December 17, 2025

The holiday season at Hughson High School began with the Hughson High School Week of Kindness, held from November 17 to 21, a weeklong tradition in which students celebrate one another and acknowledge those who exemplify kindness.

“Kindness is choosing to treat people with respect and understanding even in small everyday moments that may seem insignificant,” Hughson High School sophomore and ASB Executive Vice President Sophia Aguiar said. “It is about seeing everyone as human with their own experiences and choosing to make their day a little better.”

Throughout the week, Hughson High School ASB and Renaissance sought ways to promote and share a little kindness. “Kindness matters because it can spread so far from just a single kind act. This ripple effect helps to create a more welcoming and connected community,” she said.

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Each day shared a different kindness message and activity.

Monday: Kindness ties us together

Students wore bows and ties to school and were invited to make friendship bracelets for one another.

Tuesday: Don’t hide from kindness

Students wore camouflage, brown, and green and were invited to paint rocks with kindness messages.

Wednesday: Love with kindness

Wear pink and red and write teacher notes. Each teacher was presented with a handmade card containing kind messages from the student body.

Thursday: Shine bright with Kindness

Students wore neon attire and were invited to reflect on what they needed. “Take a sticky note” is presented as a poster hung on the wall, from which students could open an envelope and take what they needed. One envelope said, “Take me if you need a compliment.” Another said, “Take me if you need confidence.”

Friday: Spirited with Kindness

To close out the week, students wore Spirit Wear. Each teacher received three yellow balloons to give to their three kindest students observed during the day.

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This was a favorite activity from the week for Aguiar, as well. “It gave the teachers an opportunity to recognize their kindest students and created a very visual effect on campus with the sea of yellow balloons and highlighted all the students who earned them.”

“There were almost 100 balloons ‘walking’ around campus. It is very cool to see!” Ruelas said.

By recognizing both what a person needs and showing recognition of the kindness of others, the week goes beyond dress-up days and activities. “I think that this week is a good reminder to all of us to be kind and take a moment to reach out and smile at someone or say hello. It is sometimes the smallest acts of kindness that can have the most profound impacts. We never know what our kindness might mean to another,” Ruelas said.

For Junior Estefania Gutierrez, ASB’s Social Media Manager, “Kindness to me is someone going out of their way to do something nice for someone without expecting anything back. Kindness comes from the heart; it is sincere and helps us connect with one another.”

Gutierrez described kindness as “a human form of connection, we connect with one another through emotions and shared experience.”

The anonymous notes were most meaningful to Gutierrez during Kindness Week. “I think it sent out an authentic message from the ASB class. Being able to send out anonymous kind messages to strangers helps us to share our connection with other people, to remember that we are never alone in this world.”

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