Do you remember where you were on April 13, 2014? I do. I was eight years old, sitting at home on my couch, watching YouTube videos when my best friend texted me that she was at the AMC Town Center 20.
They had called a lockdown – an active shooter was across the street at the Jewish Community Center. At the time, I did not understand the gravity of the situation; all I knew was that my best friend was in danger.
The following Sunday, I arrived at my synagogue for Sunday School and noticed something different: police officers guarded the front doors, and a new security system was put in place. This was particularly strange to me because no other establishment in the area had such precautions. Then it clicked: I was not just unsafe, I was unsafe because I was Jewish. That day marked the beginning of my awareness of antisemitism, a reality I had been shielded from as a young child. As I grew older, I began to notice the prejudice and ignorance that Jews globally and locally faced — hate from closed-minded, uneducated people. It wasn’t until I began facing the same hate that I decided I would be an active participant in stopping all hate.
In August of 2023, I joined SevenDays, an organization that aims to combat hate by spreading kindness through education and dialogue. I wanted to learn how to combat hate alongside a group of teens with the same mission. My reason for joining the SevenDays Kindness Youth Leadership Team (KYLT) was simply to spread kindness, but after the events on Oct. 7, 2023, that goal became a calling. I knew that to stop antisemitism and other forms of hatred that came from the attacks, I needed to be on the front lines of education and spreading kindness. But that did not only require me to share my knowledge with peers; I needed to learn about different communities.
SevenDays has empowered me to be what we call a “Kindness Influencer.” Whether it is posting an inspirational quote on social media to share with my friends or holding the door open for a stranger, I have learned that any act of kindness can make a ripple. Through SevenDays, I have gotten to create ripples in many different ways. I have had many opportunities to speak at local elementary schools about the importance of kindness and how young kids can become “Junior Kindness Influencers.” I also have made various media appearances with SevenDays Co-founder Mindy Corporon to share the SevenDays mission with the broader Kansas City area.
This year, SevenDays will be from March 31 through April 8. I encourage each and every one of you to join the effort by doing random acts of kindness. SevenDays has a lot of free resources to check out on our website, SevenDays.org. While my journey as a member of KYLT will come to a close at the end of this school year when I graduate, I encourage all high schoolers to consider applying to be a part of the Kindness Youth Leadership Team and help spread kindness locally and globally. Hate thrives in silence, but kindness grows through action. My journey from an eight-year-old witnessing tragedy to an advocate for kindness has shown me that while we cannot erase the past, we can shape the future — one act of kindness at a time.
Abby Hill is a senior at The Barstow School and a member of SevenDays’ Kindness Youth Leadership Team.