By JACLYN GODDETTE
NEWPORT — “You’re here, I’m here, we’re all here tonight to celebrate kindness,” said Dianne Rochford at the second annual Signs of Kindness event.
Held on Tuesday, Oct. 16, the event brought more than 50 people together on the Newport Common to celebrate the many small kindnesses that “bind us together and make us neighbors in a friendly community.”
Rochford was the principal organizer of the event, along with Elaine Frank, Kate Niboli and John Lunn.
Local music duo Second Wind played kindness-themed songs, and several area businesses—including Beaver Pond Farm Stand, Coronis Market and Aurora Bakery—donated food and drinks.
Participants were encouraged to make and take “kindness rocks” by writing or drawing a kind message on provided rocks and placing them in a public spot for others to find.
Post-it notes were also available for participants to write what kindness means to them or how kindness makes them feel.
“Kindness is to respect other people’s body and space,” read one note.
“I help my mom clean the house,” read another.
According to Niboli, the notes will be incorporated into a larger art piece at a later date.
The Epiphany 4-H Explorers from the Epiphany Church created paper chains that contained kind messages.
“The idea is that one kind act leads to another,” Missioner of Newport Aaron Jenkyn said. Jenkyn and her sons hung up the paper chains on the gazebo.
After Rochford gave brief opening remarks, three community members explained what kindness means to them.
Retired Newport teacher Charen Urban shared a story about her father, who was a chiropractor in town.
One of his patients was an elderly woman who didn’t drive, so Urban’s father always drove her home from his office on his break and bought her lunch. Watching her father practice kindness made a big impression on Urban as a young adult.
County Commissioner Ben Nelson spoke of how kindness “tends to come back to you.”
“I’ve been pulled out of a snow bank more than once, and Becky and I have stopped to help people.”
One late night after plowing for hours, Nelson noticed a car off the road. When he approached the car to help, he discovered that the driver was an LNA who had taken care of his mother when she was in a nursing home.
“That’s the beauty of this event,” said Nelson. “Stopping to think of things like that.”
Beth Rexford, administrative assistant at the Newport Recreation Center, spoke about how she randomly began a tradition of greeting Myrtle Cote with a big hug.
Cote was at the kindness event, and Rexford called her up to give her another hug.
“You don’t have to do anything,” Rexford told Cote while embracing her. “I just want to give you a hug so they can see how nice it makes you feel and then they can pass it along as well.”
After the scheduled community members spoke, Rochford offered the microphone to anyone in the audience who also wanted to share a story.
Led by coaches Tracy Conroy and Jauntessa Ash, eight members of Newport Youth Cheerleading performed a routine celebrating the Newport School District.
The event concluded with a candlelight vigil.
The wind added an extra challenge, but eventually most of the candles lit. Some held the candles close to their hands to warm up from the 45-degree temperature.
Led by Second Wind, the group sang “Imagine” and “This Little Light of Mine.”
“Take this light,” Suzi Hastings of the band said as the group finished singing, “And bring it out into the world.”
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