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Early Tuesday morning, a crowd gathered outside of Winchester City Hall for a good cause.

Mayor JoEllen Reed officially proclaimed the week of February 14 – 20 to be Random Acts of Kindness week in the city of Winchester.

“Random Acts of Kindness Week is recognized as an international celebration intended to reach out to practice acts of kindness in our homes, schools, businesses, and communities,” said Mayor Reed. “[I] encourage the people of Winchester to practice random acts of kindness in the spirit of compassion, kindness, and goodwill toward all persons.”

Mayor Reed was joined by several Winchester residents, including Winchester Fire Chief Chris Whiteley, LaShana Harney, and Whitney Leggett.

Since they first met about establishing Random Acts of Kindness Week activities, Brett Cheuvront and others have created ways to highlight the celebration.

Enough money has been raised to give $3,000 to three students from Clark County Public Schools who win an essay contest.

“They’ll get to pick the charity of their choice, which we’re really excited about because we think that they’ll donate to some charities that focus on the youth in our community,” said Leggett.

An online Facebook event page – Random Acts of Kindness Day 2023 – has been launched, thus allowing individuals to share ideas of what to do.

The Hall Coffee and Social Club and Clark County Public Library have also become involved. The latter will allow individuals to choose an example of a random act of kindness from a basket and have books and resources surrounding the topic.

Resident Brett Cheuvront helped come up with celebrating Random Acts of Kindness.

“I’m very, very excited, especially with the event page that they made,” said Cheuvront. “A long time ago, Elvis Presley sang a song ‘Why Can’t Every Day Be Like Christmas?’, and so we think, ‘why can’t every day be like Random Act of Kindness Day?’.”

Along with sharing ideas, individuals can access a toolkit related to random acts of kindness from the group’s Facebook page.