2018 Rogers Scholar Lydia Emberton gives a softball to Tompkinsville Elementary student Phil Hardin in a random act of kindness.
2018 Rogers Scholar Lydia Emberton is encouraging people in Monroe County to perform random acts of kindness.
Emberton, a graduate of The Center for Rural Development’s Rogers Scholars program, partnered with the Kindness Card Project earlier this year to inspire individuals to complete random, selfless acts of kindness.
She selected the Kindness Card Project for her Rogers Scholars community service project to start a system of community members completing small acts of kindness in an effort to deter school bullying and demonstrate to young people the importance of being kind.
Emberton distributed kindness cards to employees at a local nursing home and her school. Everyone who received a card was encouraged to perform a random act of kindness in memory of a cancer patient whose name appeared on the kindness card and, when completed, pass on the card, continuing the cycle.
“This project was a way to inspire both kids and adults to be kind by doing a good deed, no matter how small, and a way to keep the memory of kids who lost their fight with cancer alive,” said Emberton, a senior at Monroe County High School. “It means so much to me to help kick start this project and hopefully keep it going to remind people to be kind.”
She also reached out to the Monroe County 4-H Teen Club for assistance with the project. Club members worked together to raise money to purchase toys for students served by the family resource center at Tompkinsville Elementary School.
“Lydia’s Kindness Card Project, in honor of children affected from childhood cancer, was a huge success,” said Charolette Arnett, program assistant for the Monroe County Extension Office. “It is a project I hope will continue in our community.”
Emberton is the daughter of Shayne and Cindy Emberton of Tompkinsville.