Spreading kindness is the theme of this week

Nov. 6—GOSHEN — This week is all about bringing kindness to the forefront for the city of Goshen and ULEAD.

With World Kindness Day on Nov. 13, ULEAD, in Goshen, is hoping to help curate opportunities to engage in the idea of and encourage kindness through the city Monday through Sunday through a series of events they're calling the Kindness Collective.

Self-Efficacy Curator for ULEAD Ben Rheinheimer explained that through conversations with various entities within the city and community, the organization discovered that many community members feel as though kindness is missing. He hopes the message of kindness will allow people to engage and encourage kindness.

"This whole focus on kindness is all about servant leadership," said Chief Ideation Trailblazer for ULEAD Ritch Hochstetler. "It's connected to how we believe we can make the world a better place."

ULEAD is a nonprofit experiential training organization, working with schools, educators, students of all ages, and other young-serving organizations statewide, to provide servant leadership development.

"The Dali Lama said, 'Be kind whenever possible,' and then he said, 'It's always possible,' and that's kind of the whole idea behind this is how can we inspire in our actions, our words and our intentions, even, to be kind to other people," Hochstetler said.

The week of kindness begins at 7 p.m. Monday with Kindness Conversations at the Electric Brew, 118 E. Washington St., Goshen, an opportunity to share stories of kindness in an open forum. There will be another Kindness Conversations event on Wednesday at the same time.

"We're going to have an opportunity for people to share stories that have been a part of their lives when they've experienced or seen kindness," said Hochstetler.

Also on Wednesday, there will be a CEO Luncheon at the Goshen Theatre Ballroom from 11:30 a.m. — 1 p.m., hoping to express what kindness looks like in key leadership in organizations. During the event, Executive Director of the Fred Rogers Institute Dana Winters will share how the institute continues the work of Mr. Rogers.

"Fred Rogers' work extended beyond children into leadership," Hochstetler said.

In the evening, Goshen Theater and Art House are co-hosting a showing of "Won't You Be My Neighbor?," the Mr. Roger's documentary at 7 p.m. Winters will also speak at the showing.

"It's not just a message for kids — it's a message for kids, it's message for our community," said Rheinheimer, "We talked about early on when we were doing this, kind of the hope or the dream of what if Elkhart County would become like a Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, where we're looking out for each other, and caring, and kind. And, yes, there's some difficulties, but we work through it as a community."

On Thursday, there will be a daylong child development conference for childcare providers, parents, youth workers, educators by the Fred Rogers Institute, and ULEAD will also present on health relationships and creating kids who are caring and kind. The conference will be held at the College Mennonite Church, 1900 S. Main St., from 8:30 a.m. — 3:30 p.m.

At 6:30 p.m. Friday, a virtual author talk will take place. The author Ryan Rydzewski, co-wrote "When You Wonder, You're Learning," a book dedicated to bringing new life to Mr. Rogers' lessons in the digital age.

"It's all about how do we continue to create and raise 'creative, curious, and caring children," Rheinheimer said.

Most of the events are free to the public, although registration is required for the conference and the CEO Luncheon, which both cost. The conference is $40, and the luncheon is $15

"Our hope for trying to do this is to get the idea and word of kindness back in front of people, like how do we constantly see it and remember that this something we can continue to do?" Rheinheimer said. "Whether it's through political conversations or it's through board meetings or our daily lives, how do we work at making sure we're thinking about kind ways to do things?"

While it wasn't the intention, the duo said the irony of their Kindness Collective week happening the week of elections is not lost on them.

"If we would just stop throwing verbal bombs at each other and actually stop to listen," Hochstetler added. "Like just listening is an act of kindness."

To register ahead for any of the events, visit https://www.eventbrite.com/cc/kind-collective-2022-1232589.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.