Students and staff at Benenden are celebrating completing 100 Acts of Kindness to mark the School’s Centenary year.
At the beginning of the academic year in September, students and staff were tasked with completing 100 kind acts to benefit the community – one for each year of the School’s existence.
Highlights include a student who collected costumes and funds to support a performance by an orphanage in Azerbaijan, a member of staff who ran 10 kilometres a day for 100 days raising money and awareness for Catching Lives, and a whole School effort to collect toys for The Mayor’s Toy Appeal, supporting children and teenagers in need in the Borough of Tunbridge Wells.
The 100th act, completed on Tuesday 2 July, was a tea dance led by the student volunteers who work with the Memory Lane Café Benenden. The uplifting event brought together elderly guests from Tenterden Social Hub, Major Clarke House and Merry & Bright to enjoy music, dance and delicious cakes.
Headmistress Samantha Price said: “I’m incredibly proud of this kind-hearted effort from the students and staff. Benenden’s Centenary year always needed to be more than just a celebration of a fantastic school: we needed to ensure that there was an opportunity to give back to those around us, both near and far.”
Across the School, students have also turned to members of the community whose work is often overlooked, helping the domestic staff with their tasks and cooking up all sorts of treats to say thank you to the individuals who support them. All of these acts were then displayed on boards in the School’s Centenary Buildings.
Many of the Acts of Kindness have been centred on Benenden’s selected School charity for the academic year: Freedom4Girls, which works to combat period poverty by providing education and period products, promoting product choice and supporting environmentally and financially sustainable options.
Initiatives supporting the charity that were driven by the School’s student-led Charity Committee include a collection of sanitary products, and fundraising events such as a whole School pyjama party and staff vs student football match. The Benenden School Parents’ Association also held a raffle in support of the charity during the annual Two Generation Sports event (in which parents and students go head-to-head in a range of competitive sports).
Mrs Price added: “I’m truly amazed by the varied ways the students and staff have shown thoughtfulness, care, and genuine commitment to helping others through these Acts of Kindness, which have been proudly displayed in School. Our students in particular have excelled themselves with their efforts to bring support and joy to people who perhaps don’t have access to the opportunities that they have.
“100 Acts of Kindness may seem like a lot for one year, but hopefully as we look to our second century we’ll have set a precedent for the extent to which Benenden School can give back to the wider community.”