
Matt’s Kindness Ripples On is Happy to Announce Two Kindness Award Winners for May, 2022.
Valerianne Hinkley, (Farmington, ME) a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Maine at Farmington, has always looked for ways to help others. She spent hundreds of hours each year bringing smiles to strangers with her projects. She placed appreciation flowers with messages on vehicles, in teachers’ school boxes and on doors. She made goodie baskets for both police and fire departments thanking them for their service. During COVID she placed homemade stress balls on vehicles of medical staff. She made holiday decorations for nursing homes, and she knit and donated over 300 newborn hats.
But her biggest project is her Be Bold Stand Up To Bullying project which she started in 2017 to help raise awareness after she became the target of bullying in her freshman year of high school. From glares, cyber messages and posts, to snickers and side comments, she struggled with what to do. “After leaving school early a couple of days and having thoughts of not being good enough, I decided that enough was enough. I thought to myself, “This isn’t who I am, and if I am feeling this way, there are more students that are feeling this way.”
She went back to school and started the Positive Post-It Note Project where she put her positive words on posters all around the school and over 800 post-it notes on the school lockers with messages of “You are worth it,” “You are loved,” “You are awesome.” She has continued her positive post-it notes in college during COVID by placing them in the bathrooms of dorms.
Valerianne has also gone before the school board to talk about bullying which led to the Student Code of Conduct Policy being updated to include Bullying and Harassment. She researched Maine Bullying Laws and has been in contact with the Maine Department of Education to help better understand the laws and policies so she can help educate others.
In the United States one out of every five students ages 12-18 reports being bullied during the school year. Approximately 160,000 teens have skipped school because of bullying. Valerianne wants to make sure all bullying victims know they are not alone and through her Be Bold Stand Up To Bullying she is helping them find their voice.