Little Yellow Arks Bring Positive Guidance and Acts of Kindness to U.S. Schoolkids

by Bruria Efune – chabad.org

On the morning of Aug. 3, 2019, an armed man walked into a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and opened fire, killing 23 people and leaving the city in shock and mourning. A few weeks later, Rabbi Levi Greenberg, director of programming at Chabad-Lubavitch of El Paso, met with El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego. During the conversation, the two discussed ideas that could positively impact the community at large, especially in light of the horrific recent event.

“The rabbi talked about acts of routine kindness,” Samaniego later told a meeting hosted by the county commissioner. “And if that person who did the damage would have been more gracious and giving, and learned about giving of himself and helping others, then maybe these things wouldn’t have happened.”

Greenberg had introduced the judge to the concept of ARK (an acronym for Acts of Routine Kindness), a bright-yellow charity box shaped like Noah’s ark that was part of a pilot project the rabbi had launched in El Paso schools a few months earlier. The idea was simple: Share these ARKS with individuals of all ages, especially children, and encourage them to drop a coin or two inside each day, and in this way give them a practical tool through which acts of kindness can be practiced daily. Samaniego immediately took a liking to the project and brought it to his court’s employees.

Samaniego explained the project as part of a panel this past November in Washington, D.C., with representatives from Uvalde, Texas; Buffalo, N.Y.; and other cities that have been devastated by mass shootings. He talked about its spread in recent years in public schools from El Paso and Forsythe, Ga., in the U.S. south, to Anchorage, Alaska, in its far north.

“When I explained this concept of looking at the root cause and not just symptoms of everything that happened,” said Judge Samaniego, “they were pretty excited that we’re doing something that is proactive about getting to the root cause of these problems. It might take longer, but we might save a lot of lives in the future.”

Launched in South Africa in 2014

The ARK campaign began in 2014 in South Africa, when the community was experiencing turbulent times. In the wake of several unsettling events, Rabbi David Masinter, director of the Chabad House of Johannesburg, decided that he needed to encourage more kindness. He designed a bright-yellow charity box in the shape of an ark, which initially was an acronym for “Acts of Random Kindness.” These ARK charity boxes were distributed to the general public along with a note explaining the idea.

“We don’t have to agree on everything,” the note read. “But we can agree that we all want a world filled with goodness and kindness. And we have the power to make this happen simply by creating our own positive momentum.”

ARK owners were encouraged to put coins in the yellow box daily and then donate the contents to the charity of their choice once it filled up.

It didn’t take long for the ARK campaign to take off—soon it was headlining major South African news sites, celebrities were talking about it, and corporations were implementing the ARK project across their companies. Today, more than 800,000 little yellow ARKs have been distributed in South Africa alone.

Program Inspired by ‘Education and Sharing Day’

In El Paso, Greenberg first heard about ARK in 2017. He and other Chabad emissaries were discussing Education and Sharing Day, which has been proclaimed by the president of the United States on the anniversary of the date of the birth of the Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, every year since 1978.

“The Rebbe stressed that education isn’t only about academics,” says Greenberg. “It’s about educating mentschen—good, moral and ethical people who are a benefit to society.”

Through the discussion, Greenberg learned about ARK’s success in South Africa and decided to bring it to the public schools of El Paso in honor of “Education and Sharing Day.” He was especially inspired by a fascinating teaching from Maimonides, frequently discussed by the Rebbe.

“It’s better to give $1 to charity every day for 100 days than it is to give $100 all at once,” he explains. “It’s like exercise; you can’t do a regiment of nine hours in one day and then not exercise for the rest of the month. You have to do some every day—and as you do so, that strengthens your muscles, and your body in general. The advantage of giving every day is that you train yourself to become a giver.”

Greenberg became determined to exercise the kindness muscle of students in El Paso, calling the project “Acts of Routine Kindness.” He discussed the idea with several influential friends, all who were very enthusiastic, and eventually led him to the El Paso Community Foundation, an influential foundation in the city.

“The foundation president, Mr. Eric Pearson, loved the idea. He was already involved in education initiatives in the public school system, so the foundation enthusiastically agreed to organize a pilot project to see how it would work.”

In the spring of 2019, three El Paso schools eagerly began the pilot project. Each student was given a yellow ARK of their own and told to take it home, where every day they were to do an act of kindness by dropping in a coin. At the end of the month, every grade would vote on a charity to receive all their coins. At an assembly, the students would all line up and empty their ARKs out into large buckets and watch them fill up. A representative of the chosen charity would then speak to the students about the cause that they were supporting and explain the impact their kindness would have. The El Paso Community Foundation would bring the buckets of coins to the bank, where they were counted out, and then the foundation would write a check to the chosen charity.

The pilot was an instant success. The children were excited about their ARKs, and dutifully added to them each day, as did teachers, and parents.

The positive feedback was overwhelming. One letter of gratitude the foundation received came from a teenage student who felt deeply changed by the daily giving. This student would cross the U.S.-Mexico border daily from Juarez, Mexico, and had never before noticed the poor condition of the people of Juarez. “Giving charity made me more sensitive to the plight of those less fortunate than myself,” wrote the student. He had gained a newfound empathy to the strangers around him.

This Chanukah, at Chabad of El Paso’s public menorah-lighting, which always welcomes an audience of all backgrounds, ARKs were given out to guests, sponsored by the City of El Paso. ARKs were also distributed at many other Chabad menorah-lightings around the United States.

ARKs Migrate to Georgia

In 2016, Rabbi Levi and Chaya Mentz moved to Georgia to become directors of Chabad of Forsythe, a suburb of Macon.

“One of the very first things that my wife and I did was to build community relations,” Rabbi Mentz told Chabad.org. “One of them was with the Forsyth county school. Between the students and faculty, the Forsyth County school is one-quarter of the county’s population—it’s very significant.”

