Students from Samueli Academy’s Helping Hands Club hold handmade cards created for patients at a local children’s hospital. (Photo courtesy of Samueli Academy) 
Handwritten and illustrated cards created by Samueli Academy students are displayed on a table during the Great Kindness Challenge. (Photo courtesy of Samueli Academy)
Quick look: The Great Kindness Challenge returned Jan. 26–30, with Orange County schools encouraging students to show compassion through service projects and wellness activities.
From writing cards for hospitalized children to decorating kindness rocks and organizing food drives, students across Orange County took part in the Great Kindness Challenge, a global initiative focused on compassion, inclusion and community service.
The 2026 Great Kindness Challenge took place Jan. 26–30 with the theme “Show Us Your Kind,” encouraging students to make acts of kindness visible in their schools and communities. The annual challenge invites participation from transitional kindergarten through 12th grade and provides schools with free resources, including customizable kindness checklists and classroom lessons.
At Samueli Academy in Santa Ana, students from the Helping Hands Club created handwritten and illustrated cards for patients at a local children’s hospital, sharing messages of encouragement and care.
In the Brea Olinda Unified School District, students at Laurel Elementary Magnet School of Innovation and Career Exploration participated in a “Kindness Rocks” activity during lunch. With support from the Orange County Department of Education’s Student Advocates for Mental Health program, students, staff and an OCDE employee decorated rocks with positive messages that will be placed throughout the school’s garden spaces.
At Ponderosa Elementary School in the Anaheim Elementary School District, staff encouraged students to extend kindness inward as well as outward. During lunch, students were guided through yoga stretches designed to help them relax, reset and practice caring for their own well-being.
The California Department of Education encouraged statewide participation in the challenge, noting that the initiative promotes social-emotional well-being, bullying prevention and positive school climates. Last year, more than 4.4 million California students across 7,859 schools participated in the Great Kindness Challenge, completing more than 222 million acts of kindness.
To showcase how Orange County students demonstrated kindness during the week, the OCDE Newsroom has compiled a selection of social media posts shared by local schools and districts.