The NKM Kindness Awards

I've just created the certificates for the 3rd Nancy Kitt Mills Kindness Award. We chose 8 Kilmer Middle School students who have been kind to my daughter, Jeannie. Jeannie is a special needs kid who is often teased by others, so I created the award to recognize kids who are able to stand up to peer pressure and see beyond their own insecurities, thoughts, feelings, etc., to reach out and be kind to someone who's different.
I started the award in June 2007. That year, Jeannie was graduating from 6th grade and I was going to miss it b/c I was speaking at a conference in NYC that weekend. My friend Nancy Mills died the day before I was set to leave and her memorial service was going to be that weekend. I cancelled my plans to go to the conference and so was able to attend end-of-the-year school functions.
At Joe's class party, I was talking with some teachers about the year and the 6th grade. One teacher commented on how mean-spirited some of the 6th graders were and I answered that I was glad Jeannie was so "clueless" b/c I thought it protected her from being teased -- she's not a good target b/c she doesn't understand when others tease her, or so I thought.
The teacher replied that there were four girls who "took care of Jeannie" and kept the other kids from teasing Jeannie. That's where I got the idea to reward kids who are kind to others, in particular kids who are kind to Jeannie.
If Nancy hadn't died when she did, I never would have found out about the girls who befriended my autistic daughter. And I would have missed an important milestone in my daughter's life as well as all the fun of the end of school.
That is just like Nancy!! Family was the most important thing in her life, and second, I would say, was being kind and gracious and welcoming to all kinds of people. Relationships were very important to her and she used her considerable talents and skills to promote relatedness -- her parties and fund-raising events were awesome. She deeply cared about the well-being of her friends, family, community and total strangers -- who did not remain strangers for long.
I miss her terribly -- our long phone conversations, her humor, beauty, intelligence and caring. And I named these awards in honor of her as a tribute to her kindness.