No end date for kindness

May 22—Since Sept. 22, 2023, the Wilson County Kind Campaign has been an ongoing effort to spread kindness in Wilson County.

"When we launched it, we said it was a start date with no end date," mayor's office administrative assistant Susan Shaw said. "It's really holding true because people just continue to get involved with it and look for ways to be kind to others."

Inspiring Wilson County residents to perform acts of kindness and putting a spotlight on the kindness shown by the community as it occurs were the two main goals of the campaign.

One story that stood out for Shaw began at the start of the campaign with a Southside Elementary School sixth grader named Lexi Potter, who founded Kindness Clays by Lexi.

"She has continued to reach out and take action," Shaw said. "One of those things (she did) was she organized a dinner for Compassionate Hands. In the winter they serve dinners, and different groups can volunteer to do that."

Potter used the money raised by selling bracelets through kindness Clays by Lexi to purchase the food.

"She took the money that she earned, and she created the menu," Shaw said. "She bought all the food. It was brisket, mac, cheese, green beans, salad and bread. It was a full-blown menu that she put together."

Potter then enlisted the help of the Wilson County Mayor's Office to help serve the food in February.

"I give her a lot of credit for that because she reached out, pulled that together and really got it done," Shaw said.

Another example of youth getting involved in the Wilson County Kind Campaign was Mt. Juliet High School Sophomore Brady Patterson, who gathered up used sports equipment and donated it to the future Boys and Girls Club.

"There's an initiative underway with some people in the county to start a boys and girls club, which is in the beginning stages," Shaw said. "He decided to collect that equipment and hold it for the eventual development of the boys and girls club."

Patterson followed that act of kindness up by visiting a local rehab center on Mother's Day to give out 40 flowers to the residents.

"Whenever anybody promotes something like kindness and people listen to it, it's got this exponential impact," Shaw said.

The response from younger members of the community was unexpected for Shaw.

"You sort of think that adults are going to say, 'Oh, you're right. We talk about so much negative stuff in front of our kids, let's talk about kindness or show ways to be kind,' " Shaw said. "But to have the kids stepping up like that, that was unexpected and really beautiful."

Alongside the Wilson County Kind Campaign, the Wilson County Mayor's Office is also helping raise awareness about mental health.

"The start of it was a community needs assessment done by Vanderbilt University," Shaw said. "They did it with members of our community for Wilson County, including the health department and several others and came up with four key needs, one of those being mental health awareness."

Alongside the health department and the health council in Wilson County, it was decided that mental health was something that needed to have emphasis placed on it. The mental health subcommittee was created a few years ago and reinvigorated this past year.

"The real goal is to have resources available to people in a way they know about and to help reduce the stigma associated with mental health," Shaw said.

These efforts led to a mental health fair at the Wilson County Courthouse a few weeks ago.