project Woman, a resource for victims of domestic violence in Springfield, to which some of the proceeds raised will go toward.
“It’s hard work. We’ve raised about $700 so far,” said Powell.
B.A.T.S. member Maddie McCutcheon used her artistic talent to design a “Be Kind” logo for the competition, which will also appear on pins, t-shirts and masks available at the event.
Live entertainment will include music from DJ Joel Shear, the Youth Arts Ambassadors and the Gary Geis Dance Co. tap ensemble. Powell and Rulli-Heaphey will also dance with the tap ensemble.
There will also be a pumpkin painting competition and silent auctions for gift baskets from local businesses and two six-month memberships as part of the auction. Chesshir said the event wanted to give exposure to local businesses.
Katherine Eckstrand, development and donor relations manager at Project Woman, is impressed with the energy the group is putting toward doing positive things for the community.
“Young people face different issues and it’s incredible for this group to want to do more to get other young people involved,” she said.
Eckstrand said Project Woman has seen a 74 percent increase in domestic incidents over the previous year due to the pandemic. The financial donations will go toward the organization’s hope bags distributed to adults and children.
These B.A.T.S. won’t be flying away anytime soon. They plan on making Capturing Kindness an annual event and have other plans for early 2021.
The group is still accepting members. For more information, go to the B.A.T.S. Facebook page.
About the Author