What goes into organizing Start with Hello?

Have you ever wondered how Start with Hello week is organized? The student body officers, like Senior Breklyn Bingham and Sophomore Hyrum Allen, have been hard at work organizing it at MHS.

“For student council we’ve been working with the district. We coordinate with Jess Goudy, and she has helped us to come up with ideas for how we can help students to feel seen and be able to spread kindness throughout our district,” Bingham said.

“We’ve been planning it for about a week, and we wanted to make students feel more welcome. So, we’ve been thinking of ideas to help people feel more involved and feel more special throughout the week,” Allen said.

It isn’t just High School students that the Start with Hello campaign is out to help.

“We’ve been to some elementary schools and made a lot of little kids happy and smile a little bit,” Allen said.

This is usual for Start with Hello week, with the officers even having lunch with the students. However, COVID-19 has made this year more complex.

“In the years past we have been able to go to the different schools and interact with the students, but this year, with COVID, it’s kinda tricky because we have some extra limitations with social distancing. I think that even through Covid, with social distancing practices we can still be kind to people and make new friends that way,” Bingham said.

There are many ways that students can help out with Start with Hello week. Many of which are listed on the district website.

“One of the main things is just talking to people, saying hello, and smiling at people. We do have our Kindness Missions so if you want to grab one of those, then we can always give those to people, but you don’t have to be assigned a Kindness Mission to be able to do kindness,” Bingham said.

“Just be waving at anyone in the hallways, or trying to smile with your mask. Just trying to make people feel more welcome while they’re here,” Allen said.

Start with Hello is structured by the district, but students can put themselves at the front of the program.

“I think it’s pretty cool how students can actually do this most of the time. It’s best for us to just embrace what people do and emphasize and highlight that because really

This is one of the “Kindness Rocks”. They can be found all around town, and can be turned in for prizes. (Photo by: Ryan Dees)

people are doing kindness all the time. So, if we can show that and capture that, then that’s the most success that we will be able to have,” Bingham said.