‘The Kindness Booth’ presented to local 2nd grade students

The Greater Mankato Area United Way (GMAUW) together with the Mankato based publishing company Capstone have teamed up to present area children, kindergarten through second grade with a picture book titled “The Kindness Booth.” 

Capstone is donating 2,000 copies of the book; The GMAUW is is distributing them to young readers from kindergarten to second grade in Blue Earth, Le Sueur, Nicollet and Waseca county. JWP was the first stop, next was Trinity Lutheran School. “The Kindness Booth” was released in early 2024 and was written by the GMAUW Director of Operations and Communications Laura Murray and was illustrated by Italy-based Andrea Boatta. The book follows children who set out to make the day brighter for their neighborhood through acts of kindness.

During the presentations, an actual “Kindness Booth” was set up at the front of the classrooms. JWP students from both Megan Sheeran’s and Kara Leiferman’s first-grade classes were introduced to the story and then given their own paperback copies. As the book was read, things were learned like “Emma needed help washing her dog” and according to Grandpa Jim, “Kindness tends to grow.” When young recipients were asked what five things a person can do to help others, their responses included “Helping them,” “Sheltering homeless people,” “Helping others to feel happy,” “Being kind to friends,” and “Getting friends involved.”

As an enrichment exercise, children were challenged to find and count pictures of dinosaurs in the book.  In total 42 books were passed out before GMAUW representatives Sara Buesing, Emily Schanbachen, Vanessa Rients and Sally Mock moved on to give a copy of “The Kindness Booth" to students over at Trinity Lutheran. Mock said she actually attended school at JWP, in her words, “Many, many, many years ago.”