Showing love with sticky notes

MOSES LAKE — It was a simple idea, really.

Sarah Sinitsa and Liv Betzing, both eighth-graders at Chief Moses Middle School, wanted to do something to brighten people’s days and cheer people up.

“We were going to put sticky notes with positive messages all around the school,” 14-year-old Betzing said. “But we decided to put them on the bathroom mirrors instead, so people could read positive messages and think of themselves.”

So messages like “You’re Beautiful!” Or “You Can Do This!” were written on sticky notes that were then posted all over bathroom mirrors across school, leaving only a heart-shaped “window” open for people to see their reflection in.

“We saw many people staring at the mirror, they couldn’t believe what they saw,” Sinista said.

In fact, both girls expressed shock that the notes stayed up.

“Some were taking the sticky notes, but most were left,” Betzing said.

Both Sinista and Betzing are students in Matt Krogh’s Real Life Skills course, where much of what they learn involves caring for others.

“This is a generation of ‘We’,” Krogh said. “There are a lot of kids who care about other people, and we need to let other people know this is a kind and caring community.”

There are a lot of sixth- and seventh-graders who look up to eighth-graders at Chief Moses Middle School, Krogh said.

Betzing and Sinista said they, and their class, will continue to put these little positive messages out every Monday as a way to show their fellow students that they matter and to help battle the often incessant negative messages so many kids get every day.

And Krogh said he will keep encouraging them.

“A little ripple affects a lot of people in a positive way,” he said. “We need it. We’re all connected.”

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com