Salisbury puts Kindness on the Agenda

By Michelle Nelson

You probably know that Salisbury is an official kindness city, but what does that mean?

It's more than a nice title. It took months of work and a commitment to "put kindness on the agenda" in all aspects of life in the city. Grace Foxwell Murdock, a retired educator, and now the city's official Secretary of Kindness, was first driven to start a kindness initiative for the community after the Sandy Hook, Conn., school shooting in 2012. "I really felt that those children and those educators were part of my responsibility to do something," she said, and it was out of that desire to help, that Wicomico Grows Kindness was borne.

After years of developing kindness projects in Salisbury, she learned of the World Kindness USA program. Cities could apply to become an officially recognized kindness city, but the requirements were steep. It involved extensive work to document acts of kindness and getting the local governing bodies on board. The Salisbury City Council, the Wicomico County Council and the Wicomico Board of Education all passed resolutions endorsing kindness in the summer of 2018, and a short time after, Salisbury was recognized as the first city in the United States to be named a World Kindness City at a formal presentation in Switzerland. https://worldkindnessusa.org/world-kindness-city/

The organization that Murdock began, Wicomico Grows Kindness, has since given way to kindSBY, endorsed by Mayor Jake Day. To continue to spread kindness across the community and to have a greater impact, the Kindness Commission was formed, including 21 individuals representing government, health, faith partners, businesses and organizations. All members are involved in the community. Find out who the commissioners are here:  https://kindsby.org/about-2/. The commissioners are on the lookout for kindness and like to reward a Kindness Badge when they find a deserving recipient. Look for the blue and yellow badges on social media.

Since its inception, kindSBY has supported educators through the Adopt a School program this year and a book drive for diversity for the public schools last year, a campaign providing meals to first responders when the pandemic began and packed gift bags for senior citizens. KindSBY was also instrumental in bring the Rocks and Smiles Community Project to the city (look for the banner in a shop window on Main Street), organized the Dance for Kindness flash mob several years, and supported the new youth gathering place, the Newton Community Center. Local schools have also begun kindness clubs, and last year, student Savanna Brooks engaged the community to put together 1,200 meal kits for the homeless population. 

Savanna Brooks and her team packed

bags of ready to eat meals for the unsheltered population. 

Kindness Commissioners celebrated

the city's official designation as a World Kindness City. 

Kindness Commisioners prepared gift bags

 for seniors to accompany Meals on Wheels deliveries last year. 

Mayor Jake Day visited students

during last year's Random Act of Kindness Week.