Parents paint motivational art in 5th grade bathrooms to spread kindness after Florida shooting

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“We strongly believe in the power of spreading love, kindness, and positivity through our campus. This idea has been in the works for several weeks, but now feels even a little more powerful after last week’s horrific events in Parkland, Florida.

Our campus theme this year is ‘Happiness,’ inspired by Dr. Shawn Achor’s book, ‘The Happiness Advantage,’ and we’re needing that now more than ever. We feel that our children are privy to too much negativity in their lives via social media and television, and we had a very special group of parents step forward to complete this project and add a piece of daily positive encouragement for our students.

man standing in public restroom holding stall door containing inspirational message saying, "bloom where you are planted"
Mary Moore Elementary
black stall in public restroom with quote, "your mistakes don't define you" and another with colorful flowers across door
Mary Moore Elementary

A group of 5th grade moms started this idea a few weeks ago, as a way to encourage more positivity around the campus. These parents worked for 37 hours over the weekend!

black bathroom stall door painted white at top with inspirational quote, "you will move mountains"
Mary Moore Elementary
black bathroom stall with, "kindness changes everything" surrounded a vine and flowers next to door with three arrows on it
Mary Moore Elementary
bathroom stall door with yellow blue and green feather on left and quote, "she believed she could so she did on right
Mary Moore Elementary

They sanded down the original surface and painted everything black to create a ‘canvas’ for the drawings. We were very blessed to have almost everything donated for the project! Sherwin-Williams donated the paint, Home Depot donated supplies, and local businesses JC Nails and Great Oak Dental also gave monetary donations.

woman inside cream public bathroom stall sanding down door
Mary Moore Elementary
black bathroom stall with sketch of quote and woman sitting on stool to the right painting on another stall
Mary Moore Elementary
woman smiling in public restroom in front of urinals as she paints stall door black
Mary Moore Elementary

Our 5th graders didn’t know they’d be coming back to this yesterday, and were shocked! They’ve definitely taken a sense of pride and ownership, and have had nothing but exciting things to say about it. They’re all smiles for sure!

three public water fountains with a blue latter to the left of them and large words that read, "you are enough" above them
Mary Moore Elementary
black bathroom stall door with pac-man scene painted on it
Mary Moore Elementary
bottom of black stall bathroom door with quote, "every day is a chance to get better" on it with baseball and soccer ball
Mary Moore Elementary

Due to the overwhelming positive reaction from students, parents, and community members — we plan to continue spreading these messages of kindness and encouragement in different ways throughout our campus. It’s been so exciting to see all the different teachers and administrators commenting on our Facebook post that they can’t wait to start something similar in their schools. I definitely hope that our parents’ random act of kindness inspires many other schools to do the same. Our kids can always use an extra boost of happiness and joy.”

three public water fountains with supplies on them and blue latter to the left with large words above reading, "choose joy"
Mary Moore Elementary

This story was submitted to Love What Matters by Tyson Jones, principal of Mary Moore Elementary in Arlington, Texas. Submit your story here.

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