Mentz soon developed a strong relationship with the superintendent, Dr. Jeff Bearden, and other key members of the upper administration. He also began to receive frequent complaints from Jewish parents about antisemitic incidents in the school and quickly became a liaison, guiding parents and the school towards positive solutions.

Mentz invited the school leadership to participate in a new JLI course on antisemitism, which was well received and led the leadership to action: First, they organized an emotional ceremony in which 500 daffodil bulbs were planted outside of the school district’s new Forsyth County Arts and Learning Center in honor of the 1.5 million children who were killed in the Holocaust. Next, they organized a community-wide Holocaust education event at the Arts and Learning Center with talks from survivors Mrs. Eva Schloss and Dr. Edith Eger.

It didn’t feel like enough of a solution though; educating the adults was a good first step, but something practical had to be done to create a lasting effect on the children. There was an empathy and kindness problem, and it had to be solved from the root. That’s where Rabbi Mentz learned from his colleague in El Paso, Rabbi Levi Greenberg.

“I think everyone would agree that we all want to live in a kind world,” says Mentz. “It’s a universal interest that everyone has. So how do we make that happen? The most simple straightforward way to do it is by choosing to routinely be kind. If I’m kind daily, I flex my kindness muscle and then I’ll become a kinder person.”

Mentz explained the ARK project to the Forsyth County Schools leadership, and they immediately took a liking to it. At the education event, Bearden announced that the entire Forsyth County Schools would be beginning a new project. They had ordered 5,000 ARKs, and every classroom from kindergarten to 12th grade would receive one ahead of the 2022-23 school year. The project would be called “ARK 180” for the 180 days of the school year—each of which would be filled with an act of kindness by all 51,152 students.

“The goal is to turn kindness into a daily habit, and change the lives of both the person giving and receiving,” Bearden announced, “therefore improving our world with positive and consistent action, and inspiring hope.”

“Any funds collected may be donated by the classroom or school to the nonprofit of their choice. Forsyth County Schools will feature four schools acts of routine kindness per month on social media, using the hashtag #ARK180project.”

Months after the project took off, Mentz was wondering if it had really reached every student. “There’s a little boy who lives on our block; he’s not Jewish. Every so often after school, he’ll play with my children. A few weeks ago, he was in my house sitting on the couch, and I asked him: ‘Hey Tate, what’s your thoughts about acts of routine kindness?’ ”

Tate didn’t know that the local project had been instigated by Rabbi Mentz, but he responded with excitement. “Oh my gosh, I woke up today and I knew that I had to do something kind! You know in school we have ARK, and every day we have to do an act of kindness, and today there’s no school, and I knew when I woke up that I had to find something during the day, to do kindness!”

The little yellow ARKs are spreading across the United States, becoming a popular way to practice kindness. When Rabbi Neparsteck from Chabad of Jackson, N.J., brought an ARK to a meeting of youth groups in the mayor’s office, the Rays of Hope group decided to order some of their own. The youth group distributed ARKs and collected the change to donate to needy people in the community on Thanksgiving.

On their Facebook pages, Rays of Hope wrote: “Teaching youth that life isn’t as much about what you get, as it is about what you give, allows them the opportunity to develop into compassionate adults. It’s one of the greatest lessons of childhood. Because giving is an act that while improving the lives of others makes us better in the process.”

ARKs Come to Alaska

In the Mat-Su area in Alaska, Rabbi Mendel Greenberg has been filling legislative offices with the little yellow ARKs. When Education and Sharing day was declared in Wasilla, Mayor Glenda Ledford and Greenberg walked from office to office in town hall and personally delivered an ARK to every staffer in the building, explaining the significance. Not far away, in Palmer, Mayor Steve Carrington had ordered ARKs for everyone in his city hall and did the same. When Greenberg happened to walk into Palmer City Hall a few days later, he saw the ARKs sitting on many desks, some already a quarter-way full. A woman approached him and asked what she was supposed to do with the coins, and when he told her about finding the charity of her choice, she grew even more excited.

When Rabbi Mendy Greenberg and his father, Rabbi Yosef Greenberg, were invited to give an invocation to the Alaska State Legislature in Juneau, they gifted an ARK to every member of the Senate and House. After reading the accompanying cards, many legislators brought them to the floor and spoke about how they were inspired by the idea of the ARKs and routine kindness.

Rabbi Mendy Greenberg says it’s important to bring this idea and practice to government offices. “Legislators and council members are the elected leaders of the community, and by default, role models. People look up to them; they have a voice and pulpit. We’re hoping that they will lead by example.”

When Harriet Drummond, an Alaska state representative, was invited to a bar mitzvah in Anchorage, she thought the best gift she could bring was an ARK. “This is the most important thing I can give over to you,” she said. “The idea of giving charity every day; that’s the greatest way to start off your life as a young Jewish man.”

In the summer of 2022, Chabad had a booth at the annual Alaska State fair with young rabbis volunteering. But these rabbis weren’t only there for the Jewish visitors. Central to the booth was a “Kindness Generator,” in which people could play with coins and watch as they dropped into one of three big ARKs and generated kindness. Some 500 players were gifted ARKs of their own.

One mother who visited the booth with her daughter came back the next day to share that as soon as they got home, her daughter shouted, “Wait! We didn’t give charity yet!” and eagerly asked her mom for a coin to put in her own ARK.

According to Greenberg, this is exactly what the Rebbe sought: “The Rebbe wanted every single person to have their own charity box and give every single day—the old and young, Jewish and non-Jewish. In 1992, the Rebbe said that Moshiach is on his way, and all we need to do is increase in acts of goodness and kindness. This is how we prepare for a peaceful and perfect world—by shaping kinder people.”